Tech-Free Vacations for Your Busy Life

By Lisa Rickwood

“Escape the pace. Life’s not a race.”
—Lisa Rickwood
Sophisticated technologies and social media have caused our lives to become more complex and stressful. When we are constantly connected digitally, it causes us to become so disconnected and distracted that we forget to live in the present moment. Yet everything in nature takes a break, so why shouldn’t we?
In a fun reference manual, certified life coach Lisa Rickwood relies on her experience guiding her clients from chaos to calm to share personal stories, activities, and valuable insight that lead others on a journey within to discover how they, too, can step away from technology to find a renewed focus, feel energized and motivated, and create more balance every day, no matter how busy life becomes. Others will learn how to set clear technology boundaries, make healthy choices, embrace the act of doing nothing, practice mindfulness meditation, schedule quiet time, pursue artistic expression, and much more.
Tech-Free Vacations for Your Busy Life offers guidance and insight that will help anyone add more energy and newness to life through fun, non-tech activities that encourage positivity, one mini-vacation at a time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Apr 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781982273422

Lisa Rickwood

Lisa Rickwood, BFA, CPCC, GCDF is a certified life coach, global career development practitioner, visual artist, and author of Escape the Pace: 100 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy Your Life. She is an authority on creativity, career direction, and inspiring busy people to escape the hectic pace of life.

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Copyright © 2022 Lisa Rickwood.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-9822-7343-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-7344-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-7342-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021917569

Balboa Press rev. date: 03/23/2022

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 Serene Mini-Holidays

Chapter 2 Mental Relaxation

Chapter 3 Rejuvenating Rituals

Chapter 4 Cozy Home Retreats

Chapter 5 Quick Escapes

Chapter 6 Fun and Creative Pursuits

Chapter 7 The Great Outdoors

Bibliography

For all those who color outside the lines,

break boundaries, and escape the pace.

Thanks to my supportive and loving husband, sons, and friends,

without whom I could not be the woman I have become.

PREFACE

Tech-Free Vacations for Your Busy Life came to be because the timing was right, and the message was crucial for people to read at this point in history.

Since 2003, when my first book, Escape the Pace: 100 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy Your Life, was published, I’ve witnessed an increasingly fast pace of life. The first book touched on ways to slow down and relax. However, it was published years too soon; people didn’t understand its value until after the rise of the digital age.

With the advent of more sophisticated technologies and social media, our lives have become more complex and stressful. As much as we are connected digitally, we may be disconnected because we are distracted by technology and not living in the present moment.

My path for creating a simpler, less chaotic life began in 1999 with the sudden death of a new employee in a store I co-owned with my husband. This employee was with us for only four days, and on his last day, he suffered a massive heart attack and passed away before he fell to the ground. This experience forever changed me, and I suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and other health issues for a year before researching and discovering positive ways to improve my mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health. The research led me to become a columnist, facilitate workshops and seminars, appear online and on television, in magazines, and eventually write my first book. This experience also led to me becoming a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach and Global Career Development Facilitator. I already had a degree in visual art with a minor in social sciences, and the skills, abilities, and experience I gained were helpful to support clients with challenges.

I am passionate about helping people go from chaos to calm and assisting them in making the most of their lives. Before the global pandemic, I witnessed the rapid increase in the use of technology, and yet it helped us navigate these turbulent times. However, as we lived through this global threat, we rapidly grew exhausted from using technology. There needed to be a more balanced approach to integrating these tools into our busy lives.

One of the best ways to break from the hectic pace of life and technology is to engage in fun, relaxing interests alone or with others. Engaging in non-technological activities creates a buffer from the stress and anxiety that technology and operating at breakneck speeds can cause. There are many benefits to escaping the pace, and you need to read on to learn how to put them into practice. Everything in nature takes a break, so why shouldn’t you?

INTRODUCTION

Escape the pace. Life’s not a race. –Lisa Rickwood

Do you remember carefree moments in your life when you did not possess a digital device? When you were young, played outdoors, and enjoyed nature with family and friends?

Did you play in the park, ride your bike, spend time outdoors, take walks or hang out with friends, or go camping?

I remember when technology didn’t rule our lives—it was a simple way of living.

For example, when I was a child, I’d visit my grandparents in town. I lived in the country, and there were no children in my area—and I would play with the neighbors’ children in the cul-de-sac. We would be outdoors all day, using our imaginations and playing games such as: hide-and-go-seek, Nicky Nicky Nine Doors, (where you and a group of friends would knock on random strangers’ doors and run away; the goal was to knock on nine doors), road hockey, and other games. We’d be outdoors from morning until night, and we didn’t have our parents tracking us on cell phones because they didn’t quite exist.

