I have similar feelings that I can compare to my passion for music. I can hear a song that triggers an emotional response because of something in my life that makes me feel the connection. I particularly like artists who break musical rules, which points me back to The Beatles. I am a first generation Beatles fan, and I am learning to play some of their music. They often took the road less traveled, and broke music theory rules all the time. Whenever I need a shot of joy in my life, I go back and listen to the first song they played on American television - All My Loving. The joy is palpable, and takes my mind off of the news and social media noise. Running did that for me too. My distance running days are over because of a condition in my knee. I miss it terribly, but I have been truly blessed with 10 years of training and racing, along with the countless friends I have made along the way. Music gives me the same kind of joy.
Count me in! I have only one newsletter I get and that is yours. I'm not on Social Media. Never have been a junkie. As of this week, I've decided the computer and news go off after I check my email, which is very little. Time to take off the digital blinders and go on a new adventure!
Oh boy, don't they ever! You should see my daughter if she has to reset the modem! Pouts for the 15 minutes it takes for the internet to come back online! They really freakout when the power goes off. . .I have to laugh. . .and she grew up ( only 34 ) not having power and the internet. :)
Not a fan either when the power goes off. Can you imagine if we got got hit by a huge solar flare and lost all in internet and cell service ? I think back to when I was a kid... fishing would sound like something I might like to take up again...
I've imagined it and could live without it. We didn't have a phone in the 50s. We did have power, and that was a blessing; however in the 90s when we built an adobe in Utah, I learned to live without it. . .fun and games. . .but I learned to love power and running water! :) Fishing is a good hobby. Seems my Dad took us out quite a bit in the Sierras to do creek fishing. One of my fond summer memories.!
I came from a large family. I had 5 b brothers and 4 sisters. We learned to be the ones we could always rely on. Nothing has changed. What's the phrase, if you can't count on family, who can you count on?
Bigger than mine! I have 3 brothers and 2 other sisters. I still can count on 2 of my brothers. ( the other one is a fink!). The one sister has a life of her own and the other one, who got along with me well, passed a way a number of years ago from cancer.
2 of my brothers call or text me every day--specially my older one who religiously calls every day at 6:30 PM. Wouldn't know what to do without him!
Not sure if it was my age or some spidey sense - red flags was all I saw going well back in time. My day job is in corp America and I have Human Resources responsibilities. Knowing,, from the inside, how a company might be able to misuse information found from a cursory search on social media platforms was all I needed to know about social media. Flashing red lights - stay away…. I have no idea of what I may have missed all these years. I have no FOMO. I also have been spared all the falsely curated lives of people posting. My actual friends share in real time. Actual family invite me to dinner. Colleagues and such pick up the phone. In this age of diluted communications I have opted to travel to see friends and share in their lives - often around a race or a business trip. I fully encourage disengaging from the artifice of the digital world and gleefully diving deep back into the tangible world where you can look someone in the eyes and see their smiles or even frowns - vs. all the jibber jabber on these platforms. Terrell, I cannot recall what the impetus may have been for me to subscribe to the blog. I am happy I did. It’s granular and thoughtful. And I appreciate the content and the intent of your efforts. More of these sort of exchanges and less of facebook, or insta, or twitter…. As we have been learning over months - the algo’s are nefarious in their objective and the platforms don’t care about much except selling your information. Life is really quite bountiful in the actual space vs the virtual.
I'm totally in. Something you said a couple weeks ago stuck in my mind. You talked about how Instagram was, essentially, boring. I knew I checked it compulsively and got diminishing returns (if any returns), but something about thinking of it as plainly as that -- boring -- was really effective. (I have this whole other side monologue about how something similar happened when I stopped drinking -- like a lot happened but ultimately some part of me realized that my drinking was just ... boring. It was making my life repetitive and boring.) Anyway, with social media I did this goofy thing where I dragged the Instagram icon to the last page of my apps, to see if making it marginally harder to open would have any effect. It didn't at first, but then it did and now I'm rarely checking it, and I find I don't miss it at all. So I feel totally primed to make a leap.
