“Somebody stop the world. I want to get off!”
How many times have you or someone you know uttered those words, even in jest?
In this constantly-connected, on-the-go world we live in, sometimes it’s all we can do to just keep up.
If you’re a small business owner, a freelancer just starting out, someone who lives from project to project, you never quite know where your next paycheck is going to come from. Therefore, you always hesitate to say “no” to just one more thing.
A couple of weeks ago, I talked about calling “uncle” – finding the place where you draw your line in the sand. Today, I want to take that idea one step forward, to when you find yourself needing to hit the “pause” button.
I have been in an ongoing twitter conversation with Matt over at The Outage about human nature and the need to “disconnect” from this technologically bustling world – the need to find our real selves in the wilderness – the need to reconnect to our roots.
He and I stand on two different sides of this issue. Note that I use the word “different”, and not the word “opposite”. I whole-heartedly agree that we need to take time to stand with our faces in the sun, away from the noise and chaos of the modern world. Where our opinions differ is that I don’t want to live in that world 100 percent of the time.
While I do occasionally need to get away, I thrive in that connected world. I love the adrenaline-fueled “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” push of the final days of a big project or campaign – there’s no feeling quite like it.
I’ll admit, though – sometimes it gets overwhelming. I am smack in the middle of a month that just won’t stop – in fact, I’m fairly certain that I’m in go-mode until at least the end of April. I just got back from a 4 day weekend in DC, and I’m gearing back up for another week full of projects and meetings and exciting opportunity.
So how do I get away? How do I find the peace and silence that Matt describes?
Well, for the time being, I find it in small doses.
I find peace on the yoga mat. I find stillness in the quiet morning air while I walk my dog. I find it in that first quiet moment when I lay down to sleep, as my body sinks into the mattress and my whole body sighs.
And, sometimes when the outer world gets too noisy, I slip away to the mountains; my parents live in rural Virginia, on a 40 acre farm. I am drawn west and I sit, face to the sun, breathing in the peace of the natural world, and I smile.
Tomorrow, I can begin again.
I would love to hear from you in the comments – where do you fall in this discussion? Are you tied to the chaos, would you rather get away, or are you somewhere in the middle?
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