We turn on when we wake up, and are on our devices until we go to sleep.

I’m not immune to this. Very few people these days are.

And yet, there’s value in shutting everything down, so that we can reconnect with life. With people. With the moment. With ourselves.

As some of you may have noticed, I’ve been off (and offline) for a month. No tweets, no blogging, no Internet, and almost no mobile phone. I’ve been hiking a few hundred kilometres on the Camino de Santiago in the Basque Countries, and have enjoyed a taste of paragliding in Andalucia. Immersed in nature, and connected with people, with the moment, with myself gave me an energy burst that I will carry with me back to the Middle East.

Some claim there is no way they can take a digital sabbatical when on holiday. The truth is that for most people the fear of missing out (FOMO) is so pervasive, that leaving our smartphone/tablet/laptop behind is simply unconceivable. Which means that many people have a holiday without having a proper ‘break’.

After a long stretch of work in Palestine, and after a digital sabbatical, I’m even more convinced that there’s a time to work hard, and there should be a time to shut down. Otherwise, it all blends together and nothing has any space.

There’s no need to shut down for a month. It can be for a day or a week-end. You’ll get time to rest, read a book, sleep, ride a bike, and do all the fun stuff you read about on the Internet.

What time will you shut down today?

Enjoying the moment in the Basque Countries

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Inspired and adapted from Leo Babauta‘s uncopyrighted post The Time to Shut Down.