Thank you Earth Hour!

I am a lucky gal! I have an incredible coach, wonderful family, and caring friends.  All of whom have been telling me for weeks that I need to slow down and take time for me.  And I always mean to heed their advice and do just that, but theres always something that needs doing, something that can’t wait. Yes, it could wait an hour or two or a day or two, but I rarely ever acknowledge that (along with remembering the word ‘no’ in my vocabulary).

Well, last night it had to all stop, at least for an hour, because it was Earth Hour – a time to shut down all of the electronics for at least an hour.  And I’d written about healthy ways to spend the hour, so should I not follow my own advice.  At 9:10, I began the ritual of turning off all the power (aside from the heat and the refrigerator) and I began to light candles. At 9:31, I shut down the iphone and by 9:35 I was climbing into a steaming hot bubble bath, basked in candle light.  I brought absolutely nothing with me, aside from my digital camera.

So what does one do in a tub for an hour once you’ve finished photographing the scene?  (Gentlemen – don’t answer that.)  Well, I just lay there and soaked in the steaming hot water, bathed by the gentle flickering of the candlelight, and sipped on my wine.  At first it seemed like an eternity.  My mind kept racing to, “but I’ve got to get this done, oh and theres that story, and I should have already done that, better remember to put that on Monday’s schedule….” Then I became aware of how quiet the world was around me.  My neighbours must be observing Earth Hour too.  But what is that buzzing?  That buzzing that is almost deafening.  Dear God, is that the buzz of all the electricity that I didn’t turn off – the heat and the refrigerator?  Wow, is it loud and incessant.  Is it always there? And then, at long last, my mind turned off and I finally started to relax. Really relax and unwind.  I could have spent the whole night there, had the bath water not turned cold.  As it was, I was there for an hour and 20-minutes.  An hour and 20-minutes of pure uninterrupted ‘me’ time. No phones, no emails, no tweets.  And how did I feel?  Incredible!  I felt like a whole new person.

So aside from understanding just how much electricity I use as one person, which seems to be a rather greedy amount, I was reminded of how unhealthy the race paced, electronically driven world that I (we) live in is.  So I am now going to make an attempt to honour my own Earth Hour once a week – either on my own or with a friend. And I have to say, I am really looking forward to it.