Tag: distractions

Why We Need To Slow The F*** Down

Published 08/08/2015

Pardon the language in my title. But seriously. I’ve just finished a book (I read a lot of books sometimes) written by my partner’s aunt, called Have You Ever Had A Hunch?

It’s a book about the importance of creative thinking and being in tune to your inner creative intuition. It looks at all of the ways that we repress ourselves and how society blocks our creativity. But there were a couple points in this book that really stood out that I must share.

Living in a Hurry -Up Culture

We have become overstimulated and overwhelmed by all of the choices available to us and there are way too many options that stand in the way of deep examination.

“Political “experts” sell their pre-packaged thinking, financial analysts, theirs. Into whose interpretation of political events or economic eventualities should we buy? What commodity will reflect well on us? Which new fashions will enhance us? What cereal displayed in the rows and rows of cereals in the ultra-super-megastore should we choose? Which of the latest technological applications is best? How long will it take for it to become outdated? How do you keep up with the ever-changing future? How much more time will we spend trying to make choices? Will there fever be enough time to explore our individual creative desires?” ~ Have You Ever Had A Hunch?

It’s incredible! Because we are being bombarded with information, we rarely have a moment to sit and contemplate everything thrown at us, and we don’t take any time to listen to what our own souls are crying for us to do.

People who are removed from their own instincts about things become more and more confused by the multiple perspectives they are constantly being offered and become incapable of defining their own world view. And thus, we suffer from a loss of authenticity. This is something I can really relate to sadly.

Our poor kids today are growing up in a busy culture as well, and not having time to themselves to create and be imaginative.

“In the United States today, it is the age of the microwave child, many of whom have never kneaded dough, never watched a meal being cooked from scratch. The ingredients are not of importance; it’s the finished product that counts…a goal is achieved without the creative process, without the stimulation and sacrifice of work. Instead, there exists a need for instant gratification.” ~ Have You Ever Had A Hunch?

Our Lack of Solitude

“There might be a place inside your head where ideas dwell, but nowhere to bring these to fruition is a cruncher.” ~ Have You Ever Had A Hunch?

Creative people need a space for solitude in order to reach those depths within. But many people are afraid to be alone with themselves. But being alone allows us to really think, it’s required if we want to get to know ourselves, and not get distracted by the constant information out there.

But anyway, enough about that. I just wanted to share those nuggets of information should you be inclined to check out the book!

This week…

I didn’t end up biking to work at least 3 days a week (oops). I blamed it on not making enough time to ride to work. However, I have ran 5km twice this week to make up for it and I’m noticing a huge difference. I’ve done well with intuitive eating, BUT have not always made 100% healthy choices. There was chocolate birthday cake, and a wine and cheese girls night in there somewhere. This week I must do better.

I’ve been setting a few minutes everyday practicing feeling blissful and not suffering. I tend to whine and complain, so I’m trying to get over that.

I didn’t make any unnecessary purchases. Yay to that!

Last weekend I donated a cat tree to Katie’s Place. And almost took a cat home.

I tried to squeeze in important family/loved ones time but I could have done better here. I was having an emotional and hormonal week contemplating my life and career, so I think my attention was more towards myself. I saw my family on the weekend and had brunch, and did a road trip with my partner to Harrison Hot Springs though.

I asked my boss to work part time. The company is still my baby, but we aren’t as busy currently so it was a good time to see if I could focus on all my projects on the go. I’m torn between growing the role full-time, vs time on my projects. There’s a great opportunity there that I need to sort out.

And that is all folks! Nothing very exciting. I’d love to hear how your week went! Is anyone else trying to live intentionally?

Deliberately Creating Memories

Published 09/18/2014

Leave the memories as they are, you just can’t duplicate something like that. ~ an old friend

Something’s been on my mind. On the one hand I love the internet and technology because it allows us to communicate across distances and accomplish our dreams in a way we would not have done before. But on the other hand, as the meme says, I miss my pre-internet brain.

I miss those days when we would wait forever for our favourite musician to release their new album, and line up at the store just to purchase it. Then we’d go home and listen to it on repeat for hours, probably with some good friends.

I also miss feeling like I could actually be OFF THE GRID when I traveled, or like I was escaping somewhere where nobody could find me. Now I don’t feel like I’ve gone very far because everyone is just a click away, or I could easily be tracked down because my flight and bank details are probably online somewhere, if anyone had to really go searching for me.

On the flip side, music is at our fingertips. Anything we want to listen to, we can get, how cool is that? Anything we want to learn, is right there. Now when we travel, we can update our friends and family in real-time and show them what we are experiencing. We can look up our childhood friend and reconnect with them.

But here’s a question –

When is the last time you looked back and thought, wow, that was such a great time when I watched that YouTube video on cats, I’ll remember that forever…

That was so much fun scrolling through Facebook for hours on end. I’ll remember it until the day I die.

Yeah…not quite the same as real life is it?

