A Weekend Retreat—From Technology

Posted by: Lourdes Lee Valeriano on January 22

On Martin Luther King weekend I went on retreat—from technology. By that I mean I did without TV, cell phone, and the Internet.

That may seem like an odd thing for a blogger to do. After all, if readers decided to abstain from the Internet, where would I be? But when one spends the workday, as I do, in front of computer and logged on to the Net, there’s something appealing about the idea of cutting, for a short while, the ties to connectivity.

I did not have a grand plan. It just so happened that my teen-age daughter was visiting her dad in D.C., and at the last minute a persistent cold force me to opt out of an out-of-town trip. Faced with a rare free weekend and still suffering from post-Christmas fatigue, I realized that what I wanted was rest--and that rest equaled a pullback from tech.

Not all technology to be sure. I reserved the right to use my laptop to write, as my hand has lost its stamina for script. I allowed myself the use of the CD player for music and the radio for news.

But TV and the Net are huge distractions and time guzzlers. (For instance, I recently was e-mailing a friend in Singapore and her Danish husband about a 20/20 episode that claims the happiest people in the world live in Denmark and Singapore. I decided to go to ABC.com to get the name of the study mentioned in the show, and 30 minutes later, I was still on the site, watching a clip from Cashmere Mafia.) As for the mobile, is there really a need for it to be on when I’m not expecting an important call from family or work?

The weekend was far from a real retreat. It won't even pass for retreat lite. Yes, I did yoga, finally cracked open a book on meditation that was a gift three Christmases ago, and took my dachshund on long walks in Central Park. But I also did the laundry, shopped for groceries, and attacked the mountain of mail on my dining table, things I had no time for during the workweek. Even while doing these chores, I noticed by Saturday afternoon that I enjoyed a feeling of spaciousness I hadn’t experienced on other weekends my daughter was away. Without the TV and the Net to ensnare me, I was asleep by 10, the first time in months. By Sunday, even the radio seemed too noisy, and I turned it off.

A wonderful yoga teacher I know named Danielle says that people often are fixed on a goal but don’t think about removing the obstacles that block their way. Clearing the path for one's intention is what she calls "skillful effort." I'm keeping the idea of skillful effort in mind as I try to create more ease in my life, whether my daughter is with me or with her dad. The Jan. 21 New York Magazinehttp://nymag.com/guides/mindbody/2008/ Peace and Quiet issue has a couple of suggestions, some quite extreme, for finding stillness in our lives. For me, temporarily removing the cell, the Net, and the TV will suffice (and given today's market news, I'm tempted to do that right now). It’s like going to my bedroom in the middle of the day and just
shutting the door.

Readers: How do you de-clutter your life? What’s your big time sucker? What ideas for a mini retreat have worked for you?

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