I totally hear you, on all of that. (Drinking for me now is starting to feel that way, but that's another topic...) I have tried deleting Twitter from my phone -- Twitter is my social media "drug of choice" -- and it's sorta worked, sorta not. (I keep re-installing it.) But I've made that mental shift too, now, I think I'm finally internalizing the fact that this thing just isn't doing me any good at all, in fact all it's doing is making me feel lousy all the time. I think it's just part of the water we swim in now, so it took me a while to figure out why I was feeling down a lot. And then it dawned on me that I'm constantly bombarding my mind with depressing stuff! Or at least things that can get you really down. (Mostly news-related things.) I think I didn't want to admit that, just because I'd worked in journalism so long in previous years, and thought there's nothing harmful about keeping up with all of this. But down deep, it was getting harder to deny. Glad I'm not alone! :)
Some people I know can't live without social media. I made the mistake of mailing a commit that was kind of brutal but it was what I thought about some politicians and what was going on at the time. Can you say UGLY REPLIES! I ended up not going back on Face Book for months! I still only go ion it when my wife says to look at my account. You used to be able to have your opinion but no more. If you don't think the way that they do, God help you!
Hell, I don't really care because I got my booster shot the other day and feel a lot better about my chances of making it through this craziness.
Yes. I am going to do this. I just spent two weeks visiting family and barely looked at my phone or the news. It felt so good. I'm going to take it a day at a time.
I stop watching the news when there isn't anything good in it. When did the politicians stop working for us instead of the party they represent? Vote them all out and lets try it again.
New Years resolution for 2019. Did the gum for a couple years. Now I smoke a cigar every so often. Probably too often but I gotta have some sort of vice lol.
Ha ha! I smoked as a social smoker when I was 22 at UNR. . . Players from Canada, no less! I had a girlfriend who smoked cigars and we would smoke them together when the trains passed by in downtown Reno, NV. Ah, those were the days!
I tell you, though, I was never so glad to give up smoking and drinking. . . both left a terrible taste in my mouth, so it was easy! Now, the cashews I can understand, but only a few. . . :)
Thanks. Oh! I think it's for ever! I still contemplate having one when I'm having a glass of wine or a beer after all these years. All I have to do us to think about my next running 😃
YES! I am up for joining you. I think we are not really aware of the emotional roller coaster social media takes us on. It will be interesting to see if I can tell the difference in my mood, patience, contentedness. Looking forward to it. Thanks for the challenge and for articulating the importance of this challenge so well.
As I finished writing my Instagram post for tomorrow morning (where I talk about pulling back from social) your newsletter was delivered! And your headline made me read it right away. So, yes, I'm totally with you Terrell! After I post tomorrow, of course. Haha. I mention you in it so thank you in advance for the additional inspiration to "turn it off". And, I feel like my mind is a lot like a squirrel...
I think this is one of the reasons my running is so important to me. I live and run in the country. Nature is my music. It's that reconnecting with your own thoughts and the environment around me.
Loved this reminder. Count me in too! I intentionally disconnect from my phone, news and social media at times and would like to do so even more. During these times it is easier to be in the present, enjoying the people and places actually in my life. I find the more time I spend off my phone and off social media the more vibrant my own life becomes. I focus on living; instead of observing, looking down at my device or comparing to others. Time much better spent :)
I so, so agree, Melissa. We have to just have the strength to log off/put the phone down, and until we do, we can't see it. But when we do, it's so worth it.
Our gift of life is meant to be experienced directly with all five senses and more. Our culture has us living it vicariously. We have subcontracted our experience of life to bits & bytes. Runners are not spectators. We have chosen to take the road less traveled. Never give up your freedom to live the life you choose. Just make sure you choose it and not some algorithm!!!!!
