We’re all living out our lives differently, balancing real life vs. virtual world digital life.
What’s exciting today is a brand new day of possibilities.
Exciting to you may mean the idea of being in an amusement park or near ocean waves… or of new sights and sounds in overseas travel or being a comfortable staycation homebody (my world of excitements).
Whatever that eye-popping adventure is for you, believe better ideas are being dreamed up by our organizing Universe for your enjoyment while we’re all sharing some degree of doing home life (and blended WFH life).
Getting off or on your devices can be more of a challenge, and as you hear more stories about people going on social media fasts or sleeping next to their phones.
I personally was getting into my technical groove and all the Zoom-type calls, and then like many others, decided it was time to go back to a simpler, writing stuff down on paper that once upon a time was the only way to communicate full sentences effectively and non-verbally. It can get tiresome waiting for apps to load and overload, and keep up with ongoing update maintenance and daily changes.
And if you settle into your real life vs. digital life right balance and boundaries, the reward can be great:
You’ll be happier and get more restful sleep.
Below I provide some ideas and tips from my own self-discovery of an 80/20, 2020 (tongue twister and year of twisters!) real life vs. virtual world digital balance lessons I learned this past year.
This new communication global society we’re in is here to stay. If you’re not plugged in, you may want to start (or get plugged back in at least with one eye so you don’t get left behind).
If you lean too much away from the digital revolution that can keep you from being relevant in evolving real-life conversations that build upon previous knowledge.
And if you’re spending too much time on your devices, and not petting the dog and taking walks, your overall mental health can be at stake. Developing wellness and personal growth habits lead to success and happiness.
For the first group (I’ll just describe as off the grid), if you’re not checking-in regularly in the social media world, then you want to stick around to the end of this article, so you get a few tips of what people are doing that’s so different than a decade ago online.
Offline (real life), I once had a coworker who had over a dozen healthy plants in her office and as a conversation starter I said to her, “the air in here must be really good!”
She pointed out the growth of specific plants (they were her babies), and how wee-small they were when her daughter was born and now she’s in college. And how her plants are fully grown.
That inspired me to bring in my own house plant as you can never have enough metaphors in life for growth (I think) …And don’t you just miss those deeper connection conversations?
In your WFH living situation, if you grow plants (or A plant) you can breathe in fresh oxygen and exhale the stale air from yesterday. You can start with a simple avocado seed (that even a brown thumb like me can grow).
Lessons Learned From 80/20 Real Life vs. Virtual World
If you want to live more balanced, get more good sleep, and enjoy this life while not missing seasons, creating boundaries is important. As I also learned.
If you find that you’re less than 20% in the real life vs. the virtual world (80% plus), you definitely want to evaluate and change some things so you can “stop and smell the roses” and enjoy your foods, that are not in digital cookies.
That’s what I found my life was becoming in our socially distancing world and while ever evolving new apps started taking center stage (as newer ways to communicate and do virtual events).
So it’s getting complex as we’re learning new habits, there are also new platforms being added that affect our behaviors. And I know from having a busy, complicated life pre-social media days, that simple vs. overwhelm is the formula for life success.
It is reported that Gen Z generations living in this increasingly heavy digital world are reporting their sleep is suffering. Unlike younger and older Millennials (Xennials), they weren’t all born before the internet so they only know the Web 3 world we’re in.
Many of these newer adults would be getting their feet wet in the real-life working environment, and the kids in school if we weren’t socially distanced.
They are experiencing early on as challenges that life can bring. And like all of us, have the opportunity in our actions and beliefs to make lemons out of lemonade in our lives. And that makes them resourceful and stronger.
These days not having digital boundaries is definitely affecting all of us and especially if we decide to stay unaware.
This brings me back to the point of finding the right mix balance.
Getting inspiration to go back to at least 60% real life vs. virtual world is a healthier balance, no matter what your type of work is, for an overall happier life.
Counting and gauging your overall daily hours online is a healthy, first-step awareness exercise.
Your time on Zoom counts as hours. Meeting for coffee in the real world has a different effect than seeing someone on a Zoom screen, where Zoom is no different than the effect of being on the phone with more complex bells and whistles.
This technology is the difference between a two-way conversation podcast and a video. We’ll laugh about this video conferencing tech version one, years from now, when the tech changes again.
