you already know (no I don't)

Ele perguntou-me o que eu queria para o natal. Eu disse nada, não preciso de nada, já tenho coisas a mais aliás. Depois pensei melhor e disse, por acaso há algo que eu queria, que quero todos os anos, que quero todos os dias.
Quero o mais ambicioso dos presentes, o mais difícil de todos, quero... tempo. Tempo para reflectir, tempo para pensar, tempo para parar, tempo para criar, tempo para achar que a vida não está a escorrer-me pelos dedos, tempo para arriscar, tempo para descobrir o que quero fazer desta vida preciosa, tempo para perder tempo, tempo para deixar de perder tempo.

He asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I said nothing, I don't need anything, I have more than I need anyway. Then I thought and said, actually there's something I want, something I want every year, something I want every day.
I want the most ambitious of the presents, the most difficult of all, I want... time. Time to reflect, time to think, time to stop, time to create, time to feel that life is not slipping through my fingers, time to dare, time to figure what I want to do with this precious life of mine, time to waste time, time to stop wasting time.

"Bolas, não podias querer um livro?" / "Damn, couldn't you ask for a book?"

E este video. / And this video.



Não temos para sempre. / We don´t get forever.

my one month experience without social media (and blogs)

I love the internet! It can be such an incredible source of inspiration, learning, sharing but it can also be a huge source of frustration (stop comparing your life to other's instagram!), distraction (do I really need to read about your make-up routine filled with advertising?). It's not a new subject that we are overwhelmed with information. Images, news, endless shares, bla bla bla there is simply too much noise. It's easy to blame "these times", "the internet" or "facebook" for feeling overwhelmed but in the end we are of course the only responsible for how much "information" we let enter our lives.

For some time I feared having a smartphone would make me obsessed with being connected 24/7 and whilst it isn't as serious as I expected, recently I started to feel uncomfortable about it. Taking care of a small baby keeps you busy whole day but also the day is filled with lots of snippets of "free" time (breastfeeding, naps, mat playtime etc) when the easiest is to simply reach for your phone and update your Instagram feed, your email inbox, your facebook wall, your blog feed, etc. I realised I was doing it much more than before and honestly it wasn't bringing any good to my life. I got frustrated with my facebook wall, I got bored with Instagram, I felt a pressure to share photos everyday but I didn't want to annoy everyone with boring baby pictures and I got overwhelmed with the amount of posts unread.

So I decided to experiment to cut back my media consumption and for the whole month of January do not check or update my Instagram account, my facebook wall and my blog feed (I use Feedly on phone and desktop) and here's my report from the trenches!

First... did I succeed? Yes but not really... I checked Facebook and Instagram maybe 3 or 4 times which I consider a great achievement but Feedly was a bit different story.

Facebook was very easy to loose interest and the addiction. The moment you stop feeding your wall the comments and likes disappear and other than keeping me updated with the life of friends who live far away from me it's mostly only distraction going on in there. Oh yes, and I forgot lots of birthdays too.
Instagram I thought I was going to miss but really I didn't! You go figure. It was also liberating to not feel the pressure to "share". I missed some people (whose feeds I devoured on February 1st!) and realised I didn't miss a lot of others that I promptly unfollowed.

Now Feedly, Feedly, I am such a blogs fan, I knew this would be the hardest! And... it was January when everyone posts about goals and motivation which I love. So I failed at completely avoiding blogs. The major reason for not succeeding in my blockage was that, these days, I mostly read my blog feeds while I'm breastfeeding and while I was able to replace the phone with a book during the day, at night and dawn when I can't turn on the light it is simply great to be able to read something instead of staring at the wall in the dark (a beautiful portray of motherhood, right?).

But! I introduced some new reading rules which helped me out. First I didn't have to read them all. There are loads of blog I follow which have some content I don't really care, for example DIY or some recipes so I would simply delete without reading. I know this sound utterly ridiculous but it was good to feel free not to read every single post that enters my feed. Second, no saving posts to read later. It was read now or delete. Some days I would just simply delete all the unread posts by the end of the day, so nice to have a fresh feed the morning after. Also be mindful of only reaching for the phone at night/dawn. During the day grab that book during a nursing session! With this it was still a massive reduction of time spent reading blogs.

And... how did it feel?
Great, so great! Much calmer, less anxious. Much less screen time so I guess my eyes thanked it as well. I read more (physical books), I wrote more and I thought more, instead of trying to fill every second of my existence with some bit of information. But what I was most surprised about was the calm and peace it brought into my mind.

What about now? Now, don't get me wrong, I still love Instagram, Facebook and reading blogs. And I don't plan in eliminating them completely. But this experience showed me it is good to limit the daily usage. So I'm only checking Facebook on the desktop maybe once every couple of days. I check Instagram only once, twice a day and don't feel the urge to update my feed. I'm still reading my blogs often but trying to limit the number of daily checks!
I really recommend giving this experiment a try if you're feeling overwhelmed with information.

Edit: Some further reading: http://joannagoddard.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/how-often-do-you-check-your-phone.html and where I got the inspiration for this experience: http://jasondoesstuff.com/social-media-detox-recap/

oh the places you'll go

Nice video of the old time favourite "oh, the places you'll go" by dr.seuss interpreted at the burning man. Via apple tree (who's going to burning man this year on her honeymoon! so cool!)

You can follow the text here. And below some excerpts that resonated with me...

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.
(...)

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

(...)

But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike
and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!