No Wonder We’re Feeling Disconnected

Today I woke up to find there we had a power cut. I used to live in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, deep in the national park surrounded by woodland, so I was no stranger to regular and lengthy power cuts because yet another tree was down.

However since then I have moved my location and career and now work from home – which makes power cuts slightly more problematic than just not being able to have my morning coffee before commuting to work.

With the 3% of battery left on my iPhone I messaged my clients to cancel my calls for the day and decided to simply take the day off. After a few incidents of heading to the kitchen for coffee/green juice/toast and then remembering… I settled down to my day of no tech. I’m terrible for charging my devices so literally everything I own was out of battery.

I gave myself a manicure. I tidied the house. I decluttered my wardrobe and threw away a load of clothes I hated. I started a new journal. I meditated. I went for a walk. It started raining, so I went home and had a nap instead. I read Vogue and started a new book.

And do you know, it was glorious!

Technology is keeping us disconnected

This probably isn’t news to you. We hear all the time about how we all spend too much time on our devices and we’re all going blind from staring at computer screens and our social skills are being replaced with newsfeed and tweets. However that isn’t the worst part of it.

I usually feel overwhelmed with things to do. It can feel never ending when you’re wearing the many hats of a business woman and I’m used to feeling like there’s always something else I should be doing, but today I couldn’t do any of it. I wasn’t browsing Instagram with an open book in my lap. I wasn’t “napping” (ie. under the covers scrolling Facebook) I actually slept for a little while and felt much better for it! When I thought of something that needed doing, like mopping the bathroom floor, I just got up and did it and it was done in 10 minutes, I didn’t kid myself that I had better things to be doing and dive into MindBodyGreen again.

I spent my day doing each thing mindfully, because I had nowhere else to be, nothing else I could do and I wasn’t being distracted all of the time.

No wonder we are feeling disconnected, because we aren’t connecting to anything. When was the last time you just sat and drank your tea and just drank your tea? No Netflix, no newsfeed, no phone. You just did one thing?

I believe that mindfulness is the new multi-tasking, and not only will we get more done and faster and to a higher standard when we give ourselves the gift of focus, but we’ll feel more balanced connected and never again look at the clock and wonder where the hell the day went – because you were there, living it and acknowledging it.

I did finally get my power back at around 5pm, and surprise- surprise, the world hadn’t ended, I hadn’t missed anything truly urgent and for the first time in months, I felt like I had breezed through my day with a sense of ease.

Make friends with time, and you’ll always have enough of it.

Amber-Rose Thomas

Amber Rose is a UK based speaker, writer and life coach. She works with women to ignite their life purpose, and discover their dream careers so they can live fully vibrant and inspired lives. Find her online here.