Louis and I rode our bikes on Christmas day. 8:00 AM wrapped up against the cold on wet roads for about an hour and a half.
I love riding my bike around Christmas time, particularly on Christmas day when the roads are empty, and most people are either still in bed or opening presents with young children and we're on our bikes feeling quite righteous and starting Christmas day in the best possible way.
We've done that for a few years now and hardly missed one over the past six or seven years.
The day before that we rode our bikes too on Christmas eve, same sort of time in the morning, same clothes, same wet roads and rode for a couple of hours before we decided to stop for a Christmas coffee and tea cake at Jaspers in Ruddington, one of our favourite stopping points, particularly as it's right at the end of the ride and all your work is done by then.
It was hard to get a table in Jaspers, it was busy full of people getting last minute Christmas shopping or meeting friends because they were off work on a Saturday Christmas eve.
We managed to grab a table and I went up to the counter to order the coffees and tea cakes and realised that while I was stood in the queue, I was on my phone.
This was supposed to be the habit that I got rid of about three sabbaticals ago, deleting the apps and keeping them to 20 on your phone, making sure you never had your calendar or your emails on your phone or really any other means of distraction communication, which suck you into a world of cyberspace instead of your head up, looking at the world around you.
I should have been in the queue talking to a stranger or looking to see everything around the coffee shop, instead I had the urge to check my emails to see if anybody had sent me a really important email on a Saturday Christmas eve in 2022. Unlikely.
And so, while I was in the queue, I deleted the apps for mail and outlook and slack.
I should have done this the day that I finished but for some reason it got away from me.
The dopamine habits that we have suck you in and make it harder and harder to create the space for yourself that you need to stay happy and healthy.
And so, right there and right then in Jaspers I realised one of the main purposes of the next six weeks or so is to get back to the principles of decreasing electronic communication, not increasing or facilitating electronic communication.
Funny how these things come to you and where they do but it only takes 5 or 10 minutes before you're delighted that all of that sh*t is off your phone.
Blog Post Number - 3310
We have recently launched the 7th episode of our ‘Nothing but the Tooth’ podcast and for this episode Colin explores the in-depth subject of paradigms and the curiosity about why people get stuck in belief systems.
Please have a listen by clicking below!