P.S. I knew the Orlean family many years ago in Cleveland. They were so interesting, unpretentious and always ready for the next adventure!
P.P.S. Suggestion… start a Sunrise tribe in your neighborhood. Meet up at Sunrise each day and run with your tribe. You won’t regret honoring the commitment and connecting with people who love what you love.
Clark, these are such wise words -- and what an amazing coincidence that you knew the Orleans when she was growing up in Cleveland!! How crazy is that?! What a small world.
Thanks Terrell. My wife, Sharon and I played doubles tennis from time to time with Susan’s brilliant & wonderful parents. We knew their son ( David, if memory serves) who was an excellent tennis player. Never had the pleasure of meeting Susan but look forward to reading all her books.
Thanks Terrell for introducing such an important topic. As I round third and start my journey “home “ it amazes me how the moments I lived mindfully are the ones that continue to fuel my journey. Anything that distracts from truly living in the present now will make that journey home less satisfying in the future. We, I believe, are not only what we eat but more importantly, what we think and feel. The more the mind and heart can be in synch the more meaningful life can be. Instead of looking out the rear view mirror for what are distracted minds have missed, mindfulness keeps you in the driver’s seat experiencing every mile on the trip. And since it’s the only trip I am aware of, I better “be there” for all of it. I don’t think there will be any “mulligans”.
Btw, I recently heard that the Chinese and Japanese have but one word for both heart & mind. If true, I find that very compelling.
You are very kind. I am glad you enjoyed my thoughts. Btw, I love the smiling image of your child on your shoulders. I am sure you are a very loving Husband & Dad.
I will now turn off the lights, and smile as I think of our precious adult children and grandchildren. My wife & I are truly blessed…
Social media fries my poor brain. I don't even do Instagram, twitter, etc, but Facebook and emails are still enough to send me overboard! I don't watch TV or even listen to music or podcasts while I run. It seems like just too much chatter! Wish I could get off all devices, especially the phone, which accompanies the vast majority of us day and night. Remember those days when we really could "get away from it all"?
When I go out for a pleasure run, I listen to books on tape I have on my A[pple phone. So with buds in my ears, I run the streets and experience places and things I never will.. I do however would like to visit Nantucket .. I've listen to four books about it and this fall I plan a trip to the island.
Years ago I signed up for Facebook to get some photos from a half marathon I’d run. I then forgot about it (except for all these friend invites which I never responded to (apologies to all my friends)). Then I lost my password. Then I moved and closed that email account. And that’s been that. No Facebook. No social media. No distractions. Whew!
How do you live without it? L.O.L. only kidding... my wife goes on it and tells me what i'm missing... it isn't much except for what the kids are doing up in Minnesota.. I stay in contact with something called a cell phone... I'd rather talk to them than read what they write..
I have similar feelings that I can compare to my passion for music. I can hear a song that triggers an emotional response because of something in my life that makes me feel the connection. I particularly like artists who break musical rules, which points me back to The Beatles. I am a first generation Beatles fan, and I am learning to play some of their music. They often took the road less traveled, and broke music theory rules all the time. Whenever I need a shot of joy in my life, I go back and listen to the first song they played on American television - All My Loving. The joy is palpable, and takes my mind off of the news and social media noise. Running did that for me too. My distance running days are over because of a condition in my knee. I miss it terribly, but I have been truly blessed with 10 years of training and racing, along with the countless friends I have made along the way. Music gives me the same kind of joy.
I love hearing that, Gene! Music is that for me, too.
Count me in! I have only one newsletter I get and that is yours. I'm not on Social Media. Never have been a junkie. As of this week, I've decided the computer and news go off after I check my email, which is very little. Time to take off the digital blinders and go on a new adventure!
I feel honored by that, Nilima!
Your newsletter and thoughts are simply the best. SO apropos. I couldn't live without them! :)
I agree! also, the only one I get...
