Refraining, or some variation of drawing back, taking time off, or unplugging can be found in almost every spiritual or religious tradition. The idea is always the same: by refraining from some part of your life, you return more fully to it afterwards. This is also the often wished for but rarely accomplished goal of holidays –I think this is rare because they tend to be so absent of ritual, and full of ‘letting it all go’, which is rather vague.

I would say that we would do each other and ourselves a big favor by periodically and (semi)ritually retreating. There are two main reasons why especially in our modern day society, this is desirable. First off, since we are often not so embedded anymore in a religious or cultural tradition that values disappearing for reasons that are clear to everyone, we have a harder time doing so. Secondly, we are so very plugged in all of the time, by phones, internet and social communities, that plugging out is less tempting because being in connection with everybody all the time is, let’s face it, addictive.

Now I don’t think that our modern media world is necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary, I think that things like online social communities can raise the collective consciousness frequency of mankind –if used skillfully. Quantity must not dominate quality. When we are honest enough to ourselves to notice that it does, we should draw back, not to centralize in ourselves, but rather to make ourselves available to the world at large again.

We do this by creating time for space and room for play. It is so valuable to create some sort of gap to allow ourselves to be surprised and amazed by life. This can only happen when we are available. Now this doesn’t mean dropping everything you do, or going on a holiday or taking a sabbatical. On the contrary, gaps are small spaces that you create by simply noticing them. If you want to ritualize it further, it can be as simple as simple as replacing the one hour you usually spend in front of the tv or on Facebook with writing a letter to a loved one –for one week.

Ironically enough, what you will find is that the very thing you let go off becomes more available to you: because you become available to it. Maybe this is what Sufi mystic and poet Rumi found when he wrote these words (back in the 13th century, when something other than Facebook must have been bugging him):

I hear nothing in my ear but your voice.
Heart has plundered mind of its eloquence.

Love writes a transparent calligraphy, so on
The empty page my soul can read and recollect.