4 lessons from our recent digital detox

How we found connection in disconnection

Here’s what we’ll learn in this article:

1. Why we shouldn’t settle when designing a digital detox

2. How quiet time in Nature isn’t boring but exciting

3. How disconnection from social media leads to true connection

4. Why we like combining digital fasts with infrared light & intermittent fasting

How do we create tranquility in a world that is increasingly becoming more raucous by the minute?

How can we carve out our own ocean of calm amidst a media maelstrom that clamors for our attention, sucking us into dead pools of instant gratification?

The last four years have been driven mostly by fear. How do we escape?

So many of us say that we “just want to get away” while forgetting to extract ourselves from the very habitat occupying our minds. We seek refuge in a screensaver of turquoise water and palm trees, forgetting that the sands of serenity can only crystallize in the silence of our hearts and minds.

Even those of us fortunate enough to reach those distant, balmy shores arrive laden with cognitive luggage that we rarely dare to put down at the peril of losing touch with our present reality. We long to live the dream. Yet we rarely let go of control enough to realize those dreams, clinging onto the past, not willing to surrender to the abyss of the birth canal, waiting to wash us in waters of rebirth.

If we want peace, we must prepare for a psychological war of attrition, fought on the embattlements of white flags proclaiming “I let go, and let GOD.”

“Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner. Do your work, then step back - the only path to serenity."

~ Tao Te Ching 

How can we create a revival in our mind, body, and soul?

If most diseases are epigenetic¹ and driven by our environment, we must restore our living space if we want to reclaim a state of health. Our thoughts are part of our environment, however most of us aren’t Buddhist monks that can meditate with hundreds of flies on our face. We need to first recreate the physical place that can sustain our ability to remain human in a world seeking to advance the inhuman.

All journeys of the heart are conceived with love, yet we must first have a vision of that love before we begin. We can renew our insight by seeing not what is in front of us, but what awaits us beyond the horizon.

Eagles and hawks do the same. They glide peacefully above everyone and everything else, in silence, waiting for their moment to strike. Many of us aspire to the standard of the golden eagle, wings emblazoned with fiery rays of the Sun.

Yet how many of us can tarry with the same stoic patience, letting our wings pierce through the turbulence of lesser desires?

Did you know that texting can put us in a body language of low-power, signalling to our brain that we are in a stressful state, thus increasing detrimental amounts of cortisol?

Bohdanna and I recently decided to go for a quick getaway, renting a lovely little cabin in the woods. While this may sound nice, this temporary home took some effort to find. We used this mini-vacation as an opportunity to completely disconnect from our modern day technology, and plug into Mother Nature.

Here are some lessons we learned during this digital detox, which we wanted to share with all our beloved subscribers:

1- Don’t settle when manifesting a new environment

We searched the web for many options, and even looked on AirBnB, which we will never use as an option again. AirBnB wanted to harvest all sorts of data from us, including a cell phone number. After clicking around, we were able to put in a landline as a two-step verification. We also noticed that most homes listed on AirBnB also had “surveillance cameras on the property” as a perk. Most cameras are no longer hardwired, and operate on 24/7 Wi-Fi. You do have to scroll down under many of the amenities to find if the owner has these cameras.

Who wants to get away, only to be monitored and irradiated like a lab rat?

Sites like Vrbo also don’t let you communicate directly with the property owner due to some type of insurance law embedded in the Vrbo terms, which as a result doesn’t allow you to negotiate price or have a one-to-one conversation.

Luckily we found an amazing site called Cottages In Canada that only requires a valid email, which allowed us to remain in direct contact with our host. As a result we were offered a better rental rate, and facilitated payment with cash and e-transfer, which is not an option on sites like Vrbo or AirBnB.

I asked our host if she could shut off the Wi-Fi at night during our stay, and told her our health reasons for doing so. Not only did she accommodate our request, she even turned off her own Wi-Fi during the day as well. When we arrived, we had a lengthy conversation about the harms of wireless radiation, blue light, and why incandescents are a fantastic option. After our stay, our host bought the last three incandescent light bulbs from her local hardware store!

This experience showed us that our vibe attracts our tribe, but only if we act with intention, standing for what we believe, and asking for what we want. Our DNA is literally an antenna², and acts on the electromagnetic principle of resonance.

Resonance describes two or more waves that are frequency-locked. Researchers have found that when our heart rhythm is steady, our brains will then play “catch up” and will become phase-locked to our calmer heart beat.

