Sabbath

People everywhere observe the Sabbath or Shabbat, a day of abstinence from work so that they can rejuvenate and also reconnect with the divine.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" the bible says.

Towering and awe-inspiring cathedrals and temples help us reconnect with the divine through structures in space.

A sacred period of time like the Sabbath helps us reconnect us with the divine through a structure in time.

While I'm not religious, I decided to try observing the Sabbath yesterday.

A "Sacred Sunday", if you will. Or a "Screen-less Sunday".

And it changed my life.

The rules of the game are pretty simple.

No screens. No devices.

No doing any kind of work. Or even thinking about work.

For the entire day.

As simple as it sounds, a day without screens puts you in a completely different state of mind.

I never realized how scattered, anxious, and numb I felt just by exposing myself to the mindless entertainment and information firehose that sucks us in through screens and devices.

What do you do instead?

Spend time with your loved ones.

You think you know your loved ones well?

Take away screens and you'll get to know them on a deeper level than you thought possible.

You also do stuff for fun, for once.

There's no goal, no reason to be "productive".

You just play. Or nap.

Or actually read for fun. It was the first time I had cracked open a fiction book in a long time.

Or actually listen to music. While just sitting there, with your eyes closed. And enjoying the music for what it is.

One more rule:

Treat the day as sacred.

It is your time to truly, deeply, rest. And by doing so, you experience life at a different, more fundamental, level.

On my Sacred Sunday, I cried. I laughed. I played.

And I reconnected with what's most important in this existence.