I remember hiking and exploring, riding my bike into town to swim at the big outdoor pool during the summer, camping with friends, having bonfires, and exploring the outdoors. The days seemed to last and last, and we had so much freedom; our parents couldn’t reach us for many hours.

The changes started happening in the late 1960s and later trickled into our classrooms with the advent of the Apple computer. I went from being in grade seven and having minimal knowledge about personal computers to utilizing computers in high-school classrooms. Computer science was a popular class and challenging because people had to use a more archaic system—DOS (disc operating system), long before Bill Gates devised the Windows platform.

I knew I was balancing between the analog and digital worlds. The simple world was disappearing with the unprecedented advancement of technology.

As a member of an often ignored generation, Generation X, many of the technological advances that have happened were due to the influence of Generation X.

Generation X (sometimes called Bust) refers to people born between 1965 and 1980. This generation was often referred to as The Forgotten Generation because only a small number of people were born. The Baby Boomers (post-war) generation and the Millennials often received more attention in the news.

The Gen X lifestyle often consisted of two-parent households, higher divorce rates, an obsession with materialism, and technological advances. While today’s media and marketers may snub this demographic, these were the people who were highly influential and dramatically shaped our society over the last few decades and currently today.

The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, grew up right in the middle of the growing tech era. He was born in 1964. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, co-founders of Google, were born in 1973. Twitter founders Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Jack Dorsey were born in the early 1970s. Elon Musk was born in 1971 and founded SpaceX, Tesla, and a few other companies.

There are too many influential people to mention, but they represented Generation X—entrepreneurial, risk-taking, and inspired by technology.

While Baby Boomers may have been responsible for founding the Internet in 1969, Generation X took the discovery and made it relevant to our lives, and subsequent generations have built on this.

I lived through advances, including CDs for music and storage, cellular phones, personal computers, and the Internet. I stood on the precipice of a simple world and viewed the other side of the mountain, where there were advances in technology and a more complicated world.

I remember the carefree days, and when I told my children about my childhood, they would often give me the I feel sorry for you look as I mentioned life before smartphones, the Internet, and social media. I didn’t know any better. I thought it was a pretty great life.

My children were raised without smartphones in elementary school, with maybe too much video gaming but many outdoor adventures. As a full-time working mother, I would spend as much time with my children as possible, and this happened outdoors; I believed it was critical to immerse them in nature.

My best friend and I would take our sons on long, arduous hiking trips, and our boys didn’t complain; they would bounce rocks off the side of a cliff, take off their shoes and dip their toes in the ocean, look for cool sticks and shells…

As my sons got older, I made it a point to spend precious time outdoors with them, and we’d hike, swim, relax in portable hammocks, have picnics, drive to other towns, and explore our environment. The boys had lots of memories that didn’t involve technology.

Having had the opportunity to experience the world on the verge of a technological revolution and seeing the aftermath, I must say there are positive and negative views of this adventure. Technology is a tool meant to simplify and improve our lives as it enables us to do more than we could ever dream of; we have yet to see what it can do for us.

Technology is like a hammer—it may tear down or cause damage or be used to grow and build great things. We need to be aware of how to utilize it in our lives.

One of the great benefits of technology is that it was sophisticated enough to assist us all around the world when we experienced the worldwide pandemic. We were forced to self-quarantine and had to practice socially distancing from each other, so we used technology more to maintain our social lives—we stayed connected to our family, friends, colleagues, and more. Video conferencing, emailing, texting, and phoning helped us navigate this unprecedented historical time. Had this occurred 40 or 50 years earlier, it would’ve been - a challenge to humanity.

The downside of this experience is many of us became burned out from video calls, emailing, and how we stayed in contact with others. There was an unhealthy focus on technology, and this also included me.

Like many in the world, I heard the news by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, that deemed a virus to create a global pandemic. Things were changing so fast that I wasn’t practicing healthy habits. I was exercising and eating well but was failing in terms of my health because I was reading and scrolling on my smartphone for hours (my "Digital Wellbeing" app indicated hours of online use) and I was mesmerized by changing news. This news addiction wasn’t healthy. I knew other people were also locked in this vicious 24/7 digital information overload cycle.

This book is not about slamming technology; it’s been critical in allowing some of us to keep working and has been an important tool to provide us with the human connection. Whether you like it or not, technology will continue to play a role in our lives.

It’s important to view technology as just tools and not let it overtake our lives. We may become unbalanced if we spend hours focused on blue screens; if unchecked, this activity leaves us feeling tired, stressed, and overwhelmed. We must be aware of our actions and understand that taking digital breaks can create more balance in our lives.

Arianna Huffington, CEO of Thrive Global, offers this great quote:

"Disconnecting from our technology to reconnect

with ourselves is absolutely essential."

