Day 12 of Social Media Sabbatical

Sunday has arrived….St. Patrick’s Day at that…..and day twelve of my sabbatical from all forms of social media.  This morning I awoke and checked my stats on WordPress and noticed there were zero views.  I thought perhaps FB was down again, it being my main referral page.  I even considered that WordPress was having issues or was down for maintenance.  A quick check showed neither was the case.  I went and ran a few errands and returned to see one viewer had seen four posts, so figured it was just a slow start to the day.

I will be the first to admit that I have an addiction to social media.  Twelve days going without access has shown me how much of waking day was being taken up by checking in on the different platforms and scrolling their pages.  I still check my email quite frequently and also check my WordPress stats several times per day, but those two take a minimal amount of time.  There’s quite a chunk of time that would be spent on social media that has been freed up.

I’ve done a lot more writing in my journal these past two weeks.  I’ve also focused a bit more on reading blogs on WP and checking out news websites.  I don’t consider YouTube to be true social media, so I’ve viewed more than my share of videos of different sorts there.

I need to take a more serious approach to housework, that is for certain.  There’s a lot of the time that I would be spending on social media that I could be using to get things in order around the house.  But for some unknown reason, I find this so difficult to get started on.  And I’m not willing to accept the excuse that “I’m a guy and that’s just the way guys tend to be.”

I have done quite a bit of grading student work already this weekend.  I still need to do my lesson plans for the week and make out detailed plans for a substitute that will be teaching my class on Tuesday of this upcoming week.  I think it’s easy to say that a teacher’s work is never completely done.  There’s always something else that I could be doing in that area.

I will be logging on to social media again on April 25th, Easter Sunday.  That’s five more weeks of my hiatus and I wish I could say it’s going to get easier as time goes on, but that remains to be seen.  Such is the nature of the beast.

David Lee

Daily Readings for Sunday, March 17th

 

24 Hours a Day

Meditation for the Day

Withdraw into the calm of communion with God. Rest in that calm and peace. When the soul finds its home of rest in God, then it is that real life begins. Only when you are calm and serene can you do good work. Emotional upsets make you useless. The eternal life is calmness and when you enter into that, then you live as an eternal being. Calmness is based on complete trust in God. Nothing in this world can separate you from the love of God.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may wear the world like a loose garment. I pray that I may keep serene at the center of my being.

Language of Letting Go 

Empowering

You can think. You can feel. You can solve your problems. You can take care of yourself.

Those words have often benefited me more than the most profound and elaborate advice.

How easy it is to fall into the trap of doubting others and ourselves.

When someone tells us about a problem, what is our reaction? Do we believe we need to solve it for the person? Do we believe that that person’s future rests on our ability to advise him or her? That’s standing on shaky ground – not the stuff of which recovery is made.

When someone is struggling through a feeling, or a morass of feelings, what is our reaction? That the person will never survive that experience? That it’s not okay for someone to feel? That he or she will never get through this intact?

When a person is faced with the task of assuming responsibility for their life and behaviors, what is our response? That the person can’t do that? I must do it myself to save him or her from dissipating into ashes? From crumbling? From failing?

What is our reaction to ourselves when we encounter a problem, a feeling, or when we face the prospect of assuming responsibility for ourselves?

Do we believe in others and ourselves? Do we give power to people – including ourselves – and their abilities? Or do we give the power to the problem, the feeling, or the irresponsibility?

We can learn to check ourselves out. We can learn to think, and consider our response, before we respond. “I’m sorry you’re having that problem. I know you can figure out a solution. Sounds like you’ve got some feelings going on. I know you’ll work through them and come out on the other side.”

Each of us is responsible for ourselves. That does not mean we don’t care. It does not mean a cold, calculated withdrawal of our support from others. It means we learn to love and support people in ways that work. It means we learn to love and support ourselves in ways that work. It means that we connect with friends who love and support us in ways that work.

To believe in people, to believe in each persons inherent ability to think, feel, solve problems, and take care of themselves is a great gift we can give and receive from others.

Today, I will strive to give and receive support that is pure and empowering. I will work at believing in myself and others – and our mutual abilities to be competent at dealing with feelings, solving problems, and taking responsibility for ourselves.

Daily Readings for Saturday, March 16th

24 Hours a Day

Meditation for the Day

I must have a singleness of purpose to do my part in God’s work. I must not let material distractions interfere with my job of improving personal relation ships. It is easy to become distracted by material affairs, so that I lose my singleness of purpose. I do not have time to be concerned about the multifarious concerns of the world. I must concentrate and specialize on what I can do best.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may not become distracted by material affairs. I pray that I may concentrate on doing what I can do best.

 

Language of Letting Go

Positive Energy

It’s so easy to look around and notice what’s wrong.

It takes practice to see what’s right.

Many of us have lived around negativity for years. We’ve become skilled at labeling what’s wrong with other people, our life, our work, our day, our relationships, our conduct, our recovery, and ourselves.

We want to be realistic, and our goal is to identify and accept reality. However, this is often not our intent when we practice negativity. The purpose of negativity is usually annihilation.

Negative thinking empowers the problem. It takes us out of harmony. Negative energy sabotages and destroys. It has a powerful life of its own.

So does positive energy. Each day, we can ask what’s right, what’s good – about other people, our life, our work, our day, our relationships, ourselves, our conduct, our recovery.

Positive energy heals, conducts love, and transforms. Choose positive energy.

Today, God help me let go of negativity. Transform my beliefs and thinking, at the core, from negative to positive. Put me in harmony with the good.