Unplug and Plug in

We hear it all the time, right? Put the phone down, stop the scroll, ignore social media. Yes, unplugging from our devices is essential to our internal balance and well-being. That may not be enough, though. Consider pushing away the tech and plugging into a connection to the Indwelling Sacred. Turning toward our spiritual lives will help to ground us in what naturally feeds and balances us. That, in turn makes saying no to phones, or any other diversion for that matter, easier.

How to plug into that source? Here are three key spiritual arenas for us to focus on offered by Paul Patton and Robert Woods, Jr. in their great book Everyday Sabbath: How to Lead your Dance with Media and Technology in Mindful and Sacred Ways: sacred intentionality, sacred interiority, and sacred identity.

  1. Sacred Intentionality: Notice where you put your attention throughout the day. Is it toward phone, tablet or other media? Schedule no-phone zones and times. Check the impulse to pick up a phone or device. Do I have to do this now? Use the opportunity that non-phone time affords to pay attention to what is good, beautiful or true right where you are.
  2. Sacred Interiority: One of the ways to summarize this focus is to say, “Mind your mind”. Pay attention to what you’re thinking and feeling as you go through the day. For example, if you recognize feeling stressed, angry, or anxious about what’s to come, pause, breathe, and remember the sacred stirrings of your inner soul. These are the LifeSpring within each of us. They can’t be taken away or damaged by events, people, or losses. The presence of compassion and grace which come from the Eternal and infuse all things.
  3. Sacred Identity: As Psalms 135 reminds us, we are each fearfully and wonderfully made by a loving Creator. We need no other validation than that to know that we are essential, amazing Beings. By turning away from the perfect images of social media that can lead to self-criticism of the messy reality of our own lives, we regain the option to remember that we are good enough as we are. By turning toward other messy, complicated creatures, we also regain the chance to know the compassion of our Creator as experience it through others. Take the risk to be vulnerable with someone who offers grace, and know God “with skin on”.
Sounds good, right? Here are three particular strategies for putting the better dance into practice, suggested by New York Times author Eric Athas:
  1. When you automatically pick up your phone or device, ask yourself one question: “Do I really need to do this right now”? The act of stopping to ask will interrupt the automatic, habitual energy that can hold us captive. Be intentional about when, how, and why you are using tech.
  2. One thing at a time. Rather than being on the phone while walking, driving (eek!), or doing something else, allow yourself to plug into whatever you’re doing without the distraction of technology. Be intentional to use the phone when using the phone and to do life while doing life. 
  3. Schedule no-tech zones or times. This might look like “No phones during dinner” or “No tech after 8 pm”. It might also be leaving the device in a room away from where you are. A bedroom, a living room or the dining room might be no-phone zones. In the zone, be present with yourself, with others or with your joy, however you find it.
Just as there’s no one right way to live, there is also no one right way to dance with tech. Experiment, explore, pay attention, take small steps and you’ll find your renewed connection to yourself and your best life.

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