Connecting to people in the virtual world saves travel time and the value is the idea exchange, growing further, sharing, and collaborating newborn opportunities and ideas with people around the world.
Balancing the two worlds (real life vs. virtual world) is tricky, but necessary if you want to be part of this evolving and amazing world of possibilities we live in. Personally, I think it’s an exciting time we live in…
And getting mindful of what I was doing, why I was doing it, and pivoting as needed made all the difference.
Counting hours helped me to become aware of my own behaviors, and helped influence me to add back real-world life hours and joy in a safe physical environment.
One thing is, I learned how to use the manual setting on an SLR camera that’s been sitting in a closet for almost a decade dying to be used properly.
Since applying learned camera lessons, I’ve been excited to take photos again.
Another example is, I learned how to use the dough hook that comes with the Kitchen Aid mixer, where I was able to make delicious ciabatta bread.
I invented new smoothies and dips using the Magic Bullet blender and created new yoga poses solving my own aches and pains.
Some come from unused parts of the body aren’t needed to auto-tap buttons and keys on a device. In the real world, we like feeling different textures that create a new experience.
Another idea for plugging into the real world is staying in touch with friends using the phone as a telephone that can remind you of not being alone, which never gets old.
You can drum up new mocktails using barely used tools like a zester in your kitchen drawer and newer ingredients like coconut flour.
There’s always a healthier and more innovative joyful twist around the corner in our innovative real life vs. virtual world. Like, I didn’t know there was a Cara Cara orange variety until I infused them in my low-sugar orange scones.
If you’re a Vata like me, you can see these changing evolutions in the world as good change through the lens of greater variety.
And when adopting enhancements in your adapting life, you probably have progressed more in your life than you give yourself credit for.
Here are some additional positive examples that happened (that maybe you did also in the past year or want to try!):
2020 Pantry Stock (Real life vs. virtual world)
I learned how to stock and keep a supply of grocery goods in a closet pantry for convenience (and just in case), that saves time.
While pulling out older items, I took the time to read the nutrition labels and intentionally deciding to keep some of the “bad foods” that’s readily available when we didn’t know if a food shortage could exist.
…They are still joyful foods for kids and we do live in a real world where it’s good to be sensitive to the world’s food insecurities in community, compassion, and empathy, in a kinder-giving and patient world we’re living in and becoming.
Having a pantry makes you appreciate the real world vs. virtual world.
When you leave your digital device and healthy food interweb searches, you get to compassionately learn that food banks have lines and where more expensive healthy meal planning is not the main goal of the average American household.
And when I think back to Pop Tarts or a bag of Tootsie lollipops (off the charts in sugar content), I stop healthy judgment, and feel grounded from my humbled beginnings. These have been popular treats since I was a little girl.
What You Could Do – Daily Real Life vs. Virtual World Changes
You may be in between real life and the digital world, using office store-bought yellow Post-its (the old-fashioned kind) and Asana/Trello digital squares… or you may not even know what those are. That’s how divided our times are becoming.
Whichever you prefer, when projects and tools are available, on, and sitting right in front of you, you’re more likely to use them in proximity, even if it’s suddenly one day, like learning my camera manual features.
What tool you use isn’t what’s important, as much as how they serve you and keeping an 80/20 real life/digital balance.
The same reason why I have a yoga mat permanently laid out. It’s convenient and one less step that can prevent me (and you) from doing a productive and healthy habit. It’s easy to be distracted in our blending real life vs. virtual world where we balance life-work-and everything else.
You also probably learned a thing or two (or heard about) how to enter conversations in this new decade with the newer Slack, Zoom, and Clubhouse digital communication tools. Depending on when you’re reading this, they’re already outdated from when they first came on the scene.
Other versions are already being talked about at the social media giants, Facebook and YouTube.
These are not “shiny objects.” They are the paths to our future society ways.
You can be sure of one thing, technology will keep evolving and keep us on our toes. And you want to grow alongside so you have less to learn in one fell swoop.
If it seems like it takes patience to learn now, imagine if you had to learn how to type while you’re writing a book. That would be completely overwhelming. But you can learn baby steps today.
Benefits of Staying Connected
Balancing and not going extreme in either way, allows us not to get left behind in the process of who we could become in this world.
If you want to stay relevant to current conversations and real-time happenings, plugging in weekly to a social media channel is called for. Beneficially, you pick which channel is your jam, and you like to socially listen to. And I’d add it’s the one where you actively participate on without negative feelings about the platform.
