Unplugged
"And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul" - unknown
Last Friday, Rob and I headed to Wales for an ‘Unplugged’ weekend. We arrived at a small cabin, in a field surrounded by trees and cows. The sign on the door said “Get ready to be unplugged”. I felt excited and a bit apprehensive.
Inside the cabin was a wooden box and a padlock. On the outside of the box it said “lock away your phone. Unlock your creativity.” We opened the box and found everything we would need to replace our phones. There was an instant camera, a compass and guidebooks and maps of the local area.
I took a few photos (because it is my passion), we placed our phones in the box, shut it and locked it and settled back for the unplugged experience.
It didn’t take too long to realise just how much we have come to rely on our technology. I don’t wear a watch so didn’t know what the time was, and there was no clock in the cabin. I started to quickly appreciate what a shift this was going to be.
In this blog post, I want to share the insights I have taken from this 3-night experience of being ‘off grid’.
Insight 1 – We are slaves to ‘time’
Early Friday evening, Rob and I poured ourselves a drink and we lit a fire outside. We sat in our coats, by the fire in a light drizzle and just enjoyed watching the world around us go dark. When we got too cold, we went inside the cabin and built a fire in the wood burner. It felt really cosy. We cooked some tea and then settled down to play a couple of games whilst listening to The Bee Gees on cassette tape! It has been a few years and I loved the retro feel of inserting a cassette into the player and having to turn it over to listen to side two. It turns out that I am not good at Scrabble but I am excellent at Jenga. It is also mind blowing that half the time I cant remember where I put my keys but I remember all the lyrics of 80s pops songs!
The evening was just so lovely and chilled. Eventually we decided it was time to go to bed. Rob checked his watch (analogue!) and we realised it was gone 11pm. At home, we would normally be heading to bed at around 9.30pm feeling exhausted so this felt really late for us. We also didn’t feel the exhaustion we feel at home when we have been sitting in front of the TV for a couple of hours. We had been enjoying playing the games, the evening had flown by and we just went to bed when we felt ready rather than at the habitual time we would normally.
The next morning, I was woken up by the sunlight coming through the blinds and to the sounds of the birds. I could feel the warmth of the sun coming into the cabin and I felt really refreshed. I had no idea what the time was as I could not reach for my phone. I just laid there enjoying the warmth and listening to the sounds of nature. It was later that Rob told me that we had woken up at 6am. This blew my mind. If I wake up at 6am at home on a Saturday, I feel grumpy because it is so early and snuggle back down for a couple of hours. I started to notice how much habitual behaviour is driven by what the clock on my phone is telling me.
I was brought a cup of coffee and sat in bed just feeling the sun on my skin and grabbed my journal. I never do this at home. The first thing I do is reach for my phone which is always by the bedside because I use it as a clock and an alarm. This inevitably leads to me just scrolling and flicking on social media. Instead, I settled back and allowed my pen to flow over the pages and felt more connected to my soul than I have in a long time. It was blissful and I didn’t miss scrolling through Facebook one bit.
Insight 2 – Tracking our habits can keep us stuck
I was delighted when Rob told me that my Christmas present was the Unplugged weekend. As we got a bit closer to going and I started to understand the implications a bit more (i.e. “what do you mean my phone will be looked away and there is no Wi-Fi?”), I became a bit anxious about how I would cope with it all. As shallow as this sounds, this was my biggest worry…
I play Wordle every day. It is one of my morning habits. A week before we were due to go on the weekend a realisation hit me. If I could not use my phone, I would lose the 263-day streak I was on for successfully completing Wordle. I felt my heart drop. I really wanted to embrace the philosophy of being unplugged but I did not want to lose the streak I had for this online game, after all I had a goal to achieve a 365-day streak!
I talked it through with Rob who was wrestling with the same issue except he was about to lose a 2272-day streak for meditating, which was being tracked by an app. We agreed that we would use our phones for this one thing in the morning and replace our phones back in the box.
As I woke up to such peace and tranquillity on Saturday morning feeling so refreshed, I knew I didn’t want to unlock that box, and get my phone just to complete a ‘streak’. I realised that in feeling pressure to maintain a streak, I was compromising one of my strongest personal values of freedom. I made the decision to release the need to carry on a streak that was self-imposed and just didn’t matter. My peace was more important to me.
Rob also decided to leave his phone where it was. He went outside in the sunshine and completed his mediation in the same way he has for the past 2200+ days. He didn’t need an app to keep a streak that he can easily keep on his own. It’s not about a number on a screen, it is knowing that he honours his daily commitment to meditate.
Insight 3 – We have become slaves to our phones
I use my phone for so much. It tells me the time, I take photos with it, it is my navigation system, and I pay for everything with it. The only thing I rarely do is use it as a phone!
I love taking photos. It takes Rob and I forever to do a walk as I am always stopping to take photos (often of the most random things). Not only do I take lots of photos, the photos have to be perfect which means I often take multiple photos of the same thing. I have over 20,000 photos in the storage in my phone.
On Saturday we decided to take a visit to a local waterfall and a local town which was surrounded by beauty. Ordinarily I would have been taking photos all day long including endless selfies of the two of us. This trip was different. We had an instant camera and enough film to take 20 photos. I am not going to lie…I was not sure how this was going to work!
I realised two things very quickly. Firstly, I needed to be more mindful about the photos I really wanted to take and limit myself to ensure there was enough film for the entire weekend rather than just burning through all the film without thought. Secondly, I had to make my peace with imperfection. When you are reliant on an instant camera, you can’t keep retaking shots to get the perfect pose or the perfect light. It was a beautiful reminder that there is perfection in the imperfect. Those 18 photos (two didn’t come out!) will make us laugh and remind us of the perfect weekend even if the photos themselves are not perfection.
Insight 4 – It is ok to just be and not do
Sunday was a different story. We woke up later and the hills were covered in mist. We turned over and went back to sleep and it felt so peaceful. We knew we did not have to be anywhere or do anything by a certain time. It felt so liberating. Eventually we woke up and I know that if we had not needed to go out for food, we could have quite easily lit the fire, stayed in our pyjamas and stayed in bed reading and snoozing all day.
I blitzed my way through a fabulous book and realised how much I allow my phone to be a distraction. When I have it next to me and I am reading on the sofa, I find myself constantly picking it up and it interrupts the flow of the story I am reading. I found myself fully immersed in this book and my enjoyment of it was significantly increased because I stopped distracting myself.
Sunday was my favourite day of the year so far because we truly allowed ourselves to just be in the moment. Enjoying each other’s company. Enjoying the peace of the cabin. Enjoying the sense of freedom.
In conclusion…
I woke up on Monday morning and felt a shift back into normality. We knew we needed to be out of the cabin by 10am and I noticed that relentless sense of a time pressure creeping back in. I can honestly say that if I did not want that bubble of peace that had been created for us to come to an end.
I was amazed by how powerful and transformational these few days had been to me. It was a beautiful space for me to hold up a mirror and look at all the ways I allow habits to control my life and move me away from what my soul truly craves.
I will be forever changed by the experience and eternally grateful to Rob for choosing the perfect gift for me that came at the perfect time.
Will I be swapping my iPhone for an instant camera? No, that is a step too far.
Will I be more conscious about the gifts that going Unplugged gave me. Yes, I am forever changed.
Rob and I did not want to leave. We already know we are going back.
PS This blog is not sponsored in any way. It is purely my own personal reflections. If you want to experience all that going Unplugged has to offer I highly recommend Unplugged. You can find the details HERE.
