PERSONAL & RELATIONSHIPS
Digital Detox: Cabin In The Woods
One week without wifi
--
Offline mode
- Silence
- No incoming mails
- Fresh mountain air
- A lot of snow
- Time to read books on paper
- Fire in a stove
- Quality time with my kid
Even a week without Medium and all of you. So I’ll read more Medium articles once I’m back, for sure. But I’m enjoying the time without, I have to admit, even if I miss the work of my fellow writers.
It wasn’t a 100 percent experience without the internet or even a mobile phone, as I had a few years earlier in a monastery. I will write about that experience soon.
My relationship and other obstacles
My relationship with my husband is non-existent, so to speak. We’re still married, but that’s about it. It doesn’t fit anymore, probably never has, and a divorce is becoming inevitable.
Nevertheless, I want to spend the time we still live under one roof with our child.
He was also against me traveling alone with our child. That’s why I booked a big cabin in the mountains of Austria, with 4 bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, a dining room with a stove, and a small kitchen.
This way, we could spend time with our child and still stay out of each other’s way and avoid arguments as much as possible.
Due to Corona, our vacation could not take place last year, and I had to cancel our plans. This year, we were able to enter Austria thanks to double vaccination and PCR tests.
Activities
The only social media I had on the mountain that week: a few WhatsApp messages.
But I didn’t even have my mobile phone with me the whole time, so that was limited, too.
Besides that, I only used my phone in offline mode to take photos (I took several hundred, as this is my hobby and the area is so beautiful) and to make notes for poems and other articles.
I even left my Kindle at home and borrowed some books from the cabin. I didn’t use my laptop at all that week.
This was admittedly the hardest thing to do since I usually use my laptop all day for both personal and business purposes.
We spent a lot of time outside in nature during the week:
- sledding
- walking
- hiking
- building snowmen
…and also inside reading a lot.
We made some trips to beautiful Austrian villages, to an alpine hut, a farm with a newborn calf, and some sightseeing locations, like the kind of creepy ovens from steel production back in World War II.
You can see this in the following picture. It was huge and impressive.
Life Lessons
I had a good time because of the location, the big cabin, the weather and snow, and mostly because my kid had so much fun.
The cottage is in a secluded mountain location over 1000 meters above sea level, with snow guaranteed. Our child is just under three years old and had experienced a bit of snow, but we live in Germany in a flatter area, and there is rarely snow.
Therefore, I wanted our little one to properly play and go sledding in the snow.
The area was great, and we had nice weather and fun activities. Nevertheless, I can't wait to spend time with my kid next time without her dad.
I learned or was reminded of what’s most important to me:
- my kid and in general people I like to spend time with
- avoiding people that are bad for me
- being myself
- a stress-free surrounding
- me-time
- taking some time off from time to time
- being outside
Join with my link to get full access to all stories on Medium!About Me — Iris B. Stehn ▪ Twitter ▪ Facebook
