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Tune Out

9 years ago by

Tune Out

How do you tune out?

On the weekend, I was forced to. I went out of town and had no cell service. Zero. No Instagram, no email, no Google Maps, no calls or texts. Initially, I was anxious. What if we got lost? Everything was so pretty, I instantly wanted to upload every photo I took to Instagram.

But then I realized that was kind of insane, that the cut off was a good thing. I could upload photos later, we could always ask someone for directions. Despite what I often believe, my phone is not my life source. The world worked perfectly fine before mobiles or apps. And my urge to check for notifications abated.

It was the longest time in years that I had been offline. (Ok, so maybe I managed to get onto the hotel’s wifi a couple of times but it was very minimal and mainly for work!!) (And a quick check of Instagram, fine.) And, when I got back on Sunday, I naturally left my phone at home while I went out for an hour — something I would NEVER normally do.

So, maybe tuning out is all about practice? I’m going to try to do it for a few hours every weekend, when I know that I don’t have anything urgent that I’m waiting for. Do you ever try to do that, too?

Photo: Juergen Teller for Vogue UK

13 comments

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  • I do it on weekends, leave the cell off or in silence and go to another part of the house with a book or magazine. It ends the temptation of checking for notifications or updates every time!!! And I got to lose myself in some story for a while!!
    It takes practice, but it is good for the mind!!

  • I do it everyday at 10 PM, it’s scheduled!
    XOX, Gap.
    http://www.gaptoothedgirl.com

  • It’s difficult for me to disconnect, but when it happens (eg. in the mountains) it’s wonderful. My brother told me that he removed FB and Messenger apps from his iPhone to concentrate on his work (he’s writing a book and spends a lot of time doing research and I mean real library / files research, not google type of thing) and that it’s been surprisingly liberating.

  • I love your post Neada it’s sooooo true! We are totally hooked to our devices!
    And funny because I did the same thing last Saturday. I left my phone home and relaxed without staring at that crazy little despot!!! Thanks!!

    http://www.blushandbeyond.com/lifestyle-2/core-contour-a-new-fitness-studio-for-a-new-you/

    Bisous
    Alix

  • Fabienne April, 14 2015, 5:30 / Reply

    Tout le temps depuis 1 an ! A partir du vendredi soir 18h jusqu’au lundi matin 7H00. Le monde ne s’arrete pas de tourner sans nos telephones. Et le boulot c’est du lundi au vendredi !!!! Le week-end c’est de la lecture, du repos, et parler “en vrai” avec les amis. “Desintoxication totale” ! En fait je me suis rendue compte que je dormais mieux. Bon week-end…a l’ancienne

  • We recently went on a 3 day holiday to one of the islands in Malaysia, and that place had to internet, wifi nothing at all. Initially it was so unnerving but day 2 onwards, the environment and just the mere fact that we were so cut off kind of made us surrender and it was beautifully calming. Kind of calmness we haven’t experienced in a long time!

    http://imyownmuse.blogspot.com

  • I love yoga for tuning out! such a nice mental escape and it can be done anywhere!

    http://hashtagliz.com

  • Kimberly April, 14 2015, 7:33 / Reply

    I have started putting my phone to vibrate all the time. It helps to not grab it every time I get an alert and if I miss a call, its okay. I can always call back. I also try to have one day a week that I just ignore my phone completely. It makes you realize how much time you waste staring at your phone and not out living life!

  • I live in a small rural town in Queensland, Australia and often spend time without phone service (married to a grazier so spend a lot of time out in the paddocks) but the other day the ENTIRE TOWN lost signal for a day. We just dropped off the face of the earth. No calls, no internet – nothing from 6am to 4:30pm – even land lines were down… Took us back to the ‘old days’ anyway! But I also think it’s relaxing. They had a golf day in town and friends said it was a bit tragic how as soon as the signal came back, everyone was standing around the golf course on their phones – just trying to find out on what they missed in the world in less than 12 hours!

  • J’ai eu une expérience du genre l’année dernière. J’ai passé un voyage de 4 jours dans un train, à l’étranger. Qui dit étranger, dit pas de connexion de données sur le téléphone (ça coûte cher !), et qui dit train, dit pas de Wifi. J’étais donc totalement déconnectée. Si l’idée m’angoissait a-priori, a-postériori, j’ai adoré l’expérience. Ça m’a vraiment permis de me concentrer sur cette expérience en elle-même, sans être distraite par tout ce que je peux trouver en ligne. J’essaie du coup de temps en temps faire des “black-out”.

    Déjà, je coupe mon téléphone la nuit. Hors de question de me faire réveiller la nuit par une notification. En période “connectée”, j’annule ou je mute les notifications des apps non essentielles / des conversations de groupes non importantes, notamment pour pouvoir me concentrer sur mon travail (je ne coupe pas tout, il faut que je reste disponible pour mes clients).

    Et puis, on apprend petit à petit à relativiser. Hier soir, j’ai oublié mon téléphone au bureau. Tant pis ! Je me suis très bien portée sans (il faut reconnaître que ça tombait pile poil un soir ou je n’avais rien prévu, si ce n’est une soirée tranquille chez moi) – peut-être mon inconscient qui réclamait une pause ?

  • Une semaine au Maroc sans Internet! Cela m’a fait le plus grand bien. Je devrais d’ailleurs recommencer!

  • I’m going to need to practice! I’m going overseas to Portugal in July! :)

    Warm Regards,
    Alexandra
    http://www.littlewildheart.com

  • Je n’ai ni compte FaceBook, ni Instagram, ni Pinterest, juste un compte de courriel que je peux consulter depuis mon ordinateur seulement – parchoix.
    Avec les clients je pratique beaucoup le courriel et les rendez-vous téléphoniques. Je me suis en effet aperçue que bop sont comme moi, ils-elles n’aiment pas être dérangées. J’ai une boîte vocale, je rappelle toujours, mais au fond mon téléphone passe une bonne partie de son temps au fond de mon sac à main.
    Je déteste entendre les conversations téléphoniques de mes voisins de train/tram/restaurant, je ne vois donc aucune raison de leur imposer les miennes. Quant à la nuit, sauf si je suis en voyage, le téléphone n’a pas sa place dans ma chambre à coucher.
    Il n’est écrit nulle part que je doive être atteignable 24h/24. Comme me l’a dit un haut fonctionnaire local, 99 % des gens appellent pour demander quelque chose, il y a donc toutes les chances pour qu’ils rappellent ou laissent un message.

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