A Week Without Wifi

Last week hubby and I were at the Occidental Cozumel Resort for vacation of sun, sand and snorkelling.  The only free wifi was on three laptop computers in the hotel lobby and, rather than pay over $80US for wifi for the week, I decided to have a week with (almost) no wifi.   I say almost because once or twice a day I took advantage of the international data plan on my husband's phone to check in with my girls at home using Messenger and do a quick Facebook check.  But no Twitter, no Facebook posts, no blogs, no online courses, not even email.

I didn't realize how much I was enjoying the break from online news until Wednesday when I decided to go to the gym instead of going for a run.  Another guest was there using the treadmill and she had the TV tuned into the National Prayer Breakfast in the US.  Trump was speaking about how Mark Burnett had been the producer of Apprentice and what wonderful ratings it had when he had been the host but now that Arnold Schwarzenegger was the host the ratings were terrible.  What????????   Then he recalled that when he was campaigning and people would tell him they were praying for him and how much he liked that.  How had Trump managed to make the National Prayer Breakfast about his TV ratings and his ego??????
(Read the White House transcripts of his speech here)

When she left, the other guest turned the TV off.  Until then, I didn't realize how much extra stress the news about Trump and his various actions had been adding to my life.  Pierre Elliot Trudeau said that living next to the US is like sleeping with an elephant - we are affected by every twitch and grunt.   We can't just ignore what is happening there; it has an impact on our lives.  And I knew that the election campaign and the results had definitely been a stressor for me.  But it wasn't until I shut the news off for a few days that I realized just how much of a stressor it was and still is.

Now that we're back home and back on wifi, I will remain an informed citizen but I will use self-reg to be cognizant of when my stress levels are rising.  I can choose to seek out positive and uplifting messages, go for a walk, head to the gym or find some other activity that returns me to a calmer state.  If only I could just live at the beach!

This little fish swam right up to my mask to say hello!