It's worth it!
Don't take this the wrong way... but you have to be older that 55... My kids go through withdraws when the internet is down ...
Oh boy, don't they ever! You should see my daughter if she has to reset the modem! Pouts for the 15 minutes it takes for the internet to come back online! They really freakout when the power goes off. . .I have to laugh. . .and she grew up ( only 34 ) not having power and the internet. :)
Not a fan either when the power goes off. Can you imagine if we got got hit by a huge solar flare and lost all in internet and cell service ? I think back to when I was a kid... fishing would sound like something I might like to take up again...
I've imagined it and could live without it. We didn't have a phone in the 50s. We did have power, and that was a blessing; however in the 90s when we built an adobe in Utah, I learned to live without it. . .fun and games. . .but I learned to love power and running water! :) Fishing is a good hobby. Seems my Dad took us out quite a bit in the Sierras to do creek fishing. One of my fond summer memories.!
I came from a large family. I had 5 b brothers and 4 sisters. We learned to be the ones we could always rely on. Nothing has changed. What's the phrase, if you can't count on family, who can you count on?
Bigger than mine! I have 3 brothers and 2 other sisters. I still can count on 2 of my brothers. ( the other one is a fink!). The one sister has a life of her own and the other one, who got along with me well, passed a way a number of years ago from cancer.
2 of my brothers call or text me every day--specially my older one who religiously calls every day at 6:30 PM. Wouldn't know what to do without him!
Not sure if it was my age or some spidey sense - red flags was all I saw going well back in time. My day job is in corp America and I have Human Resources responsibilities. Knowing,, from the inside, how a company might be able to misuse information found from a cursory search on social media platforms was all I needed to know about social media. Flashing red lights - stay away…. I have no idea of what I may have missed all these years. I have no FOMO. I also have been spared all the falsely curated lives of people posting. My actual friends share in real time. Actual family invite me to dinner. Colleagues and such pick up the phone. In this age of diluted communications I have opted to travel to see friends and share in their lives - often around a race or a business trip. I fully encourage disengaging from the artifice of the digital world and gleefully diving deep back into the tangible world where you can look someone in the eyes and see their smiles or even frowns - vs. all the jibber jabber on these platforms. Terrell, I cannot recall what the impetus may have been for me to subscribe to the blog. I am happy I did. It’s granular and thoughtful. And I appreciate the content and the intent of your efforts. More of these sort of exchanges and less of facebook, or insta, or twitter…. As we have been learning over months - the algo’s are nefarious in their objective and the platforms don’t care about much except selling your information. Life is really quite bountiful in the actual space vs the virtual.
Thank you so much, John -- this is so insightful and wise. I'm going to come back to it, I know, again and again.
Love the thought! Gonna try, easier for me than most [I think] as I see it all days wit my students an, continually, tell them somewhat similar...
I'm totally in. Something you said a couple weeks ago stuck in my mind. You talked about how Instagram was, essentially, boring. I knew I checked it compulsively and got diminishing returns (if any returns), but something about thinking of it as plainly as that -- boring -- was really effective. (I have this whole other side monologue about how something similar happened when I stopped drinking -- like a lot happened but ultimately some part of me realized that my drinking was just ... boring. It was making my life repetitive and boring.) Anyway, with social media I did this goofy thing where I dragged the Instagram icon to the last page of my apps, to see if making it marginally harder to open would have any effect. It didn't at first, but then it did and now I'm rarely checking it, and I find I don't miss it at all. So I feel totally primed to make a leap.
