Thank you for indulging my need to get away from technology — almost all of it (OK, I watched a little TV and carried my cell phone to take calls and text…I couldn’t go completely cold turkey now, could I??!?). I’ve returned to the land of computers and am pleased to report that I’m plugged back in to what’s really important…

…balance.

Last Sunday, when I was supposed to be putting the computer and my email and facebook aside, I do believe I started to panic. What would I miss? I kept checking FB one…last…time and would catch myself “like” -ing different posts and thinking I was going to get busted for being online when I said I wasn’t.

Come on. Who really cares?

But it was this strange feeling — like I would fade into obscurity in a week. My friends would forget me. What if something important happened? What if someone needed me?

The ego is a funny fellow…

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t there life before email and cell phones, blogging and FB, chatting and texting? Weren’t there relationships? Other ways to connect? Communication by phone? Or, god forbid, in person?

As the week progressed and I suffered the DT’s while I weaned myself from the virtual ties that bind, I began to feel more free. More relaxed and calm and even. I began to remember that I had choices. That I was powerful. And that I had a responsibility for discernment.

A responsibility to myself to live my life. Not be led around by anything and everything that caught my eye.

There is so much information out there vying for our attention. And a considerable amount of information that we seek out. Ideas that are thought-provoking and encouraging discourse that challenges and inspires us. But in all of our searching and scanning and trolling, it’s easy to forget the responsibility we have to ourselves to limit our intake.

Perhaps we should view it the same as learning how to stop eating when we’re no longer hungry rather than continuing until we’re full. Or stuffed.

We are under no obligation to ingest every email or FB post or daily e-newsletter that show up, even if we’ve signed up for them. Even if we pass by that that co-worker’s desk with the full candy dish a hundred times per day, no one is making us take anything. Even if we fill our dinner plate to the rim because we thought we were hungry enough to eat it all, we don’t have to finish.

It should come as no surprise then to learn that I belong to the clean plate club. Hey, if I took too much food, I better find a way to eat it all because I wouldn’t want it to go to waste. Right?

Maybe that’s why I’m having so much trouble losing my “winter five” this year.

My portion control had gotten out of whack, in my regular diet and my e-diet alike. And once we’re out of balance in one part of our lives, chances are we’re out of balance across the board.

I had become a slave to the technology that was designed to save me time and make my life fuller and easier. By listening to my intuition and embarking on a week-long technology fast, I was able to recognize that the issue wasn’t the technology, per se, but that I had stopped exercising my power of choice.

What and how much we invite into our lives — whether in food, drink, technology, or even people — is important. We have the power of choice and discernment. All of these things of our lives will continue to seek our attention and bombard us because that’s the speed of our culture and the society we live in. It is a fact of life in this day and age.

And, it is up to us to take care of ourselves, because no one else will…or should, for that matter.

I am grateful for the conscious slowing down of the past week and for tapping into the joy of choosing again. Stepping into my power — our power.

When you’re feeling like it’s all too much, by all means, slow down. Stop. Listen. And do whatever it takes to bring yourself into balance again.

I’m glad I did.//