Do Not Give Your Power Away

A well-known Feri maxim goes something like, "Do not give your power away to anyone or anything." While the interpretation of what "power" means in this context will be left to another blogpost, I would like to briefly talk about something that I have been unconsciously, insidiously giving my power away to. 

My iphone. 

Yes, the small bit of plastic and glass I am using to write this very post on, has been chipping away at my personal power and life energy for years now. If I'm ever bored, I whip out the phone and scroll through Facebook for ten minutes. I'll check out the latest lists on buzzfeed. I'll open grindr to see if there are any hot guys around. 

There's nothing inherently wrong with any of these, but when it starts to distract you from the things that matter (conversation, connection, intimacy, just sitting there watching the world go by!) then it has become a problem. 

My iphone has even affected my daily practice, or rather, has become part of it. The first thing I do when I wake up is not mediation or prayer. It is not connection to my divinity or to the Gods. No...it is opening the apps on my phone, offering the sacrifice of time and attention to the spirits of the iphone (and man, those spirits are greedy). 

So, I have decided to get rid of all the social media apps on my phone for one week. One week with no Facebook, Twitter, buzzfeed, grindr, or internet. Of course, I can still access all of these on my laptop, but the effort that takes makes it much less likely. 

Wish me luck!