Two Weeks Unplugged

Hi everyone— We are at the two-week mark since we officially unplugged from social media and the 24/7 news cycle. And can I just say… it’s been very very transformative! Like uncharted levels of clarity and peace, that I can not remember experiencing before. Most likely because I was so plugged in for so many years (like since 2008).

If you’ve been following along, you know that just before this detox began, Jesse and I just became empty nesters (yep, both kids off to college!). The house is super quieter, but we’re embracing the peaceful tranquility. Instead of the noise of the scrolling outside world, we’ve found joy in our own head space again.

Things we do differently unplugged:  

Movies/Shows:  No more hopping onto Netflix and letting some creepy algorithm decide what we want to watch. We make every choice consciously and this means we end up having long talks about what we could watch before we even turn the TV on.  We spend time reminiscing about our favorite movies, talking about old classics we love, or debating lovingly over a friend’s recommendation. And sometimes, we get so deep into these conversations, we never actually start the movie. And I think that is awesome.

Music: We turned off mindless algorithm playlists that allow the scroll dictators tell us what we want to hear. Instead, we’re actually choosing the albums we listen to, which again becomes a conversation.  Sometimes  it’s a new recommendation from a friend. And sometimes it's an old forgotten favorite. When we do settle in for a listen, we’re going all in. We’ll play an entire album from front to back, just like the old days, and listen with intention. This also leads to the best conversations. We talk about forgotten memories attached to songs, and fresh new thoughts that come to us now that we are applying that intention to just listen. As music lovers and former DJs, the whole music listening experience feels like it has depth again.

What We Eat: We are also eating on purpose, full time. Instead of browsing recipes mindlessly or panic ordering take-out because we haven't thought ahead, we are making the space and time to meal plan. We have always been pretty good at this, given our professions, but our over burdened schedules were often times throwing daggers at our attempts to eat purposefully for a really long time.  Now that we have new found time away from the doom scrolling and all the worrying that doing so inhibits.  We are taking time to research ingredients, create a grocery list, and cooking together almost every night. It’s fun, sometimes messy (in the best ways), and we feel so much healthier and in control of our eating habits. 

This detox has become so much more than cutting back on screen time, it has become about rediscovering life, about meeting ourselves again, and choosing moments rather than catching them on some random feed. So, after two weeks of living unplugged, I seriously can not imagine going back to the feed without some intentional guidelines.  Because scrolling does not just  just steal our time, it was taking away many of the simple joys of being fully present.

So, here’s to more walks with our dog Cali, more cozy nights in the lamplight reading, longer conversations with my husband, and much much more intentional living.

Stay tuned—I’ll keep you posted as this journey continues to unfold.

From the other side of the screen,

Love, Coach Stacey xoxoxo