Stop, Drop, and Listen

10+ Things you can do right now, instead of picking up your phone and reading this.

There are so many things we can look to. Just Google it and it will fall in your lap via Google drone. All the answers at your fingertips. Each unanswered thought, unfinished sentence, actor’s name you cannot remember. It’s so beautiful. Share it. Maybe all the people you love will Like it. Who said that awesome thing again? Let me search…

Seeking life everywhere, I found it in the burn of my lungs. – Mark Nepo

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not hating on the mobile phones or the internet. I’m just working on a sustainable relationship with both worlds, the one in front of me and the one behind the screen.

The internet is amazing. How would I know how to make my chai from scratch? How could I not Yelp a yoga studio or Waze myself there? I just wish I could take a selfie video in class and hashtag #loveandlight #lookatmedoingyogaincoolpants #heartingthiskulasomuchrightnow #oopsIfartedinsarvangasanatohalasana. I’ll just cultivate my home practice on Yogaglo instead. Actually maybe I’ll just meditate, let me set an alarm for 8, well 7 minutes on my iPhone. But how could I not meditate without my guided meditations? Ooh this one’s great. Let me post this on Facebook real quick < 30mins pass > What’s this ice bucket thing…Man my hip was killing in pigeon I wonder what I could find out. Ooh let me share that. I wish I could go to India or Bali on one of these retreats. Maybe if I do this Costa Rica training I can finally press up into handstand or teach yoga someday. Wonder what flights are, let me just check Kayak…let’s see where I could stay…Airbnb…ooh Wish List! Oh wait let me put some more agave in this coconut chai. What a pretty color this chai is on this pretty morning, ooh let me just Instagram #homemadechaifromscratchlikeIlearnedinIndia #beautifulmornings #ohmmoments #namastegratitude…

Stop.

Next time the reflex happens, you know the one I mean, like when the doctor hits your knee and the foot lifts.

The mind fires and the hand reaches, for no actual reason, for the phone, laptop, tablet.

What’s the finish to this thought? It’s in the computer…

Just Stop.

What will you really find that you don’t have right here?

Do you really need to look, right now?

I find myself asking this question, phone already in hand. I’ve come a long way from looking at it after losing thirty minutes, forgetting why I picked it up in the first place.

The next time you blindly reach for that little temple in your palm, and you turn your face and your eyes away from all the beautiful things surrounding you in that moment; in order to capture it, make it better, or find something that will make for a more meaningful experience – stop. Just stop. Instead of reaching for it, pressing the button and waiting for reality to appear as the screen awakes, try this:

Stop.

Leave the phone / laptop / tablet where it is.

1. Look out the window, take 10 breaths.

2. Place both hands on the teacup, and just smell and drink your tea / coffee until it’s finished

without doing anything else.

3. Pet the dog.

If you have a cat, I cannot help you.

4. Grab the journal instead.

Write three pages, or doodle.

5. Do a half sun salutation

even if your toothbrush is in your mouth (be careful).

6. Close your eyes and go back to sleep

or just snuggle for 5 more minutes. At my house we have a rule: no phones in bed, it’s a tough one to keep but it helps to have the awareness.

7. At the red light, look at the faces of people in cars beside you, and not down at the phone in your lap.

Better yet, watch the light turn green, then fucking step on the gas and fucking go.

8. At the airport bar, ask the person beside you where they are headed

and about their trip. Enjoy the company of a stranger.

9. Look at the cashier in the eye and have a real conversation. Say thank you.

10. Just for this meal, please. Just smell the great plate of food in front of you,

think of how it got there, grown from the earth, picked by illegal immigrants, loved by a chef, and carried to your table by a single mom with two jobs and night school, and eat it already. Be grateful and share it with the person eating with you and not on Instacrack. Just for this meal.

11. At the party where you feel uncomfortable, tell someone your name

shake their hand, tell them it’s nice to met them.

12. Do a 360°, three times and look at the landscape before taking a picture

and sharing it. That way, all you’ll miss is the saturated color magic of golden hour, while you were hashtagging and Instapicframing the shit out of the sunset photo.

13. On the train or the bus, watch the world go by. It’s beautiful.

Everything you need is already right here.

Just stop, look, and listen.

Then, if it’s helpful, share all you want.