IMAGE COURTESY: Mike Marrah @mikemarrah
No? Well, too bad. Given that this is my space, I get to dole out whatever I want. So here it is: please do your heart and soul a gigantic favor, and wake up 30 minutes to an hour or even two hours (if you can manage by some miracle) before you absolutely have to wake up. Once you’re awake, do not check email or social media.
Well, I suppose you could check email if you absolutely must. If it can wait, let it wait. Thirty minutes, or even an hour, isn’t a lot of time.
But do not check social media. You do not need to know what Beverly had for dinner last night, if Nisha has mastered a song on ice creams and chocolates, if Karan and Arjun’s mother has thrown them the most lavish birthday party, or if I have plucked yet another handful of kale and Swiss chard from my tiny balcony garden. No one needs any of these updates.
And while you are at it, do not check the news or weather. Again, just for those thirty minutes or even an hour. This can be a hard one to avoid, I agree. Especially say, if it’s summer and you live in Hurricaneville like me. Or it’s monsoon and you must know the forecast before you step out of home. But if you are checking out the news just to update yourself about the general, everyday, gloom and doom of the world, you can wait. Again, it’s just thirty minutes.
Now in these thirty minutes do something purely for YOU and purely for joy. Write postcards, read, dance, draw, paint, walk, crossword, jigsaw, whatever you like, whatever you tell people you wish you had time for. I have been doing for a while right now, and it has been a gamechanger. This, and deleting social media/super distracting apps from my phone. Today is day 9 of The Great Unplug and it is so quiet and wonderful inside my head I wish I could invite you in for a cup of tea. Which isn’t to say I am not busy. I am. Insanely. But I don’t feel anxious. The first day without those apps was hard. But it’s been steadily getting better. And I absolutely wish the same peace and quiet for you.