How to Have a Quieter Soul: A Freedom Manifesto

Earlier this week, I wrote this post for The Glorious Table, my community blog for women. Inspired by the collective response to this post, we have begun a #quietfrom5to9 movement, shutting off the Internet and social media in the evenings and focusing on our families instead. Read on to find out more, and if you feel inclined, join us and reduce the media noise in your own life. Use the hashtag #quietfrom5to9 to let us know how your life is being impacted by less time online. 

Dear friends,

When I sat down to write this post, I thought it would be about–well, not this. But I feel compelled to scrap my original topic and share with you what’s been on my heart these past several days.

About seven months before we launched The Glorious Table, I instituted a rule for myself in the evenings: no Internet between 5 and 9 p.m. every day. Promptly at 5:00, I silenced my smartphone, closed my laptop, and put both devices in my bedroom, out of sight and out of earshot. I made dinner, enjoyed my family, tucked my preschooler into bed with a story–all without interruptions from work or social media. I admit, it felt odd the first few days. My hand almost itched as I fought the irrational need to check my phone in the middle of my dinner preparations. But after a week or so, I began to see those evening hours as a time of relief.

When we launched The Glorious Table, my healthy boundaries crumbled almost overnight. There were constant decisions to make, glitches to work out, contributors to guide, questions to answer, Facebook pages and Buffer accounts to manage. I was “on” 24/7. I was answering messages at 3 a.m. That trend has continued. The other day, I found myself shuffling my infant from one side to the other while she was nursing so I could get to my phone and respond to a post on one of our Facebook pages. I felt like I had to answer before anyone else did. 

At that moment, I realized something had to change. Living like this, driven by the Internet like a horse before a whip, was about as far from a place of peace as I could get. Rest–mental, emotional, and spiritual–was nowhere in sight. My ability to be fully present and engaged in the precious moments of my real life, like nursing my baby, was suffering…

To read the rest of the post at The Glorious Table, please click here.