I totally hear you, on all of that. (Drinking for me now is starting to feel that way, but that's another topic...) I have tried deleting Twitter from my phone -- Twitter is my social media "drug of choice" -- and it's sorta worked, sorta not. (I keep re-installing it.) But I've made that mental shift too, now, I think I'm finally internalizing the fact that this thing just isn't doing me any good at all, in fact all it's doing is making me feel lousy all the time. I think it's just part of the water we swim in now, so it took me a while to figure out why I was feeling down a lot. And then it dawned on me that I'm constantly bombarding my mind with depressing stuff! Or at least things that can get you really down. (Mostly news-related things.) I think I didn't want to admit that, just because I'd worked in journalism so long in previous years, and thought there's nothing harmful about keeping up with all of this. But down deep, it was getting harder to deny. Glad I'm not alone! :)
Some people I know can't live without social media. I made the mistake of mailing a commit that was kind of brutal but it was what I thought about some politicians and what was going on at the time. Can you say UGLY REPLIES! I ended up not going back on Face Book for months! I still only go ion it when my wife says to look at my account. You used to be able to have your opinion but no more. If you don't think the way that they do, God help you!
Hell, I don't really care because I got my booster shot the other day and feel a lot better about my chances of making it through this craziness.
Yes. I am going to do this. I just spent two weeks visiting family and barely looked at my phone or the news. It felt so good. I'm going to take it a day at a time.
You are my role model, Betsy! I love hearing that, from someone who's seen the other side :)
I stop watching the news when there isn't anything good in it. When did the politicians stop working for us instead of the party they represent? Vote them all out and lets try it again.
Great stuff. I never realized how different it is to search for something that interests you vs. having the algorithm pick it for you.
I remember when I quit smoking I couldn't stop eating cashews because they tasted so good. Thanks again brother.
How long ago did you quit? I'm sure it was tough -- big props right back at you!
New Years resolution for 2019. Did the gum for a couple years. Now I smoke a cigar every so often. Probably too often but I gotta have some sort of vice lol.
Ha ha! I smoked as a social smoker when I was 22 at UNR. . . Players from Canada, no less! I had a girlfriend who smoked cigars and we would smoke them together when the trains passed by in downtown Reno, NV. Ah, those were the days!
I tell you, though, I was never so glad to give up smoking and drinking. . . both left a terrible taste in my mouth, so it was easy! Now, the cashews I can understand, but only a few. . . :)
Congrats on quitting!. I also quit years so I could run.
It's been great addiction!😀
I agree... I have asthma and if I'm going to die, it'll be because I tried to set a new worlds record in a race for over 70 year olds.....
Congrats to you guys as well. Can't say I miss cigarettes but every once in a while on a Saturday morning with my coffee I will fantasize.
Thanks. Oh! I think it's for ever! I still contemplate having one when I'm having a glass of wine or a beer after all these years. All I have to do us to think about my next running 😃
I had to stay away from coffee and alcohol when i quit...
When I quit... it was ice cream...
YES! I am up for joining you. I think we are not really aware of the emotional roller coaster social media takes us on. It will be interesting to see if I can tell the difference in my mood, patience, contentedness. Looking forward to it. Thanks for the challenge and for articulating the importance of this challenge so well.
I joined Facebook at its beginning years ago but closed the account few years late and have not joined any social media since.
I read a lot. Spend most of free time with family, friends and nature.
I don't watch TV or read the news. I like listening to NPR when driving and sometimes at home.
I don't feel disconnected to the world for living as I do.
FYI: I'm an IT girl for a major technology corporation.
Go figure!
How ironic! 😀 Makes total sense, though.
As I finished writing my Instagram post for tomorrow morning (where I talk about pulling back from social) your newsletter was delivered! And your headline made me read it right away. So, yes, I'm totally with you Terrell! After I post tomorrow, of course. Haha. I mention you in it so thank you in advance for the additional inspiration to "turn it off". And, I feel like my mind is a lot like a squirrel...
Mine too! What an interesting/amazing coincidence.
Totally agree with you, Terrell!
I think this is one of the reasons my running is so important to me. I live and run in the country. Nature is my music. It's that reconnecting with your own thoughts and the environment around me.
Thanks for another great newsletter!
