Short - The Case for a Digital Detox

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Karen. Yes, I've got something
on my mind. I know, I

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heard that big sigh. Yeah,
it's something I'm struggling with a little bit,

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but something I think it's really important
we talk about, all right.

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You know how a few weeks ago
I went on a silent solitary retreat.

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Yes, it was not silent by
choice. Not silent. That's true.

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You had no one to talk to, that's true. That's true. So

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I went on this solitary retreat,
and I guess I should back up at

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the end of last year. Towards
the end of the year, I was

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so unbelievably burnt out that I thought
I was gonna lose my mind. Right,

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So an unbelievably generous gesture Christmas time, you got me a solitary retreat.

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You sent me out to the mountains
I did of Virginia, to an

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eco lodge, which I thought was
really cool to go spend some time five

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days by myself out in the middle
of the woods with no cell service,

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very spotty WiFi, and really no
digital devices. I thought, I really

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thought that it was exactly what I
needed. I needed to disconnect. I

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need to be in the middle of
nature. I need to reconnect with nature

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when it needed to be by myself
without any electronics around me, so I

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can actually reconnect with who I am. However, when I got there,

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although the place was really cool,
it's in the middle of winter, so

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there's not a lot of people in
this equal lodge, it was really me

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and zero of my closest friends.
Really, it was me and no friends.

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No one. Did you see anybody? I saw like the maintenance guy.

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That's right, that one time.
Briefly I saw the maintenance guy,

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and I did not see any other
guests at all, although I did see

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evidence that they were there. Things
had been moved. Maybe it wasn't people.

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Oh don't get me started on that. But there was garbage left in

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places, There were dishes in the
sink or washed dishes. I mean,

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there's definite, definitely evidence. I
heard voices speaking things like that, but

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I didn't see anybody until the last
day. As I was leaving. Well,

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all I had to do was meditate
and read, and that to me

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seems like heaven. However it was
I was. I wasn't jiving with it.

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The vibe was not right with me
for some reason. I wasn't enjoying

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it. Every time that we were
able to find a way to talk,

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to communicate, I would tell you, like, it's not I don't know,

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it's like and it's not exactly what
I'm saying. It wasn't working.

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Yeah, it wasn't working. They
weren't distressing. The still felt anxious.

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That's right, that's right. And
at the like the last day or so

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when I extended the trip hoping that
I could maybe find some way to find

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that zen, the last days,
when I finally started going, oh okay,

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I'm starting to feel it was just
a slight start to feel because then

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the next day I had to go. Well fast forward to about a week

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later, and I was meditating and
all of a sudden it hit me.

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It smacked me in the middle of
the forehead exactly what had been happening,

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which was this is the important part. The problem was that I was so

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addicted to my devices. I'm so
addicted. I was so addicted to being

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entertained constantly, to constantly being on
my phone, to my computer and my

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tablet on something I always, I
always to be doing something that the act

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of me not having that anymore and
being forced to sit and meditate or read

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and do nothing else for five blissful
days. Was the opposite of blissful.

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I actually I went through withdrawls.
I was having the DTS. I was

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having the junkie. Hey man,
you got any more of that electronic on

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you that I couldn't distress because I
was going crazy. I was going through

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withdrawal symptoms. When I came home. The first thing I told you I

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wanted to just be like I wanted
the family to put away the devices for

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a while. I wanted to just
be. I couldn't as I'm making my

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coffee, which takes all of five
minutes, maybe ten minutes, I couldn't

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just sit there and wait for my
coffee to be brewed. I had to

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be on my phone or check my
emails, or watch a show or something

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on my electronics. I had to
be doing something. I had to be

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constantly entertaining myself, and the act
of not having that made it really difficult

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to just be. I know,
I mean, you are preaching to the

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choir. I hate to say I
told you so, but it's been years,

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yeah that we've been having this conversation, but I'm I'm glad you finally

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got it. It's very, very
true because then all of a sudden,

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as I'm thinking back on my trip, on my solitary retreat, it was

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glorious. It was exactly what I
needed. It really was. Had I

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only not been addicted to these devices, I would have been able to really

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truly enjoy Karen five days, I
know, reading, meditating, that's all

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in the woods, in nature,
hiking. Yes, And I could tell

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how bad it was because here you
had the chance to go to these incredible

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caverns, lary caverns. And your
response to your initial response to that when

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you told me about it, was
like, well, the driver was really

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stressful at first. It was like, oh, it's an hour away,

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and I think I'm going to go. I'm like, what do you mean,

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You're not going to go? You
have to go? You're only an

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hour away? Yeah? Yeah,
And and in fact it was the cavernter

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spectacular. No, I saw the
pictures, truly spectacular, But it was

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all I could focus on is the
stress, the anxiety I was going through

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because what I was feeling was withdrawal
symptoms. So when I look around after

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that, at everywhere I go,
everybody has their nose on their phone.

