This isn’t going to be the typical post, I’ll tell you that right now. I was up pretty late last night working on the copy for the new SEO Honolulu site, and I’m kinda groggy today but that’s totally OK. Something happened last night that makes it OK. I had my own little moment of Zen (I love The Daily Show, please don’t sue me).

The Great Disconnect

I live pretty deep inside a valley close to Downtown Honolulu, downhill from a huge Buddhist temple and surrounded by mostly old people. Sometimes I forget how quiet it gets up here at night. However, I heard something outside around 12:15… sounded like someone was screwing with my car. I crept out the back door with only my beer I was drinking and was totally aware of the fact that most white guys don’t screw with the huge Samoans in this area. But I went anyways…

Luckily, just turned out to be a cat from a couple properties over walking all over my car. Stupid cat. But it was that moment that I was hit by something; SILENCE. The kind of silence that makes your head buzz from your ears ringing so hard. Parents definitely understand the value of this kind of silence. This is the kind of silence you want to save in a jar for a later date when things are overwhelming and you need a moment of clarity.

Your Turn

I spent 10 minutes in absolute silence. Stopped thinking about work and clients and dates and stuff and upcoming events bla bla bla… I just sorta turned my mind off and went into cruise control. Me and the silence. No whirring of my laptop fan, no refrigerator motor randomly kicking on, no humming from anything electric at all. Nada, zip, zero, zilch.  It was such a powerful experience that I might start staying up late more often.

But the point to all of this is I think you should find a place where you can do this, and do it on a regular basis.  Us computer based workers spend way too much time in front of our screens and way too much time thinking about what we need to do when next time we are in front of our screens later on. We need to really find our “disconnect” sometimes and take it regardless of what’s going on.

Go find your quiet spot and visit it a couple of times a week. Disconnect. Treat yourself right.