My Smartphone Sabbatical

I overhear it at least once a week in the elevator bank of the 5th Street Towers in downtown Minneapolis: "I'm going to the Boundary Waters/North Shore this weekend, because I can't get cell reception there." If the tourism boards in Northern Minnesota haven't already adopted this as a marketing campaign strategy, they should get started.

We exist in a society that is starved for solitude. I personally don't always enjoy being alone with my thoughts, because they tend to drive me nuts, but I've come to believe that our constant connectivity is going to kill us. We all need time to let our brains breathe. We can't do that when we're always on alert for that next email, text, phone call or social media post. For those of us in the communications industry, we are on HIGH ALERT ALL. THE. TIME. It is suffocating us, and, in my opinion, it is stunting our professional careers. To be successful in the communications industry, you need to figure out ways to break through the noise. That requires innovation and creativity. When your brain can't take a break, or even *gasp* be allowed to be a little bit bored, creativity suffers. At least, that's how it is for me.

This month, I had the luxury of falling off the grid in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area for an entire week. I'll admit, camping was never my thing. My mom will tell you that I shunned it as a teenager because it wasn't cool. Since moving back to Minnesota three years ago, my Alaska-born husband has been doing everything in his power to get me to like camping. Now, thanks to red wine in a box, the occasional charcuterie board, a hammock and The New Yorker, I'm hooked. (Ian will tell you that I've grossly mischaracterized the gear necessary for a successful camping trip, but you get the picture.)

When you decide to wander into the BWCA, you're agreeing to give up a certain amount of control over your life. For anxiety-ridden, Type-A people like me, this can be terrifying. However, it is a terrific exercise for developing resilience, which is now recognized as a key factor for professional growth and success. (My kids aren't convinced yet. Don't ask them about Day Four.) When you give up control, you're also able to let go of the feeling of guilt that often haunts people like me. That nagging feeling that you might be missing something important goes away because, even if you wanted to, there's no way to find out about it and there's nothing you can do about it. You're forced to just let it go.

For me, the week was like a cleanse that didn't involve cayenne pepper and lemons. I was surrounded by breathtaking views and breathing in the most beautifully fragrant air on Earth. I felt my brain declutter and go dormant. As the days went by, I felt my perspective on a variety of things snapping into place and the bigger picture coming into focus. It takes a clear mind to keep your eye on the prize and recognize where you're spending your time wisely and where you're wasting it. You can't buy that kind of clarity, and you can't achieve it when you're constantly distracted by notifications on your phone.

When I got back to civilization and got back online, guess what? Not one person was upset with me for not returning an email while I was gone. In fact, some were enthusiastically supportive. My out-of-office message let them know I was off the grid in the BWCA, and I'd like to believe that it perhaps empowered a few people to do the same thing. I could almost sense a feeling of relief. Like, "Oh, for real? It's ok to do that? I'm in!"

There's power in numbers, people. If we all made a conscious effort to fall off the grid once in a while, it would become an acceptable practice that would benefit all of us. Maybe we wouldn't even have to go to all the trouble of paddling and portaging a canoe through remote wilderness to do it. Though, I'm told that's part of the fun.