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Yep, all the time, all
the time, all the time. And

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that's the problem. When you're sitting
with a group of people, you're like

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texting or posting or whatever something that
people you have no idea who they even

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are, instead of appreciating the people
that are surrounding you and talking to them.

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Not you, but I just mean
everyone in general, right right.

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And I think that we as humans, as souls, humanity as a whole,

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we are meant to take time to
do nothing. We're meant to be

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quote unquote bored. We're meant to
be in moments of silence because it's what

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helps our brains to process, our
minds, to connect, our spirits to

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reach out, and that's what also
allows the creative juices to flow. Because

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when you're sitting there being board,
you think of something to do, or

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you just daydream, which is a
wonderful thing. People are like, oh,

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you're just daydreaming, wasting time,
but you're not. Well, you're

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connecting with yourself. You're connecting with
your higher self, with your inner self.

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And that's a lost in our society
these days. It's completely lost.

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I know I had lost it completely, and the realization hit me that,

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oh my gosh, I had this
perfect opportunity, and I blew it because

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I was so addicted to my electronics. So I urge everyone that's hearing this

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right now. It's going to be
hard. It's going to be maybe five

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days of terrible withdrawal symptoms. But
put your phones down for a while when

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you're brewing your coffee. Don't check
your emails. Don't check your Facebook or

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your Instagram, your Twitter's, your
whatever's. Don't just put it. Put

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it down. First thing in the
morning, when I woke up, I

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picked up my phone to see what
messages I had gotten. The last thing

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I do before I went to bed. I checked my phones before I rolled

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over to go to sleep, to
check and see there's any last minute messages.

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I'm forcing myself not to do that
anymore. I don't check my email

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on my phone until I get to
work now, which is good. Hours

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later, hours later. It will
keep. It will keep, and it

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will be difficult at first, but
it's so important because now I'm at the

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point where I have a long way
to go yet, but I'm starting to

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reconnect with that inner self that reminds
me of how important in space actual my

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alone time is. And by alone
time, I could be with a whole

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bunch of people. But I'm just
sitting here and not doing anything other than

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being present with the people that are
around me, and that, to me

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is magic. Well, I don't
think that would necessarily be alone time.

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I think unfortunately people are doing now
when they're sitting with a group of people

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and they're on their phones. It's
not that it's alone time, it's isolating.

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They're isolating themselves from the connections that
they could be making. So I

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think being present isn't being alone.
But you don't have to go out to

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the mountains for five days. You
can just you know, go for a

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walk around the block and have your
alone time. And I think it'll be

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so much more impactful now than it
was prior to this, because you're appreciating

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it more and you're in the present. Mark, Yep, you're absolutely right.

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But what I meant by alone time
is alone with my own thoughts.

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Gotcha. But still, if you're
with a bunch of people, you know,

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unless they're really boring, which are
none of our friends are not at

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all, which is which is amazing, which is wonderful. But good people,

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we do have good, really good
friends, a good community. But

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when I see people in a restaurant
across from each other on their each individual

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phones. It breaks my heart.
Now, Yeah, it's terrible because we're

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all there as a society and I
think, I hate to say it,

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but it was, it was meant, it was on purpose, it was

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design. We're programmed. We are
a society right now of well instant gratification.

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You can't be bored. You have
to have your attention constantly fed of

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consumers. Yeah. And another problem
that this causes is if you're with someone

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and you're on their phone. I
know I felt like this many times.

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The person that's not on their phone
feels, you know, less important.

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Yeah, and that's another reason to
put your phones down. But I think

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the most important message here is that
we lived, at least us old folks

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lived without cell phones for a very
long time and we had a very happy

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life. We had the best childhood
we did. We did. Yeah,

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but now I feel for my daughter
who never got to go through that,

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who loses her mind when she is
bored for a minute and a half.

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It's that technology that we need a
break from. It is it is we

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need to take a break. So
I urge you if you're hearing this.

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Please do yourself a favor and reconnect
with your silence inside you. Put away

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the electronics for a while. We
live in this world now we have to

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use electronics, there's no getting around
it. But don't let it completely dominate

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your life. Don't feel like you
have to check your phone five times every

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minute. You can put the phone
away for an hour and not think twice

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about it and just be sit there
in silence by yourself. Enjoy your coffee,

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feel how it tastes, how it
feels going down, how you feel

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sitting in your couch while you're listening
to the birds chirp, whatever it is.

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Just sit quietly and remove that addiction
from you, and you are going

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to be a much happier person,
hands down. All right, that's all

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I got it. Karen, Oh, that was a pretty good guy.

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Thanks for thinking so