Enjoy the silence

I am a complete insomniac—I have been since I was a teenager. I often wake up in the middle of the night for hours on end and cannot fall back asleep. It's not fun, but I've come to accept that it's just a part of my life.

Last week, while I was in the “sleep free” zone, I laid on the couch and as I was sitting there, I had a realization:

This must be what true peace feels like.

There were no emails, no phone calls from work, I don't have to “go” anywhere or “do” anything, I don't need to interact.

This must be peace.

I sat there for about an hour and enjoyed in the silence. There was this feeling of being safe.

I, like many, am too plugged in and too available. You are almost guaranteed to get a hold of me anytime of the day. That's the danger of having a blackberry—or really any kind of smart phone. I've been struggling a lot recently with this 21^st century notion of availability and I have even contemplated getting rid of my blackberry.

I often wonder “what is so important at work that you are calling me on my day off?” or “why are you expecting me to respond so quickly?” I realized it's because I've made myself too available. Perhaps this is one of the ways that I'm keeping myself from experiencing peace more often.

I was listening to a program on NPR about people and their smartphones. Did you know that every time your phone beeps, blips, or vibrates that it sends a “hit” of dopamine to your brain? That's right. Your phone is like a drug. We have become addicted to the dopamine.

What does that mean for us? That when we're at a stop light or on the couch and the phone doesn't ring, blip, or vibrate that we get bored--fast. We miss the rush that we feel from our dopamine hit. So, instead, we pick up the phone and log onto facebook or check your texts to see if we might have missed something. We've become drug addicts for our cell phones.

I'm equally guilty. I can't set the thing down, to be honest. Which is the reason I decided to do an experiment: What would it feel like if I turned off my cell phone during my vacation this week. Could I do it? Could I feel this sense of peace that I've only experienced at 4:00 in the morning?

I'm still in the middle of my vacation and still working with keeping the phone off. It has been a challenge But, I've been observing what I feel like physically and how my state of mind seems without the cell phone. It seems more peaceful. I wish that everyone could experience this because I think the world would be a better, less stressed-out place.

My challenge for you is to simply notice:

• When do you experience a feeling of peace? What does it feel like physically?

• What is your relationship with technology like? Are you constantly tuned in and plugged in?

• Try to keep your phone off for a ½ day or a full day. What does that feel like?

May you experience peace.