Look up Challenge Day 3

Intro Last week my good friend Allison posted on Instagram about a Look up Challenge she was doing. Dr. Katie Penry started The Look Up Challenge. It is a 7 day guided challenge and starts every 7 days.

Dr. Penry talks a lot about mom's and their interactions with their young children. So for you parents out there this is directed specifically to you. I do not have children and I still enjoyed listening to this podcast.

I struggle with social media and how I interact with it and the influence it has in my life so I decided to take the challenge.

DAY 3

Personal inventory

She asked us to ask some thought provoking question to both about ourselves and our interactions with others.

What do my posts say about me? What unmet needs to I have? How can I use my physical community more? Is there healing in my sharing?

Have others ever been hurt or felt neglected by my media use?

I know I have felt that way by others media use. Am I doing that to others? Relationships are my number one priority and if I am neglecting people that I am with for those that are on accessed through technology I need to make some changes.

There is a time and place for everything and I have enough alone time when I can interact with those that are at a distance that I need to connect with through my phone.

What if someone needs me? What if someone doesn’t need me?

She share a great quote by Brene Brown, who I have read extensively.

"I only share when I have no unmet needs that I am trying to fill. I firmly believe that being vulnerable with a larger audience is only a good idea if the healing is tied to the sharing, not to the expectations I might have for the response I get." Brene Brown

SOUNDS

Today as I made my mile walk to work and the mile back to my car I noticed sounds! With my awareness on my visual surroundings the auditory surroundings became so much more acute. There is a natural sound track/ a symphony of sounds.... if we stop and listen

I was really amazing to hear:

the myriad of different birds the sounds of students riding their bikes and skateboards across campus a distant siren and airplane I also heard the purr of car engines and tires on crackling on the gravel In one location that I walk past everyday I noticed the hum of the industrial air conditioners My favorite was the carillon bells ringing at some distant location on campus at 5:00pm as I was leaving my office

I stopped to capture the bird sounds with this video

Pictures

A few picture from my walk

https://photos.smugmug.com/Blog/Posts/i-DjCxB3M/0/ca01fd88/L/IMG_20190425_075643362_HDR-L.jpg	https://photos.smugmug.com/Blog/Posts/i-cnFW79V/0/152f5150/L/IMG_20190425_075710988-L.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Blog/Posts/i-Hjm9jb7/0/98b81d47/L/IMG_20190424_080515538_HDR-L.jpg	https://photos.smugmug.com/Blog/Posts/i-8mm43rJ/0/246330e1/L/IMG_20190425_075827943_HDR-L.jpg

Look Up Challenge posts Look Up Challenge Day 1 Look Up Challenge Day 2

I love this idea... and I am always for putting down one's phone and living in the real world, not listening to something through your earphones, talking aimlessly on the phone or been glued to it as you walk.

I turned my phone off a number of years ago... I love it. Best thing I did. I started realising that I would run to it when it made a sound - call or text. I never had apps, not social media ones on my phone. Then it dawned on me... why do I stop what I'm doing when I'm busy to check my phone just because it made a sound. And how many messages aren't important... I would say most of them. It was then I decided to take back my life, my time, the things important to me and stop responding to every sound. I made an effort to not answer or look until I was ready, after I had finished doing what I was doing etc and sometimes that could be hours later.

I started to like it, I was getting my life back, more of my time back. My use dropped so low that I decided to just switch it off. People ask me how I cope without a phone, I now respond perfectly well, better than most I would say. : )