Friday night I got suckered into a facebook argument about free speech with someone I didn’t know.  As the argument continued I realized I was getting really angry with this person and yet the only connection I had with him was he was a friend of one of my neighbors.  I wondered “why am I letting a perfect stranger affect my mood?”

And that was when I decided to go on a mini-facebook cleanse.  I say “mini” because truth be told I still responded to direct messages on facebook.  But I have not looked at my newsfeed since Friday night.

I’m a huge fan of facebook.  I have friends all around the world and their photos and travels light me up and give me a sense of what is going on in the world around me.  But I’m starting to think my interest in the world “out there” is starting to trump the world I’m actually living in.  So with the weather here being literally PERFECT (Sunny and in the ’70’s) I thought it is far better to pay attention to my world, the world I live in and take a day or two off from my friends on the internet.  I know my “likes” won’t be missed!

So what did I do during my cleanse?  I went to the farmers market and didn’t check in or post one photo.  I read a book that I am loving and didn’t feel the need to check in about it.  We watched tzerohe LEGO movie as a family and was not once distracted by my phone “lighting up.”

I know for many of you this is impossible.  So many people are now checking their work email 24/7 and this kind of cleanse would be reputation ending.  But with so much going on about the word “mindfulness” it might benefit you to unplug for just one hour and be mindful of where you live and the people you are spending time with instead of the people around the globe.

Maya Angelou’s last tweet was “Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.”  I’m hoping that voice can get a little louder now that I’m turning the volume of everything else down to zero.