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A while back I started doing a personal practice every couple months that I call A Day Out Of Time (ADOOT). It is a full waking cycle during which I completely abstain from screens + the time on the clock. The night before ADOOT, I cover all the clocks in my house and car, and put my phone and computer in a drawer. Then I wake up the following morning and spend the entire day in deeper presence with myself and my immediate environment. I go to sleep, and resume Life As Musual the following morning. Listen- I’ve explored a lot of approaches to digital detoxes - but WOW - the effect of covering the clocks??? It takes it to some whole new mystical level that I never saw coming. So Simple! So Powerful! I did A Day Out Of Time just a few days ago, with the intention to connect directly with the spirit of digital liberation work, as I prepare to hold space for and guide a group of people taking a 31-day break from social media for the month of January. AS PER YOOSHJ….ADOOT did not disappoint. Every time I’ve done it of course it has a different texture - this one had a distinct texture of sort of “detoxy” energy mixed with a gradual “letting open” of my mind and nervous system throughout the day. What do I do during ADOOT? For ME, I choose to have a guiding principle of the experience be: I do whatever the fuck I want. All. Day. Moment to Moment. (For some others for whom unstructured time feels overwhelming, I certainly suggest having some loosely planned activities to choose from throughout the day). I LOVE unstructured time. Gimme Gimme. Go with the flow. So honestly, I often spend a lot of the day doing what I already do a lot at home- Puttering around, Tidying, Organizing and doing Yardwork. But let me tell you- WOW I get SOOOOO many things done that are not top priorities and it’s very satisfying. and I also READ BOOKS every time. One time I did ADOOT during a very rainy day last winter, and the ONLY thing I did besides make cornbread (from a paper cookbook) and prepare and eat my meals, was read a novel ALL DAY LONG. (ACOTAR anyone? IYKYK and if you don’t, please don’t look it up and tarnish my reputation)…. So even though I’m doing these doings….I’m also taking many pauses in between activities, and finding myself in restful states. I’m also really doing things at whatever pace feels natural to me, and kind of skipping to whatever I feel like doing moment to moment knowing I’ve got plenty of time to loop back around to something that may be incomplete. I went for my 3 mile neighborhood walk without my phone of course (very rare), and really got to connect with my environment, my body, and my breath in a deepened way. So I’m sharing what I’m actually DOING - but what’s more interesting is how the experience FEELS. …and this my friends, as verbose as I am, is hard for me to put into words. and isn’t that wonderful? It’s intimate. It’s inside. It’s wordless, it’s delicate. The slowness, the spaciousness, smoothness. Instead of being constantly distracted by the technological vortexes, there’s this uninterrupted flow that happens in my mind that feels, honestly, nourishing and restorative just to experience.
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