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Lent, the ending
Mar. 25th, 2016 10:31 pmSo, it’s coming to the end of Lent, and time for a bit of reflection, both spiritual and practical, on my disciplines. After a couple of weeks of going to sleep at 10.30 I found that I was mostly waking around 5.30 or so, and whilst it was refreshing to always be getting enough sleep it was also frustrating feeling that my evenings were being cut short in order to give me more time at such an unsociable point of the day, so I shifted it an hour later. Interestingly, relaxing the discipline actually seemed to make it harder to stick to - I still managed it most days, but missed considerably more than I had up to that point. However, I was still waking up shortly before my alarm more often than not, and with one or two exceptions, finding it fairly easy to get up when it went off even if I hadn’t preceded it.
It feels as though this has consolidated into a change of habit, and one that will continue into Easter and beyond, and although a part of me is concerned that this is me using Lent for self-improvement (particularly as regulating my sleep pattern is something I’d been working on for a while), I think that I’m probably just being over-scrupulous. Whilst I don’t think I can point to particular devotions that I’ve been doing more of by virtue of getting more sleep, I definitely feel as though God has been a more central part of my thoughts during Lent than in the normal course of things, and I don’t think it’s too much of a leap to attribute some of that to just having more brainspace when I’m not chronically underslept. I expect that increased centralisation to continue into Easter as well, and one of the things that Fr Angus and I discussed last week was how to continue to do that but with a more joyful and celebratory focus as befits the season.
Of course, it isn’t just the sleep that’s been contributing to the increased brainspace. Not being on Facebook has done that as well. One thing that it has definitely led to is writing more on DreamJournal, which tends to encourage more longform and thoughtful pieces. Another is that I’m keeping up much better with email correspondences, which are a lot more fulfilling because they’re more personal. In both cases I’m feeling as though I’m communicating a lot more, even if I’m doing so with fewer people. I do still get value out of being on Facebook though - partly because there are many people I’m in touch with there but not elsewhere, and partly because it can be updated with a lot less time and thought, so doesn’t fall into the trap of having a dozen things I want to say but not enough time to craft them into a well written post.
After Advent ended I said I was hoping that I’d continue to spend less time using Facebook, but that didn’t really last long. This time I’m going to be more deliberate about it. I shall refrain from installing it on my phone, and stay logged out on my computer by default. I’m hoping this will mean that I only spend time on it when I’m consciously choosing to do so rather than having it as constant background noise. We’ll see how it goes.
It feels as though this has consolidated into a change of habit, and one that will continue into Easter and beyond, and although a part of me is concerned that this is me using Lent for self-improvement (particularly as regulating my sleep pattern is something I’d been working on for a while), I think that I’m probably just being over-scrupulous. Whilst I don’t think I can point to particular devotions that I’ve been doing more of by virtue of getting more sleep, I definitely feel as though God has been a more central part of my thoughts during Lent than in the normal course of things, and I don’t think it’s too much of a leap to attribute some of that to just having more brainspace when I’m not chronically underslept. I expect that increased centralisation to continue into Easter as well, and one of the things that Fr Angus and I discussed last week was how to continue to do that but with a more joyful and celebratory focus as befits the season.
Of course, it isn’t just the sleep that’s been contributing to the increased brainspace. Not being on Facebook has done that as well. One thing that it has definitely led to is writing more on DreamJournal, which tends to encourage more longform and thoughtful pieces. Another is that I’m keeping up much better with email correspondences, which are a lot more fulfilling because they’re more personal. In both cases I’m feeling as though I’m communicating a lot more, even if I’m doing so with fewer people. I do still get value out of being on Facebook though - partly because there are many people I’m in touch with there but not elsewhere, and partly because it can be updated with a lot less time and thought, so doesn’t fall into the trap of having a dozen things I want to say but not enough time to craft them into a well written post.
After Advent ended I said I was hoping that I’d continue to spend less time using Facebook, but that didn’t really last long. This time I’m going to be more deliberate about it. I shall refrain from installing it on my phone, and stay logged out on my computer by default. I’m hoping this will mean that I only spend time on it when I’m consciously choosing to do so rather than having it as constant background noise. We’ll see how it goes.