The difference is we created a lot more MEMORIES. And we valued things that took more effort to do as opposed to the instant gratification of today.

My fear is that I, and anyone else who is guilty of too many hours being distracted by Facebook/YouTube/Reddit/video games/name your vice here, (and I know there are many of us) will one day look back and realize all this time has passed us by and we don’t have any wonderful memories to look back on. At least not to the degree of what it used to be. I mean, aren’t memories part of what makes life so amazing?

I worry about our children who will grow up with their faces glued to an iPad or computer screen, and sure they will probably learn a lot, but I wonder if their childhoods will be as magical and full of memories as the pre-internet world.

I don’t know…just some thoughts. What do you think?

Other than that, my point is I think it’s important to be mindful of deliberately creating memories. Take that time to disconnect ourselves from the digital world, and live in the real world. Have a little picnic in the park with an old friend, or meet a new friend while hiking up a mountain. Because it would be so sad to look back and realize we could have had a richer experience.

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Mastering the Art of Letting Go

Published 05/07/2014

“The root of all of our problems is our inability to let go.” – Leo Babauta

I apologize for being a bit MIA this week, I’ve been busy from day until night everyday with interviews, teaching and consulting work, but I’ve been aching to get back at my blog! Today, I bring to you a free gift, an e-book created by the talented writer and minimalist, Leo Babauta, who is also someone I look up to and is a huge source of inspiration in starting my blog.

The e-book is called The One Skill: How Mastering the Art of Letting Go Will Change Your Life. The title sort of explains it, but basically it’s based on the Zen idea of letting go, and when we can master this we can reduce our stress, procrastinate less, improve our relationships, increase our ability to deal with change, learn to change difficult habits, and become more present in our lives.

The biggest thing I took away from this book was the idea that our expectations or fantasies are based on ideals, and when we have certain ideals about the way a situation or a person should be, we set ourselves up for disappointment, stress and anxiety. This causes fear, fear of things not turning out the way they should. But when we can just learn to let go of these ideals, the fear disappears, and we become more present, happy and productive.

But, you don’t have to take my word for it, take a look for yourself and see. It’s a pretty easy read and the benefits are huge.

Pick up this FREE e-book here and check out Leo Babauta’s amazing blog at zenhabits.net. I promise you won’t be disappointed!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this e-book if you read it! Let me know in the comments below or send me an email at lessoftheexcess at gmail dot com.

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Why I Am Not On Facebook And The Benefits Of It

Published 04/29/2014

“Distracted from distraction by distraction.” – T.S. Eliot

I get asked all the time why I’m not on Facebook, so I thought I would share my thoughts with you. The main reason was that I was a compulsive user of Facebook. It was the ultimate distraction. I couldn’t even wait in line without checking the Facebook App on my mobile phone. I’d be going about my day and Status Updates would constantly pop into my head. It was a bad habit.

Facebook has also changed a lot since I first joined in 2007. It used to be a valuable tool for keeping in touch with people, but it turned into constant advertisements and people began only posting internet memes. I wasn’t getting any value from it. I also became uneasy about the level of privacy. On the personal side, I became uncomfortable with sharing information with people I hardly knew, and the idea of “Facebook Stalking” made me uneasy as I’m a private person. I felt like I didn’t have complete control of the information that was posted online about myself. Also, the fact that Facebook now owns the right to do anything they want with your data is frightening. Facebook caused more anxiety than real life did.

Lastly, Facebook felt very superficial to me. We always like to make our online persona our ideal versions of ourselves, so I felt when I was looking at my ‘friend’s’ pages, it wasn’t a real representation. I thought it was pointless as I would rather have real connections with the people in my life. I’m lucky that I avoid drama, but I could definitely see how it could be toxic for those of us who are drawn towards it. I fear what bullying is like for kids still in school.

I am fully aware of the benefits of social media – it’s extremely useful for keeping in touch with people, marketing, networking, job search and spreading information. But I prefer to rely on websites that are less personal and be a bit choosier on what info goes out.

So with that in mind, I gathered the contacts of the people I wanted to keep in touch with and decided to delete my account. I’m proud to say I’ve been Facebook Free for just over a year! This blog is about minimalism and getting rid of distractions in order to live a more meaningful life, and getting rid of Facebook was a great introduction into it.

It’s funny because at first I kept reaching for my phone only to realize there was no more Facebook App. And I (still to this day) unknowingly type “www.faceb…” into my internet browser only to realize halfway through I can’t log on. But aside from that, there were so many benefits that came out of getting rid of my Facebook account.

The 5 benefits of not being on Facebook:

More Time: One of the main benefits of not having Facebook is how much time I suddenly had. I was so much more productive! I could write more music, work on more projects and have more time to spend it with people I cared about. I could also spend more time enjoying the outdoors or cooking a delicious meal.

Deeper Connections with People: The second most important benefit I had was that the level of depth to my friendships and relationships increased. Without the ability to check in on how people were doing online, I was able to have real meaningful conversations, you know, like we did in the old days 😉

More Privacy: I had more personal privacy and control over the info that was posted online about myself, and I had privacy from the Facebook information thieves.

