Being Away For 36 Hours! 🕕

Digital Detoxification is an important ritual to keep you sane in this fast-paced world.

Beep Beep! 🐔

It’s 7 AM and your alarm clock tells you it is time for another day of meetings & work. You pick up your mobile device to see if you have any new messages or emails that need your immediate attention. You get dressed for work, have some breakfast & start working.

Ever since the COVID-19 virus hit us, most of us have been working from home, so commuting to work is all about getting up from the dining table & walking to your home office. No music, no travel, no connection with the outside world as your turn on your laptop.

After a hectic day of calls & replying to emails, you get back to your bedroom to watch a movie, chat with your friends or maybe learn a new skill.

So, if you’re anything like me, you end up spending the day within the confines of your own home, moving around from room-to-room in the name of ‘breaks’.

To be honest, it is difficult. I work in software, but unlike most in my field, I enjoy meeting people & talking to them over a cup of coffee. I even used to enjoy the 25km journey from home to office. I believe Work From Home can never replace human interaction & the value it provides.

You cannot get to know a person over a video call.

Ever since we’ve been locked down by COVID-19, I have not gone beyond a 3km radius of my house. I desperately needed a break, from attending work calls on weekends and not being able to relax.

So this weekend, after being fed up with being online and available 24x7, I decided to take a detox. I drove up to my cousin’s farmhouse in a small village called Bhor, just about 100km (60 miles) away from where I live. The best part about this place?

Absolutely no mobile network. Nada. ✌️

I started at 6 AM with my girlfriend on Saturday, enjoying the cool morning breeze admiring the freedom & simplicity of the lives that people live in villages. They don’t care about materialistic things, they just seem to be content with their lives and are happy with opportunities that God seems to provide.

They’re not greedy.

The views of the countryside were exquisite, and nature’s beauty took over just as we took an exit off the highway. A couple of rainy days ensured the environment was lush green & fresh!

After looking at such a view, nothing else in this world matters. No emails, no messages, nothing. Nature just takes over your mind and fills it with peace. This is also about the time where mobile networks cut off.

I wish our cameras could capture the raw feeling of just standing there and feeling the cold breeze & birds chirping around. Sometime in the future, eh?

My parents & my cousin had already driven up the day before, so we were welcomed with some delicious breakfast & tea.

Being with family really does wonders for your mental health.

If you’re feeling alone & that all the world’s problems seem to be falling on your shoulders, talk to your family, your parents. They’ve been through it all & can assure you things will get better. Pick up the phone and call your mum & dad, if possible, visit them.

For the next 24–28 hours, I would be absolutely away from any kind of digital interference, using my phone to click photographs to write this article.

Fortunately, the current location of the farmhouse is secluded, so it is away from any vehicular noise or pollution of any kind. Usually, the water from the dam reaches the foot of the house, but since this is just before the rains, a lot of it has been released from the dam to neighboring cities and villages.

Digital detoxification is necessary, especially in the ‘Online 24x7’ world we live in. Everyone is so focussed on being accessible all the time, they forget it is crucial that you pull away once a while.

Try these tips and tricks to detox digitally the next time you get a chance:

1. Remove all distractions: Remove/silence all alarms, beeps, notifications, etc, except for emergencies of any kind.
2. Turn off your WiFi router & internet on your phone: The Internet makes it easy to be busy indefinitely. Turn it off and try your best not to access the internet.
3. Keep away all of your electronic devices: Once a while, leave your electronics behind and connect with people and nature around you. Nature does wonders to freshen up your mind and fill it with new & positive thoughts.

Electronic devices compel us to connect with stuff that is not required, such as the new post of your friend’s breakfast this morning on Facebook or how someone got an employee of the month. Most of our social media activities are unrelated to us & do not affect us directly, but we’ve become so afraid to miss out, that we cannot break away from being online.

Lastly, I will leave you with another picture of nature’s beauty, that is sure to give you a feeling of peace and maybe fill your heart with joy for a moment.

Go for a hike, drive up to the countryside and enjoy the views, or just turn off your electronics and grab a book and a cup of coffee and just connect with your inner self. Energizing your soul is important.

So, plan to disconnect every once in a while. Your mind will thank you.