Posts Tagged ‘Relaxation and Meditation’

So it has been just a little over two weeks since My wife and I left my old life in Tokyo and moved to the tropical island of Miyakojima. I am happy to say that things are still going great.

We have an amazing house that has a slight view of the ocean and is about 10 minutes walk from the harbor. It feels like we live in the country, but we live just outside of the city. It’s much bigger than our apartment in Tokyo, but costs less than half what we were paying.

Shopping for a vehicle has been a little more difficult. We rented a car for a month so we would have plenty of time to look, but it was difficult to find something worth while in our price range. Since the island is small and we were only planning to be here for a year, we wanted to spend as little as possible. The original plan was to rent for a year, but the local people we met told us we could save a lot of money by purchasing. They were right. We eventually found a nice little car for about $1,300 out the door. That is what it would cost us to rent for 4 months, so hopefully it runs well.

Even though it’s November, the weather is still warm (if not hot) and we are able to swim in the ocean several times a week. The water is warm and the life is amazing. I am an avid diver (I actually used to work at a scuba diving shop in California) and there is so much to see here. Yesterday we found a great spot that had literally dozens of clown fish.

The only difficulty so far has been getting internet. Our internet will be installed this coming Friday and I will try to post some pictures. In the meantime, I have found a �media center� where I can connect for free. The good thing is since we have no internet or TV, we have had to fill our time with swimming, fishing, dinner with new friends, and attending festivals.

How many of you do the following:

-check e-mail first thing when you wake up and several times a day and last thing before you go to bed

-surf the internet into the late hours of the night or morning

-read a several blogs a day as well as current news

-multi-task everything that you do

-feel that the number of things you have to do constantly increases and you have less time than ever

As the amount of information continues to increase we are taking in more than ever. We spend most of our time glued to a little box and always feel that there is never enough time and we can’t get enough done.

There is a really simple solution that can give back a lot of your time and make you a happier person….STOP. Go cold turkey for a week and don’t check e-mail, blogs, or any online newsarticles. Don’t even surf the web. Do it for one week and you will realize that the world doesn’t end. It just gets better.

When you go back to reading, set allotted times. Only check e-mail twice a day, for an alotted time. Maybe 30 minutes each time you check. Take a look at your blogs. Do you really need to read them or do you just read them becuase you feel you have to. The best way to save time is to get rid of the things you don’t need.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes. Getting away from the technology and freeing up time is a great feeling. Now you just have to decide what you will do with the extra time.