The 24/7 myth.  Do you really have to be connected to work, FaceBook and your BlackBerry or i-phone, 24/7?  Do you really have to be ON every day, evenings, weekends and even holidays?  Can you take a break from being electronically connected – or what would happen if you did?

Isn’t this a bit ridiculous?  I am part of it, as much as you are!  Yesterday, I took a walk without my BB and let it be known I was out of touch.  Wow.  How did this come to happen?  Walking without being connected feels so… strange, deprived… like sensory-deprivation.

I think, in my case, that it’s  a bad symptom, which shows that I DO need to disconnect more, and more often.  How did I get there?  How did I come to believe that I have to be connected/reachable, 24/7?

We reply to emails the second they come in; we keep poking on our BB on weekends and holidays, we watch the news every day – so we know what’s going on in the world.  We are connected, therefore we are important?  Really?

The 24/7 myth leads us to believe that we have to be connected and reachable, all day, every day to be somebody. But being connected doesn’t give you power; in fact, often it feels like just the opposite.  It doesn’t make you accomplish more; it makes you more scattered….  And there is a cost: you feel overwhelmed, frazzled, stressed out.

So today, take a moment and unplug.  Disconnect from… everything.  Take a moment without mental clutter, without noise, voices, music, TV, computer, cellphone, and so on.  A naked moment just to be.  Here.  Now.

Breathe.  Relax.  You can go back whenever you want to – and nothing will happen while you are off line.

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