There, you don’t have to just listen in on your friends’ (lives), you can make new ones and keep your old ones.
Finding, blending, and balancing your digital vs. real life takes patience, and prioritizing what’s most important for you.
Give yourself space and grace to figure out what that looks like for you.
Here are a few learned tips to view social media and digital communication (in case you’ve been living out mostly in the real world!):
- Have patience with tools that drop communication and people not replying back because of busy real, and digital life overwhelm reasons. You can be pleasantly surprised how waiting can lower your blood pressure (it has mine).
We didn’t tolerate slow tech issues a decade ago (faster was a goal), and now we’ve mellowed out. Catch yourself from taking no replies back as a personal rejection to you (always believe it’s a technology glitch, other party personal overwhelm, and not your human glitch!).
- Girl, I don’t know you as a reply to a stranger’s DM in social media, is no longer the kinder way you should respond to people reaching out to you in our sensitive #metoo society. Have no judgment.
Some people are unaware as no adult today was born with social media as a daily norm. We’ve all committed to a social media faux pas or two (even if we’re not aware). Kindly react or let someone they know (not you, a stranger to them) respond to them.
And yeah, spam is still spam to a stranger, so unfollow as needed without thinking the Universe is going to take that as your negative energy. Just think, you’re helping spammers (who could be a bot) figure out who their people are and that so happens to not be you, someone who cares.
- Don’t be afraid to reach out with good intentions. Friend circle divides have been broken. It’s now…. do we have anything in common even if it’s just a mutual engagement on a conversation thread? Don’t overthink. Just post and reply so people know you exist.
If you have kind-hearted intentions, don’t feel regret or question whether you should I have posted or commented? Be brave.
Besides, your written word will be forgotten after you choose to erase your thoughts, so if you hesitate, by the time you have something to write, the conversation will be days from being archived anyway in our fast-moving digital world today… so just do it!
- Social media is encouraging all of us to embrace each other, our vulnerabilities and differences. Being fearless, collaborating, and taking initiative are how you make inroads and meaningful impact.
You never know… you may even discover an interest, passion, or purpose in the process!
- Create boundaries of discipline for time and space. I found myself pulled into podcasts, social media, Zoom, and other conversations.
If you don’t need to enter them as they’re not scheduled on your calendar, then keep staying productive, focused, open, serving, and creative as your daily thoughtful guides.
Real Life, Work-Life Balance :
I’m very specific and serious about getting high-priority and deep-thinking mind activities done in the morning as I protect those golden hours. It’s the natural planner in me.
Then as night falls, I become more flexible about how I feel and anything I do is additional. This leaves wiggle room for being less rigid (quality over quantity).
Being structured and flexible shapes you into a well-rounded person (generalist), empathetic to the world that’s more needed than ever, and then you add your uniqueness and talents (specialist) to the mix.
You can find your balance and rhythm to do both, in your staying flexible, open, and intentional life. But if you work at home, creating boundaries is super important. Closing an office door or shutting down a laptop helps.
Create different zone divides and locations in your space to grow these. Have a special nook for your journaling and reflection time, and a separate area where you exercise.
Even if you’re in tighter quarters like a city apartment or bedroom, you could set a pillow or mat on the floor by the window and that gives you a new perspective. Finding time and space is more important than the perfect physical space.
What used to be called “me time” a decade ago (that could sound selfish if over-indulgent), is now prized as self-care in our aware world to what helps to create a successful life. See how the world is coming around 😊
So, keep restoring your inner you and peace, and making micro habit shifts to improve your vitality and grow the relationships around you.
When you healthily re-enter the digital world that never sleeps, you can add more value to your virtual spaces, tribes, and groups.
Set your timer or stack one of your habits.
You can show up adding value and sharing your real-life natural gifts, talents, and mutual interests
And when it’s time to switch back to your balanced 80% real-life (work-life-sleep) routine, put your devices back to sleep. 🛏
Because devices and imbalanced lifestyles, can put you feeling out-of-sorts. Your mind and/or body can feel like it’s in a mood funk from your usual balance, but you can restore your body-mind type imbalances.
I share what I learned from top-to-bottom in one stressful season where I turned to modern Ayurveda ways as a solution that costs you practically nothing and you can do conveniently in your surroundings (even if your home is in a busy city in the Western world) once you know what to do.
