I’ve decided to start my cleanse as early as possible and for the first time in a long time, I slept with nothing but the fan on for a soothing sound to fixate on. No music, no TV, no technology or stimulation. I was up a lot later than usual so I was really exhausted and dozed off quickly. When I woke up I could still hear the fan and I could see the slight creep of colour slowly surfacing outside the windows. This meant it was just after sunrise.
As promised (to myself), I wanted to go as long as I could with no music at all if I really wanted to properly exercise this no technology thing. If you know me personally, you know how extremely difficult this task is for me. But I stayed strong and since I wasn’t giving into the radio, that also meant I didn’t have a reason to look at it and therefore look at the clock. From this moment, I made the decision that no technology and nowhere to be, meant no reason to have to know the time.
I did my regular morning routine (but this time with no music) and instead of reading and writing something, I wanted to just practice doing nothing. So then I climbed into one of the two window frames (I kind of wish it was just one big frame but no matter, luckily I am flexible) and tried to watch the sunrise. Although my side of the building unfortunately does not capture the rise or set of the sun …or the harbour, it was getting easier to see the higher it was coming up. The tall city skyscrapers were like missing pieces of a puzzle that my imagination got to put together and envision the splash of colours that the sky was painting behind them.
The “blogger brain” I was talking about was getting louder, but I didn’t mind. So I started to write down my thoughts before I’d forget them. In only the first chunk of my experiment, I successfully found a positive affect on having no distractions. I don’t know how long I was writing for but ideas just kept coming to me. I think I will need my laptop though, for when I actually start writing from these ideas. I almost didn’t do yoga but then I told myself “I really have no excuse” and so I did what I could remember of yesterdays flow, but mainly just extensive stretches.
I didn’t know what time it was until I got the frightful rap on the door which told me it was around 12:20pm and today’s lunch had been delivered. Since I’m on week two of quarantine, I realise that the day meals just repeat themselves week by week but with minor changes. Today was another veggie burger (yum) and that came with a side salad, dressing and chicken flavoured chippies (which I of course put both inside of the burger bun) and a banana. I’ve actually been taking photos of my food every day just for documentation for myself to look back on. But since my phone was off and in a draw, I took out a notepad and pen and drew it instead! Oh and I decided that this would be a good time to have another bath. So of course I showered first (yeah I know I’m weird but I know I’m not the only one) and because I had already use the bath bomb my sister delivered (thanks boo), I used the body wash the hotel provides to make bubbles. They’re verbena and lavender scented so that was an added bonus!
I usually like to watch a movie or a TV episode when I eat but being on a no technology detox meant none of that. Even when I go to a restaurant or cafe to eat alone, I usually chuck in earphones, put on Netflix and stand my phone up across from me while I unashamedly stuff myself while laughing at a volume I don’t really care enough to notice. Or I attempt to eat while reading a book which always results in me either missing my mouth and dropping my food everywhere or continuously losing what part of the page I’m on and that turns into a vicious cycle. Since I was situated with bubbles and burger, I enjoyed my lunch with just nothing to stimulate my mind all. All I could hear was the fan outside, the minute pops of bubbles and my loud thoughts. And if you’re wondering, yes I did unfortunately drop bits of carrot and sesame seeds in the water. Oops.
Two big realisations today. The first was that there are already so many distractions without technology! There’s one of those dreadful magnifying mirrors in the bathroom that alter your entire perception of your face to only show your imperfections and nothing else. So that took up some time that I unfortunately won’t ever get back. Do you ever just stare at your face then wish that you could meet a supermodel like Gigi Hadid or Naomi Campbell in real life to get up nice and close just to see if they have so much as an open pore on their face? The other realisation was whenever my thoughts did shut off for a minute and I felt the desire to listen to music, I would already start singing to whatever song was playing in my head. I guess with the giant library of tracks I have stuffed in my brain, I don’t need a device to play anything for me after all. Still, I miss my music but will continue to stay strong and not give into technology just yet. I have the rest of my life to feel good music. In the meantime, whoever is behind the connecting doors or passing in the hall is just going to have to put up with my random burst of lyrics and failed attempts at beatboxing.
From the sun setting until the 6:20 knock for dinner, my thoughts were going at full speed. Too fast for pen and paper. I was so tempted to grab my laptop and start typing or my phone and start recording a voice message in case i’d forget everything. (By the way, I’m purposely not saying what I am currently writing about… I’m going to keep that to myself… for now) I’m staying strong and trusting my memory bank to hold on until its time. I guess i’m more reliant on my devices than I thought. I wonder if it’s the separation from technology that’s creating the ideas or the ideas were always there and its the separation from the technology that’s brought them to the surface. Who knows… but I give myself an A+ for conducting the experiment and another + for it being a success either way. Only more reason to keep it going longer….
So it was dinner time and I was in a good mood and thought i deserved a time out. And i felt like laughing, so i grabbed my Deadpool comic and enjoyed that while I ate vermicelli noodles with rice and broccoli, an asian style salad and some grapes. Since this this is the first time I haven’t had any music or a film playing to fill the silence, I can now hear my neighbours behind the connecting doors… lets just say their experience does not sound like its going as peacefully as mine! My heart really does go out to anyone who has to be confined in this small space with anyone else. Or anyone who is by themselves and is missing the human connection – we all want what we can’t have! But hey, at least they only have to pay half the fee!!
At some point in the night, I felt like dancing and due to my cutting off music for the day, I found myself exerting movements way too hard to absolute silence. And then laughing at myself just picturing it. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was someone inside those business buildings far across from outside the hotel with binoculars, unfortunately witnessing a mad woman looking like she’s summoning an evil spirit or something!
The rest of the evening in silence and solitude was spent reading, singing whatever song played in my head and at some point I decided that I was going to go back and read some of the entries I had written in a notepad in the last year while I’ve been living away from home and boy was that entertaining! I got some good laughs in and actually read a reminder to myself to listen to my voice recorded entries, so that will be another interesting discovery. Thank you past Shakira… I think.
So I successfully made it 24-hours with no technology at all and have had some rather significant/interesting revelations and idea. I wonder if i’ll keep this going for longer…