Disappearing off the Face of the Digital World

In trying to determine the shape of my sabbatical, I found myself overwhelmed by unbounded possibility. I essentially started with a blank sheet to design an interesting sabbatical and educational experience. On the surface of it, that seemed an amazing opportunity with tremendous freedom for creativity. However, the fact was, I was daunted by the task – compounded by my evident compulsion to keep options eternally available, for fear of making the wrong choice. Anyone who has witnessed my torment when presented with a restaurant menu, will know exactly what I mean.

So I decided, to help me work this one out, I needed coaching. An ever-helpful intervention, my coach supported me to work out some key ingredients – one of those ingredients was silence and meditation.

So here I am in Siem Reap, Cambodia about to embark on a Buddhist yoga retreat with added and exclusive, luxury, world-class beating, seven star digital detox!

I’ve been on a Christian retreat twice before, each involving a week of silence. I know what that’s like and I’m not daunted by that aspect of this anticipated experience - they also took place before the internet and mobile phones were even a thing. Rather, it’s the yoga and the digital detox where I may find myself more stretched – and I don’t just mean physically!

The yoga element is something all at the retreat are expected to enter into and at whatever level. As a complete novice, I’m just going to take it as it comes and apply myself as I can. It will be what it will be.

The digital detox however seems, at this point looking ahead, a much more challenging prospect. I’m known for loving my technology and gadgets. I’m literally all Appled up! I have the Apple iPhone and the Apple Watch and the Apple iPad Pro and the Apple MacBook air and the Apple AirPods pro and the Apple handheld microwave and tele-porter - go check their website!

So as you can tell, technology is all around me and I can easily and frequently access email, social media, news, banking, currency exchange, shopping, taxis, food delivery, etc. It’s the super efficiency of technology and the ability for instant and far reaching connectedness that I love. Being so far away from home right now, I can keep in touch with friends and family regularly. As a solo traveller, it helps me feel so much less alone.

So I’m interested to experience what it will be like as the retreat leaders confiscate my, I–feel–I–really–need–this–don’t-take-it-away-please, orchard and disconnect me from the digital world for the duration. To be honest, I think there is a part of me will be quite relaxed. I will have my journal, which I’m using right now and I’ll be left to my own thoughts. The capacity for connectedness to the digital world to distract me and make me lose focus is immense. So, I’m hoping the freedom from the tyranny of the cyber world is something I may even enjoy.

That being said, the feared sense of darkness penetrating every fibre of my being as the digital lights go out, plunging me into isolation and detachment, is what I’m most likely to be challenged with. I won’t know what’s going on in the world beyond what’s immediately in front of me and in my consciousness. I will be truly immersed in the here (not anywhere else) and now.

I’m remembering those bygone days when people didn’t even have a household telephone and instead many a telephone “party line” existed. Some of you are going to have to google that. Those were the days when communication was far from instant and very often by letter. We could never have imagined back then that communication could be so instant, vast in its reach and so global. But we managed back then and simply got on with it – just as I’m sure I will over the next week.

So I’m going to sign off now. Next time you hear from me – you’ll know of what this experience was really like – and so will I. (One scheduled post for tomorrow.)

Don’t message me meantime, I can’t reply, irrespective of my great desire to do so and the multiple means at my disposal (or not) by which I could.

Wish me well and I'll see you on the other side.