Life Without iPhone

I shattered my iPhone screen a week or two ago, and while I'm waiting for my cheapie replacement screen to  complete its long trip from China, I've been using the only back-up I could find... my phone from 2010 that, gasp, doesn't even have a data plan. 

No Instagramming the adorable pet moments and attractive meals I've experienced, no group iMessaging, no Googling on the go, no blingy apps to keep me occupied during the whole five minutes my dinner companion is in the restroom. 

I am more than a little ashamed of how incredibly attached I have become to technology. A mere three years ago, I was more than content to just sit alone at a table without scrolling through Facebook or making a move on Words with Friends, and I was elated to capture the spontaneous moment on my phone's 3-megapixel camera, without vintage filters and framing. I'm still able to call and text, and yet without all of the extras, I have still felt a bit like I'm missing a limb. However, yesterday, while waiting for a friend to arrive for happy hour, I updated my (paper) planner, and then I just sat there. I sipped my drink, I listened to the conversations around me, and then I had the company of my own thoughts until my friend arrived. And it was lovely. I have a suspicion that there is a link between my lack of iPhone and my increasing desire to daydream and think and write, and my increased quality of sleep may be due to the same. 

Is a few weeks enough time to break my tech addiction? I am in that state of half-hope, half-fear -- hope that I will be a bit more mindful of constantly grasping for my phone to check for new texts or social media updates and fear that I will just immediately Instagram my beaming smile into my now-functioning iPhone camera (#selfie) and immediately forget the lessons I've slowly been learning. For now, hope is winning. Here's to loosening the ties to technology and letting a little radio silence take over, for the good of my technology-pickled brain. 

Out of Practice.

I bought one of those e-coupon thingies the other week for a deal on an unlimited month at Mission Yoga.  I've been dying to get back in to yoga, as it has fallen by the wayside over the past months (year?).  In fact, a lot has fallen by the wayside, including this blog. In the place of clearing my mind by moving my body and writing,  I've filled far too much time with a lot of less-than-pleasant habits (obsessive worrying and other neurotic things that are too embarrassing to share, even with a blog that probably has no readers left).

So I'm trying to scratch and stretch my way back to the surface, out of the murkiness of uncertainty. The future is unpredictable. I am going to try my best to do what all yogis recommend -- live in the moment, clear my mind and set a positive intention. As I try to move my stiff body back into those  once-familiar poses, I hope it will also help clear the cobwebs from the creative corners of mind and help me have a more positive outlook on the day-to-day.

Namaste.