Sooooo……  I have decided to take the plunge and integrate a big part of the camping experience into my life.  We already spend a lot of the day outside in the park, hiking in local natural areas,  playing in our garden and don’t have a T.V. so our family, including our 2 1/2 year old, is mostly electronics free for recreation.  After a  day either at work or play and once the kid is in bed I have gotten into the habit of watching a part of a movie or You Tube videos before I go to sleep.  Now it is probably less than the average for screen time but it does take away time from connecting with my wife, extended family, neighbours and friends, keeps me up longer than I should be and likely over excites my brain before bedtime.

Soooo…. tonight the universe conspired to create a situation where I was able to take the plunge.  Since a recent basement reno adversely affected airflow to our second floor, my wife and kid sleep on the main floor when it is really hot.  Tonight was one of those nights.  I was going to go into the basement as I often do to eat, check email, play a game of online chess and maybe watch a bit of a movie but my son intervened.  He insisted on following me everywhere rather than going to bed.  He can now open the back door so my wife said to go outside and lock the door but that was not my plan, would involve me getting a key to let myself back in later and just a general hassle.  After a frustrated exchange with my wife who was tired and sick as we all were I grabbed the keys, a book, my dinner and went out to the deck.

I sat down with my dinner,started reading and was immediately reminded of sitting outside  at a cottage or campsite eating, reading a book, surrounded by nature and feeling really good.  Then I started feeling good,  like I was on vacation and just by simply walking out on the deck.  We often eat out on the deck or back yard picnic table but I am not always as conscious of the calming effects of our surroundings as I would like to be and I resolve to try and be more aware.

In addition, I am committing to avoiding games, videos, radio and movies on the computer, especially in the evening.  Instead I resolve to spend more time with my wife, visit a neighbour, work on a project, read, write, practice an instrument, learn another language, increase my self care time and go to bed shortly after sunset (and to rise with the sun in the morning).

 

Tonight after eating, instead of heading to the basement I stayed outside until dusk tying and hanging the lavender I harvested from our garden then came in to write this blog. It’s 10:00 pm and I’m heading to bed.  I’ll keep you posted on how no recreational electronics and a more natural daily rhythm goes.

Update July 13, 2016

So a little update on my progress on this project to date. It took me a couple weeks working up to this but last night finally went all in and after putting kid to bed, tidied up the kitchen, took a bath and went to bed just after sunset (around 9:30pm). I had been doing pretty well until then but was still needing an hour of screen time (that I seem to have been addicted to) which was making my bed time way too late. So it was up at 6:00am today and gettin’ at ‘er! Gonna try and keep this rock rolling. Shocking how addicted I have become to distracting myself with visual and audio noise.