I’d always worked on Sundays, from the age of 14, being a chambermaid at a local hotel, right through to all my years of various retail shift work, I never got to experience the sweet bliss of a lazy Sunday morning. That is until I moved to Germany, where everything shuts down at the end of the weekend: no shops open, limited transport – it’s like a lazy Sunday is mandatory here, and what a heavenly thing it is. I take pride in my chilled out Sundays: I’m usually in my pyjamas all day, and I don’t leave the house unless it’s to go for a walk in the nearby forest – I’m making up for lost time! So in oder to really lean in to this week’s relaxing Sunday, I decided to try one of the big things in my list – a 24-hour digital detox.
Like most people, I admittedly spend too much time on my phone: Instagram, Twitter, and most of all, Whatsapp. Living in another country away from my family, it has become an essential to keep in touch. Sunday mornings is usually spent listening to Spotify, and there’s usually a cosy film in the evening – this was going to be hard.
Despite my apprehension, this was actually the most productive I’ve been in weeks: I caught up on a lot of the crafts and new things I wanted to repeat, I baked multiple times, I did some yoga, I practised juggling, and I read a bit of my book. It honestly felt great after a busy few weeks to take the pressure off and do whatever I fancied. I’m not going to lie though, there were times I really wanted to check my phone, and for stupid reasons too, like to see what the weather forecast was, or what was showing at the cinema that week. It was strange.
One of the biggest advantages I found, was listening to music. As I mentioned a while back, I have a record player and love listening to a record now and again, but there are many I haven’t listened to in a long time. During my digital detox, I longed for some music, especially whilst crafting and baking. I went through around 6 albums, everything from Queen Latifah to the Rolling Stones – it was brilliant.
Although it’s not something I’ll do every week, I will try and do it more and more, especially in an evening or weekend.
New Day, New Thing 