What happened to the simple things? Things like staring off in space, hearing nothing but the sounds of the leaves whistling in the trees and sipping a hot cup of black tea. While I definitely can’t complain about all the conveniences technology has brought (including the new Kindle my husband’s bought), I do feel out of sorts when I’m too connected to the outside world and disconnected from simplicity. And it seems that the more time I spend plugging into the online world, the harder it is for me relax when I am away.

Yesterday, for example, I spent the day biking. I was surrounded in nature. There was nothing but the ground below me, trees around me and the deep blue sky above me. Yet, I couldn’t shake away my thoughts. My brain seemed to be downloading new information on topics to blog, people I needed to contact, books I still needed to read. Here I was doing the very thing I loved the most and I could not relax. In a sense, I couldn’t seem to let go of where I was earlier that day, so that I could be present in what I was doing in that moment. I felt my mind shouting loudly, “You’re missing out!” I knew that if I didn’t let go of the past, I’d be sacrificing the experience I was having now.

That’s why I was excited to read our top five posts for this week. Our bloggers are putting perspective on things like the distractions of modern life and on letting go of one moment so that we can begin a new one. So read up! Then do yourself a favor and unplug so you can spend the last month of summer enjoying the simple things in life.

Why Endings are Really Beginnings: Tao Te Ching

(Mindfulness & Psychotherapy) – This is more than about how when one door closes, another one opens. This is about how every moment offers opportunities for you to be present and make choices from a place of awareness instead of doing what we always do-work from a state of autopilot. Read this and choose wisely.

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