Unplugging From Life's Distractions

"Peace comes from within, do not seek it without." - Buddha

     On November 1, 2010 I took the initiative to take a step closer to finding liberation, peace, and balance in my life. Starting that very day, I chose to leave behind all the distractions that seem to govern us for a full week. Social networking sites, text messaging, music, television, and unnecessary time spent on computers and all other convenient technological advances were abandoned as I embraced life head-on. Day one was utter panic. As the weary day dragged on, my empty pockets were met by shaking hands begging for buttons to press or touch screens to slide. Is that not the most pathetic thing you’ve ever heard? How sad to think that an overwhelming majority of our youth is a slave to the technology that was created with the intent to make our lives simpler. My solution to my devastating, dismal endemic? To convert all the time spent on my distractions to meditation, yoga, and a personal soul-healing by delving into the complexities of religions and focusing on my education. Throughout the remainder of the week, I lived my life. I breathed, I spoke, and most importantly, I paid particular attention to the monotonous robots I call classmates. Observing that the only emotions they knew how to show were via emoticons, my determination to reach my goal grew stronger. As each day passed, my desire to stray to Facebook or start up multiple conversations on my cell phone became less and less popular. By the end of the week, my understanding of religion grew as I searched as many different things as I could. Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Muslim, and Baptist were the religious ideas that I had the opportunity to explore. All too often, people become offended when any religion other than their own is brought up, but can we be honest? If you’re offended by just the mention of beliefs varying from your own, you don’t understand your own belief system well enough. Part of the reason I wanted to study religion was to motivate myself to desire a better understanding of my own beliefs, or at least what I’ve been taught to believe. Rest assured my efforts were not in vain. I shared my thoughts with several in my church organization and was commended for my intellect. Focusing on my education was not at all as hard as I previously conceived, all I needed was a change of goals. My current straight A’s owe their credit to this priority reexamination. My liberation goal was reached by finding that freedom is a reward for doing what you have to do. My peace goal was accomplished every time I meditated and it stayed with me as I focused on the important things in life. Balance was achieved when I realized that I am more than capable of juggling a social life, a 4.0, and every nick and cranny in between. Although it wasn’t in my set goals, my communication skills improved after abandoning the cyber world. I unplugged. I enjoyed every minute of it. Even when I found myself aching for music or an update to my current status, I had the benefit of self discipline that was to my advantage in the end. I would strongly recommend unplugging yourself from the distractions of our modern day world. I found the remuneration incredulously gratifying. Think about how much of your life is spent bothering yourself about everyone else’s life! Live your own! No amount of words can describe the content and balance felt. Try it out, comment with your experience, and hopefully we can all unplug a little more.