Learning how to tune-in to our frequency begins with having an eagle’s eye vision of which horizon we intend to explore.

2- Quiet time still moves quickly

“Life moves pretty fast.

If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” ~ Ferris Bueller

Even though I don’t use a cell phone, I do spend many hours in front of the computer, researching and writing. Not having this stimulation at first is a challenge, because you’re forced to shift gears. However, wildlife in the fast lane has its own rhythm, to which we as humans will still adapt pretty quickly. Remember the Big Picture - most of our human experience has been living with the cadence of Nature, rather than the pulse of artificial light.

Have you ever put a glass of water to your lips, and start to chug, only to think “man, I didn’t know how thirsty I was until I started drinking!” We forgot how calm, how serene our Earth can be when we just take a moment to listen.

That’s how embracing silence, and meditation, feels like. Once we begin, we notice how many distracting thoughts are really in that head of ours, and the process of reflection begins to unfold like that torrent of water. Meditation doesn’t necessarily mean sitting in an upright posture chanting for an hour - it can be as simple as remembering how to breath deeply while walking in the woods.

The quiet can be a double-edged sword. When we meditate, many thoughts can arise that distract, or veer us off course. However, that same silence allows us to sift and gather the thoughts of our higher Self. Serenity allows us to ask the more pressing questions like: What do I want out of life? How can I contribute to the world?

During this time away I was able to gain perspective on the Big Picture, and tweak previous pie-in-the-sky ideas that I indirectly gave up on, by allowing myself to mindlessly get distracted with smaller tasks each day.

3- Social media distance makes our heart grow fonder

While going for a long hike, and brushing up against all the new life and saplings scratching underfoot, through dead leaves and around stubborn rocks, I was reminded of how much I miss my friends. Some of those friends I may have had some disagreements with over the past four years, but my heart still yearned to see them. When we don’t have the technology around us all the time to “stay connected”, then we can truly appreciate what we have, and who we value.

By tapping into my heart, I was able to let go of insults that my ego may have experienced years prior. During one of my meditations, I didn’t forgive anyone who did me harm. Instead, I forgave myself for letting them mistreat me, and for allowing hatred to distort my purity of purpose.

“Love broke through” by Kevin Carden

I now look forward to confronting other individuals that I swore I would never talk to again. That’s the power of tapping into our inner sound of silence.

Time doesn’t heal all wounds, but Nature can if we give her a chance.

4- A digital fast is the perfect time to fast

We both used this opportunity to do a 24-hour fast (green tea only). When we eliminate the overwhelming stimulation of screens and news feeds from our lives, we create more mind space. We were able to deepen our sense of mental clarity by combining our digital detox with an intermittent fast, coupled with meditations and walks in the forest. Walking is an effective way to stabilize blood sugar , and we’ve found makes fasting easier as cravings are reduced. Plus, it’s much easier to grab some pretzels when you’re in the kitchen, than try to hunt or forage for your food, especially when you forget the raisin and peanut trail mix at home.

One more thing that we chose to do was a cold plunge each morning, which sharpened our minds even more as the cold jumpstarts our “rest and digest” parasympathetic nervous system.³ More importantly, our minds don’t have time to become cluttered with distracting thoughts when we’re immersed in an ice grip of reality.

How focused and clear we feel after an ice bath

After those cold plunges, we’d come inside to stare at the fire. The heat that fire gives off is certainly a consolation, but I welcome the light it gives more. Ever wonder why we’re all so instinctively drawn to gaze at a fire? Fires emanate infrared light, which regenerates our retina. ⁴

not our cabin, but our fire was just as epic.

In the end, what we realized most is that the problems of the world aren’t going away, but the way we look at those problems may never change if we don’t take the time to take time, and look at how we’re looking at those issues.

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

-Yogi Berra

Will you embrace the silence of your unknown?

Leap into the black forest without a cell phone

Create your Art

Lead your life with heart

Where every place feels like home.

We are more powerful than we know,

Roman & Bohdanna

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Additional Resources:

By

Ruth Gaskovski

and

Peco

:

Open Forum : Fasting From the Virtual, Feasting on the Real

1. Willett, Walter C. Balancing life-style and genomics research for disease prevention. Science 2002 Apr 26;296 (5568):695-8

2. Oschmann, James, Energy Medicine, London: Churchill Livingstone, 2000

3. https://www.wimhofmethod.com/controlling-the-autonomic-nervous-system

4.