Dealing with Tech

and a suggestion...

Happy Sunday everyone,

Welcome to another missive from me to you. I hope you are all well and safe, especially those who are in the path of the storms in the USA and the flooding in Europe. Mother Nature seems to be having a hissy fit at the moment.
Stay safe everyone.

Here we are, another week gone in this year, is it me (and I know I say this a lot) but has the year gone by very quickly? Or is it just the last part? Life seemed fairly slow and normal until about June, then I blinked and it is the middle of October…

But here we are.

Don’t Pick Up Your Phone - Pick Up a Book

I currently am the host of a writing group room as part of the London Writers’ Salon, that room is The Artists’ Way. If you are not familiar with this book it is a 12-step/12-week program designed to ‘unblock’ creatives, written by Julia Cameron. It helps you to look at the habits you have fallen into and the ideas and opinions that you have accepted as real when they are just someone else’s opinions. It helps you to take a deep dive into where you want your creative life to be and helps you to get there.
We are currently on Week Four - Recovering a Sense of Integrity. This week we are asked to do a Reading Deprivation Challenge. The main idea is to get up out of our chairs and do other things, listen to music, invite friends to dinner, write to friends, go dancing, you get the idea.

But…

Asking a group of writers to not read, well, it is a hard ask. Especially when reading is a very pleasurable thing.

So we reframed the task. The book was written in 1994…

Back then if you were reading it was magazines, newspapers and physical books.

There was no technology screaming at you for attention - no computers, no laptops, no mobile phones - well unless you had the brick-type ones which did nothing but call…

The image below is from the first Lethal Weapon film, which has the very first inclusion of a mobile phone. But it had to have a car battery to run it, I kid you not. That is the big black thing you can see Danny Glover holding in the picture.

OK, I know this is from 1987, but you get the idea

Now we are nearly always within a few feet (maybe inches) of our mobile phones, and the pull to check for messages, check Facebook, Instagram, etc is visceral. It tugs at your mind, incessantly telling you that you are missing something, some important event or message or happening that will…

I am sure you can see what I am saying.

So, we reframed the task - Every Time you felt the urge to doom scroll or check for messages, or status reports, you were to pick up a book and read.

It’s that simple - Don’t Scroll - Read. Not a reading deprivation week, a tech deprivation week.

Try it - see how it feels. I know many people who ‘unplug’ from their devices over the weekend, and it is tempting to give it a go. Or maybe just set yourself some sort of ‘office hours’, and pop an automatic reply on your emails saying that you only check the inbox between midday and 2 pm. Use the technology to help you break the habit.

🤖🤖The machines haven’t won yet, and they won’t if we pay attention. 🤖🤖

Elsewhere in my world this week, prep continues apace for the Christmas Fair at Quay Arts I will pop some photos in here in a couple of weeks of all the little animals that I have made in preparation. Currently, the tally stands at 3 bears, I bunny and a very large Owl. Last week I went to the Medina Community Choir’s latest concert, this time they had the Bournemouth and District Brass Band alongside, so although it was very loud, it was awesome. They sang this song in memory of a choir member who had recently and suddenly died. There was not a dry eye in the house.

The YouTube video is from the French Tour in August, Dan was singing with the choir in Le Mans Cathedral. The Facebook video is much better, but I couldn’t get it to embed properly…

Stay well everyone, look after one another, you will be in my thoughts. Until next time, as ever, may your angels and guides watch over you and protect you until we meet again.

Love and Light,

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Until next time, bye for now.

Links:

*The Artists’ Way, by Julia Cameron

Quay Arts, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 5 BD - Website (If ever you are on the Isle of Wight, it is well worth a visit, there is a great shop, a wonderful cafe, and constantly changing art gallery/exhibitions.)

Medina Community Choir

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