I love that, Stephanie! "Nature is my music" :)
Loved this reminder. Count me in too! I intentionally disconnect from my phone, news and social media at times and would like to do so even more. During these times it is easier to be in the present, enjoying the people and places actually in my life. I find the more time I spend off my phone and off social media the more vibrant my own life becomes. I focus on living; instead of observing, looking down at my device or comparing to others. Time much better spent :)
I so, so agree, Melissa. We have to just have the strength to log off/put the phone down, and until we do, we can't see it. But when we do, it's so worth it.
Our gift of life is meant to be experienced directly with all five senses and more. Our culture has us living it vicariously. We have subcontracted our experience of life to bits & bytes. Runners are not spectators. We have chosen to take the road less traveled. Never give up your freedom to live the life you choose. Just make sure you choose it and not some algorithm!!!!!
P.S. I knew the Orlean family many years ago in Cleveland. They were so interesting, unpretentious and always ready for the next adventure!
P.P.S. Suggestion… start a Sunrise tribe in your neighborhood. Meet up at Sunrise each day and run with your tribe. You won’t regret honoring the commitment and connecting with people who love what you love.
Clark, these are such wise words -- and what an amazing coincidence that you knew the Orleans when she was growing up in Cleveland!! How crazy is that?! What a small world.
Thanks Terrell. My wife, Sharon and I played doubles tennis from time to time with Susan’s brilliant & wonderful parents. We knew their son ( David, if memory serves) who was an excellent tennis player. Never had the pleasure of meeting Susan but look forward to reading all her books.
Thanks Terrell for introducing such an important topic. As I round third and start my journey “home “ it amazes me how the moments I lived mindfully are the ones that continue to fuel my journey. Anything that distracts from truly living in the present now will make that journey home less satisfying in the future. We, I believe, are not only what we eat but more importantly, what we think and feel. The more the mind and heart can be in synch the more meaningful life can be. Instead of looking out the rear view mirror for what are distracted minds have missed, mindfulness keeps you in the driver’s seat experiencing every mile on the trip. And since it’s the only trip I am aware of, I better “be there” for all of it. I don’t think there will be any “mulligans”.
Btw, I recently heard that the Chinese and Japanese have but one word for both heart & mind. If true, I find that very compelling.
Best!
Clark
Clark, I just read this to my wife and we both agreed — this is so moving. And thought-provoking. It’s poetry, it really is. Thank you for this 🙏
You are very kind. I am glad you enjoyed my thoughts. Btw, I love the smiling image of your child on your shoulders. I am sure you are a very loving Husband & Dad.
I will now turn off the lights, and smile as I think of our precious adult children and grandchildren. My wife & I are truly blessed…
Social media fries my poor brain. I don't even do Instagram, twitter, etc, but Facebook and emails are still enough to send me overboard! I don't watch TV or even listen to music or podcasts while I run. It seems like just too much chatter! Wish I could get off all devices, especially the phone, which accompanies the vast majority of us day and night. Remember those days when we really could "get away from it all"?
I do! I’m lucky that the internet didn’t come along until I was about 25, so half my life I lived without it. Kinda weird to think about now!
When I go out for a pleasure run, I listen to books on tape I have on my A[pple phone. So with buds in my ears, I run the streets and experience places and things I never will.. I do however would like to visit Nantucket .. I've listen to four books about it and this fall I plan a trip to the island.
Great post! Thoughtful and so true.
Years ago I signed up for Facebook to get some photos from a half marathon I’d run. I then forgot about it (except for all these friend invites which I never responded to (apologies to all my friends)). Then I lost my password. Then I moved and closed that email account. And that’s been that. No Facebook. No social media. No distractions. Whew!
Well done!
How do you live without it? L.O.L. only kidding... my wife goes on it and tells me what i'm missing... it isn't much except for what the kids are doing up in Minnesota.. I stay in contact with something called a cell phone... I'd rather talk to them than read what they write..