Living in the Moment: Being less fixated on the online world helped me to become more present and aware of my surroundings. I was able to truly enjoy the here and now.

Higher Self Esteem: There have been studies that Facebook makes us unhealthy, sad and jealous because we compare ourselves to others. Well I can say with confidence that it hardly comes up for me anymore as I can’t peer into anyone’s lives.

And finally, a wonderful song a friend sent me that is somewhat related. I’m quite enjoying Passenger. There are many songs about getting rid of distractions and the superficial world and more into meaningful, happy living.

“Scare Away The Dark”

Well, sing, sing at the top of your voice,

Love without fear in your heart.
Feel, feel like you still have a choice
If we all light up we can scare away the dark

We wish our weekdays away
Spend our weekends in bed
Drink ourselves stupid
And work ourselves dead
And all just because that’s what mom and dad said we should do

We should run through the forest
We should swim in the streams
We should laugh, we should cry,
We should love, we should dream
We should stare at the stars and not just the screens
You should hear what I’m saying and know what it means

To sing, sing at the top of your voice,
Love without fear in your heart.
Feel, feel like you still have a choice
If we all light up we can scare away the dark

Well, we wish we were happier, thinner and fitter,
We wish we weren’t losers and liars and quitters
We want something more not just nasty and bitter
We want something real not just hash tags and Twitter

It’s the meaning of life and it’s streamed live on YouTube
But I bet Gangnam Style will still get more views
We’re scared of drowning, flying and shooters
But we’re all slowly dying in front of computers

So sing, sing at the top of your voice,
Oh, love without fear in your heart.
Can you feel, feel like you still have a choice
If we all light up we can scare away the dark

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Facebook. Feel free to share them in the comments below or send me an email at lessoftheexcess at gmail dot com.

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Breaking Free From Vices

Published 04/21/2014

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” – Joseph Campbell

Today’s blog post was triggered by an interesting and challenging experience I recently had and I felt like I wanted to share my insights with you. I was faced with a situation where in the past I would have gone to one of my vices in order to cover up fear and emotion, but I was able to push through it in order in order to gain a richer and more meaningful experience. I’m using this as a metaphor for this blog post on how we use things, or clutter, or bad habits in order to cover up something that is underneath.

Do you have any vices?

Any bad habits, negative character traits or reactions that are unhealthy for you? Shopping? Drug use? Alcohol? Dating? Sex? Over-eating? Gambling? Even habits like watching too much television or YouTube when you could be focusing on something more meaningful or productive? We do them because we think they will make us feel better, and they do but only for a brief moment. Just as soon as it started, the happiness goes away and we’re left with an empty feeling at the pit of our stomach and we need to fill up the hole with more of these vices again. And the cycle continues.

These vices are all forms of distractions keeping us away from a more focused, happy, authentic and meaningful life.

What we really need to do is get to the source of what is really upsetting us and leaving us feeling empty or afraid. What are we trying to run away from within ourselves? And what are the triggers? It is usually an emotional issue that we are trying to avoid and only when we come to grips with what we’re emotionally avoiding can we have the blissful and meaningful life we want (and deserve). We won’t need to turn to our vices to make us feel better.

Think about the life you want to live. Refer to this blog post to help you.

How to recognize when you are using vices as forms of distractions and get focused:

1. Become aware of your negative habits, write them down if you need to. It might be difficult to recognize when something is bad for you if it feels good. But if you are constantly feeling frustrated that things are not going the way you want them to in your life, (and it is happening over and over again), it is a good sign something needs to change. The first step is awareness.

2. Notice when you feel the need to act on your vice. How are you feeling at this very moment. Are you bored? Lonely? Depressed? Scared?

3. Face your issue head on. Stop for a moment, don’t head for the nearest shopping mall or alcoholic drink. Instead take some time to sit and do nothing and just feel your emotions. Nothing bad will happen to you.

When we are able to be comfortable with being alone with ourselves, we learn more about who we are. And to know ourselves brings us closer to authenticity and true happiness. It takes courage, but it is necessary if we want to have the life we want. When we can do this, we won’t need all of the old vices that we are used to going to. Also, don’t be afraid to talk openly and honestly if your issue involves other people, because the results may surprise you.

From my personal experience, when I made the conscious decision to fight against my go-to vice, I was finally free, like a ton of bricks had been lifted off my shoulders. I was free from being “stuck” in an old habit and being miserable and unhappy with the end results. I knew I had to stay focused on my life vision if I wanted to be happier. I grew so much from this and I want to make sure I am continuously growing and learning from these types of experiences and moments for the rest of my life. It’s basically ‘unlinking’ old associations, and creating new and more positive ones. Nothing could be better!

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

What are some of your vices? Do you notice when they come up? Let me know in the comments below or send me an email at lessoftheexcess at gmail dot com.

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