Finding Delight In The Midst of It All
Dear friends,
Since 2017 I have experienced profound, lasting change in my life. And I have the journals to prove it! This stack represents my reflections since my first week-long digital fast up until today. And they are a powerful reminder of what inspired me to start Digital Mindfulness Retreats.
I have kept a journal since I was 16 years old, and have written almost every day since that time. In fact, I have a giant file cabinet full of journals that I have been reading back over with the intent to release them soon because, to be honest, they are kind of embarrassing. I don't write with the goal of creating an impressive, literary record of my life that will be published upon my demise (oh my god no!!).
My journals are just a daily record of the mundane, the joyful and the struggle. And they have given me a sense of ongoing patterns and progress over time.
I have been reading back through my journey since the first time I took a week-long break from my screens. Since then, I have been able to hold the heartbreak in the world and work to change it - all while feeling less anxious, more joyful, more content, less judgmental and more accepting in general. I credit this to 4 big shifts I made at that time:
a meditation practice
a gratitude practice
intentional sympathetic joy
attention to tech-life balance
I believe that these are powerful tools we can use in the service of creating more margin and spaciousness in our lives, and these practices form the foundation of my work.
If you do not currently keep a journal, I cannot recommend it enough.
And on the topic of daily joy and gratitude, I recently discovered poet Ross Gay's The Book of Delights, a genre-defying book of essays that record the small joys that we often overlook in our busy lives. His is a meditation on delight that takes a clear-eyed view of the complexities, even the terrors, in his life, including living in America as a black man, the ecological and psychic violence of our consumer culture and the loss of those he loves. We all need this book right now.
In this time of necessary tumult, let us now forget every day pleasure and wonder.
Much Love,
Christina
P.S. If you’ve read this far, thank you! I invite you to join my mailing list for occasional musings and updates on retreats and events. I won't spam you, or share your data. Let's start supporting small businesses on platforms they own!