11 Comments

I'm loving and feeling every word of this post. "Analog" is one of my three words picked for 2025, and I can't agree more with the whole idea of stopping for a second (well, for several seconds) and just observe, just create with your mind.

I think we are in a urgent need for going back to this pre-socialmedia-life. I miss those years, I miss the feeling. Thanks for sharing.

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Oh I love Analog being one of your words. I'd love to hear how that looks and feels over the year.

I miss that feeling of a social media free life too. The days without it prove that to me :)

Thanks for reading, Emma and wishing you a wonderfully analog year!

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This is ace. Im always trying to let the kids be bored, to allow them to be creative but I forget to do it for me too! I'm constantly filling space, feeling I should do something with that time. I recently read that we are entertaining ourselves to death, and I feel this a lot! There's so much to entertain us that why would we bother with our own creativity!

But if course as I sit here writing this on my phone, I fear I am my own worst enemy 😅

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Uff, 'we are entertaining ourselves to death!' I feel that too. I wonder what pockets of boredom you can allow for yourself this week? Thanks for reading, Rachel!

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I have to say that until yesterday I thought I was good at not turning to my phone. I don't take it when I'm walking the dog or if i do, so I can take photos then I turn the internet off. I wash up and cook with nothing else going on. But last night we had a power cut. It was only off for just over two hours but for the first hour I was on my phone, half talking to my husband, but mainly playing games. But by the second hour we'd got into really talking and by the time the lights came back on again we kept talking till we went to bed.

It was interesting his reaction more than anything because when the lights came on I said "are you going to do that application form you'd planned to do?" and his response was that his brain had shut down now. Perhaps we need to do it more often so his brain especially shuts down, which is not a bad thing.

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That's so interesting, thank you so much for sharing, Diane! Maybe more intentional power cuts are needed.

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I think you could be right there

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this really speaks to me, especially at this moment as i just signed up for a week long phone free/no wifi writing retreat. thanks susannah!

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Oh that sounds delightful! Enjoy enjoy!

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Yes to all this! I remember that week of the AW too, so many other activities that I would never usually do became places to let the mind wander or the chance to create is some other way. I would love to ditch my smartphone. Whenever I say this, people often reply, but that would be so anti social, you'd feel really left out, how would we get in touch with you etc. I would still love to do it, but I think phone free days are a great alternative, or maybe a lead in 😊

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Isn't it the most incredible week of AW? I find it profound how expansive my mind can be when I cut out the noise. I'm often complaining about never having silence (I live in a very vibrant country) but then I realise most of the 'noise' is created by me. Lauren Deborah has been a huge inspiration for me with taking her Sunday media free day. I think it's a great place to start.

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