Opting Out

Are you like me and too much noise, activity and information hurts your head? A friend who also happens to have a PhD in neuropsychology tells me this means I’m an introvert :)

The farther I get into this mothering journey, the more I realize it requires my full attention to have things go smoothly. A common theme the past couple of years has been simplification in many areas, and I find that the less we have, the less I have to manage/think about/care for/clean up.

This not only goes for the physical things we consume, but also the information we consume. Call me a bad citizen, but I really just don’t care what’s going on in the world right now. My world is my family, friends and community, and my theory is that if I do my part to raise good citizens, it will have a ripple effect because everything starts in the home, yes?

I’ve somehow amassed way too many e-mail subscriptions, blogs I follow, and people I follow on social media. Too much information taking up valuable space in my head. The task of the week has been to UNSUBSCRIBE. There are phases in life where we subscribe to as many things we can, volunteer for as many things as we can, consume as much as we can. And then there are phases where we pare down, simplify, make room for other things.

It has been so freeing to open my e-mail in the morning (or afternoon, or night—whenever I get around to it for the day, ha) and only have a couple e-mails that are usually from actual people that I will actually open! And maybe even respond to! Why was I spending all this time deleting marketing e-mails that I didn’t even read? And worse yet, sometimes falling into their trap and buying things I hadn’t intended to because they were on sale? In the afternoon when the girls go down for their nap, I have a few precious moments of quiet that I usually use to quickly catch up on my phone and then squeeze in a nap if I can. Now more of this time can be spent catching up on the things I actually want to do (or usually just take a longer nap!).

When Eloise was a baby I felt so anxious during her naptime. I would race around the house at lightning speed, trying to make the most of every moment, and sometimes even concoct things for myself to do to fill the time. When Amelia came along, I’d like to think I got a little bit wiser, and now I consider a day in which I don’t nap a wasted day :)

If you feel bombarded by information, I would highly recommend this exercise of unsubscribing and feel the little bit of clarity it brings! And the best benefit of all--opting out of technology means opting in to way better things, like porch picnics with my babies!