“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal

It has been a while since I have taken the time to sit down and write. Recovery, family obligations, work, and honestly poor time management and discipline have wreaked havoc on my writing. The beautiful thing is that at the root of this inability to just sit down and write is me. And me I have total control of, sort of.

I realized that I have become addicted to my cell phone without even knowing it. My cellphone use has been through the roof recently and I am now making a conscious effort to turn off my cellphone whenever I am not using it. An extreme measure, yes, but until I create a healthy relationship with my cellphone usage I will create separation by turning the device off whenever I can. Another beautiful trick I have discovered is putting the cellphone in grayscale to make it less appealing to use, especially social media. Grayscale has another added benefit, it tells your mind subconsciously this picture of a place or a person I am seeing is not real, stop comparing yourself.

Let me elaborate.

We get so attached to our cellphones and social media for that matter because we feel we are experiencing and viewing life, but life is in the here and now, what you are looking at, is a tiny pixel of the past, a shadow, sometimes that shadow isn’t even real, the photograph was altered in some type of way to make the environment or person look ‘better’. Grayscale reminds you that what you are seeing does not contain the full magnificence of your present moment. It is a reminder that no matter where you are or what is happening, YOUR LIFE is what matters most, and what is truly most beautiful because you get to experience the here and now. Though I understand that here and now sometimes is not pleasant, it’s still an experience and we only get to have so many of them before moving on.