Soulful Sunday

I did it last Sunday. I went social media free. I didn’t check Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. I didn’t share my daughter’s first skateboarding moments, instead, I just basked in the sunshine and enjoyed watching a younger version of me rolling along the street.

Co-founder Lori Shen posted last week in her personal account that she was going to take the day off from social media because her daughter had asked her to put her phone away. I started to think about it as digital device usage has been on my mind a lot lately. Raising three kids in today’s digital age is challenging. We don’t yet understand the ramifications of the pervasive use of technology.

Then as I was catching up on podcasts, I listened to Michael Stelzner interview Brian Solis  who has written a new book, Lifescale. Brian, who has been a technology anthropologist for almost two decades, found himself struggling to manage the effect of technology on his own work and couldn’t find the solutions. He believes, much as I do, that you don’t need to abandon technology, you just need to be purposeful with your usage.

With friends and family all over the world, I am grateful for being able to easily share and see what’s happening in each other’s lives. However, I don’t need an expert to know that when we are involved with our phones, we aren’t connecting with the people who are right there with you. As great as it is to share the moment right there and then, perhaps it can wait until you are alone later. This lapse also gives you more filtering time to decide if that moment was really worth sharing.

I’ve decided to take Lori’s personal idea and turn it into one of our She Lives Aloha principles. Sunday is for connecting with yourself and your in-person ohana. We commit to you that we will not post to social media or email on Sundays. You won’t miss anything from us while you are enjoying your Sunday. We will also encourage our employees to not work on Sundays unless it is extremely urgent. A rested mind is a productive mind.

So go and enjoy the weekend ahead. Feel free to post on Saturday or Monday with the hashtag, #BackOnMonday, to signify that you are offline.

Find your happy place this weekend and enjoy.

In our monthly Aloha calendar we suggest taking a hike this month in honor of Earth Day. We look forward to connecting with everyone at Sunday’s hike at Picchetti Winery. For details, check our Facebook group or reach out to us on Twitter..