Sunday 22 September 2013

The Joys of Being (dis)Connected

People always seemed surprised when I tell them I'm not on Facebook, and even more so when they see my mobile phone, a cheap bruk-up pay-as-you-go Samsung which I mostly use to drop call (and sometimes text) people... How do you live? some ask, well pretty happily, I usually reply. There are so many joys to being (dis)connected, from having more time to do what you love to actually keeping connections real by making an effort to see and spend time with loved ones. Below I've listed #10 blessings of being disconnected....

#1) You become more in tune with 'real' life; signs, serendipity, synchronicity. People will naturally come in and out of your life- and through experience I've found that those real connections you've formed, those worthwhile ones will find a way of sticking, they'll always be sustained... somehow, even if you vanish from each other's separating lives for a time, you'll mostly find a way of coming together again- if it's in your fate.

#2) Chance Encounters. You'll have a lot more of these and when you do they'll be so much more magical! I often see people from past lives in random places and when we talk, everything is new! Time becomes a reality; you don't know where they've been or what they've been up to so you actually listen and are receptive. You're given another opportunity to build that relationship or just move on from it, whilst at the same time appreciating the fact that they must have re-entered your life for a reason.

#3) You'll receive emails and text messages from people out of the blue. I love this. So often, I think more this year than ever before, I'll get people email me or text me asking to meet up, wandering what I've been up to and so we'll meet up again and it will be glorious! We'll share stories, experiences, ideas, we'll be able to open up in ways that we might not have if we were constantly keeping track of what the other person was doing, who they were with, how they'd arrived at a certain point in their life, the obstacles they had to overcome etc...To me it seems that Facebook, and being constantly connected kind of takes the mystery out of life...

#4) You don't need to worry about putting up a front or maintaining an image of yourself. You have nothing to compare yourself to, you can live your life in any way you please and not worry about what others think; or whether or not it's the right way, if there is one. You don't have to live within the rigid confines of 'normality' or what others deem to be normal. You're free to be whoever you want. You become more aware of the things that matter, and less so about things that don't; more so the people that matter, and the people that don't. Because those you really love and love you will find ways of forcing themselves into your life, even if you want nothing more than to be invisible and alone in misery.

#5) Connections will mean so much more to you and you'll appreciate them so much more with the knowledge that you might not see someone again. I have so many  friends who have moved to the different corners of the world, and on the off chance that we're in the same place, at the same time, even if that's for a day or a few hours, you appreciate your time together so much more! And you make the most of it too. I've found this to be especially true when you meet a stranger under some fateful circumstance. In life you don't have to keep in touch with everyone you meet, you can just appreciate a few moments you spent with them, and that time you had together.

#6) It's easier to remove people and be removed from others' lives. Sometimes good, sometimes bad- but it happens, for a reason, for many reasons, for none at all. It happens. I've wasted so much of this year worrying about all the people I've cut myself off from, because of what I was going through and its only now that I've come to the conclusion that well, life's too short and it doesn't matter so much. Shit happens and sometimes you can't go back, it's too hard and that's okay. That's life.

#6) So much time can be wasted on Facebook or Whatsupp or whatever. Imagine what you could achieve if you used  that time to do what you really want to do. The sky's the limit. There isn't one.

#7) Relationships are more organic. You discover through talking, not stalking. You can really connect, but only if you're brave. If you want to talk to someone who you think is interesting, talk to them! Use your voice, not your fingers! What's the worse that can happen? You don't get on? At least you realise that early on instead of wasting all your time trying to suss out who they are through an (empty) web page!

#8) It's easy to disappear. So easy. I disappear a lot.

#9) Life is beautiful. And real. More real and more beautiful than it is on a screen. Seek it out; beauty and reality and (un)reality; the trippy. People are so much more than they think themselves to be, they have so much more to offer the world than they could possibly imagine. Believe in yourself. Just DO IT! Whatever it is you need to do. Stop searching, stop wasting time, stop making excuses for yourself- disconnect to the cyber world of un-reality and seek it out---- life, it's yours for the taking!!

#10) At the end of the day we're all going to die. Do you really want to spend parts of your precious life seeking approval, and sharing nonsense on a page that in reality means very little (kind of like this blog...) I don't think so.

Try it and find out for yourself...... (dis)Connect!--------reflect---------see what happens....