We need to practice escaping the pace regularly to create a relaxing buffer and help us feel energized. One of the best ways to do this is to create a tech-free vacation every day—a mini-escape without carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. Take this moment to ignore the news and the problems and worries you may be experiencing. This mini-vacation allows your body, mind, and spirit to relax and recharge.

Except for humans, everything in nature takes breaks, pauses, and slows down. Watching videos, responding to every smartphone notification, checking social media until the wee morning hours, and at blue screens until our eyes feel like sandpaper is not a healthy approach to life.

We have all found ourselves immersed in technology, and using it for work, entertainment, and socializing. Yet, many of us feel exhausted by its constant use.

This book focuses on spending time outdoors in nature because fresh air and open spaces are beneficial for us mentally and physically. There’s much research around the benefits of being in nature; this makes sense as our evolution revolved around spending time outdoors, hunting, and gathering food for our families and villages. It is not natural to spend our lives indoors 24/7 under artificial lights and air conditioning.

If you live in a city, you probably spend a lot of time indoors, and it may be a challenge to get outdoors; most cities have parks and green spaces available to enjoy. It’s worth the effort to find time to escape outdoors to enjoy green scenery instead of blue light.

Escaping the pace isn’t about ditching technology. It’s about creating a more balanced approach to living that includes time away from blue screens and more time in nature and engaging in hobbies and activities that make you feel good. Taking a tech-free vacation is possible every day and may take as little as five minutes.

44096.png HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

As you read this book, use it in a way that works for you. You may open up a page, read and pursue an activity on that page, or start reading the book from beginning to end. Take your time and read through and record ideas of what you’d like to do. Earmark the pages, write notes in the book, use it to inspire you to escape the pace in a way that works for you.

44096.png WHEN PLANS CHANGE

One of the biggest challenges of living during the 21st century is that life moves fast, and change occurs more frequently. As a result, we may spend more time online, using technology to keep up with the constant changes. All this compounds and adds to our mental stress, and we may feel the need to disconnect and relax temporarily. The best way to do this may be with a tech-free vacation.

While it may be easy to get outdoors and walk, hike, and engage in other activities, some indoor mini-vacations may be more of a challenge.

For example, if you enjoy visiting coffee shops, restaurants, indoor concerts, antique shops, and other indoor venues, you may decide these are great ways to escape. Still, you discover closures or restrictions, so you may have to change your plans.

I remember planning to have lunch with a close friend, and the restaurant wasn’t open to people sitting inside but was allowing people to order and take food. Since the restaurant was near the ocean and had favorable weather that day, my friend and I grabbed our lunches and headed to the beach. The visit ended up being more memorable than sitting in the restaurant as we were seated on battered old driftwood logs overlooking a sandy beach. Seagulls were flying, and there were sounds of crashing waves, a sailboat in the distance, and children running along in the sand. It was a moment to remember.

Being creative and adaptable is essential as we live and thrive during unprecedented times. While there are many great ideas for mini-vacations mentioned in this book, you may need to add your spin on these ideas and be flexible with your great escapes. You may need to call ahead to ensure places are open, check on regulations or rules, and have an open mind. When you tap into your creative, problem-solving mind, you create more options for yourself.

One of the best things you can do is create a personal list of great tech-free vacations and keep that list at hand so you can review it regularly. Then, you have ideas when you have a day off, a few free hours, or need a moment to slow down, relax, and recharge.

44096.png THE INSPIRATION FOR THE BOOK

The inspiration for Tech-Free Vacations for Your Busy Life has challenged me to think differently in recent years. Since I wrote my first book, Escape the Pace: 100 Fun and Easy Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy Your Life, I felt the pace of life keep accelerating, and people appeared to be more stressed and overwhelmed trying to keep up with everything. As a working mother and career professional, I also felt the pressure of growing demands.

People complained about how technology was impacting their lives. They would mention their tech-addicted children getting lost in online gaming or social media. I also heard people say how technology changed their jobs or eliminated some positions due to technological advances.

I felt the impact of a changing workplace and a heavy reliance on technology. Before the spring of 2020, I facilitated in-person workshops, met with and coached people, and enjoyed an office environment. Then, my position changed from seeing people in person to instructing numerous online webinars from my home. After several months of creating and delivering online content to clients, I felt exhausted, burned out, and overwhelmed. I knew something needed to change, and this was when I began researching ways to take technological breaks.

During this challenging time, I wanted to create a buffer from technology. One of the best ways to counterbalance the use of technology is to get outdoors in the natural world. I found gardening to be one way to embrace this concept.

I grew a small garden when my children were young, but as they became teenagers, I stopped gardening as my life was busy. Over the years, I thought about having a garden.

In 2020, I decided to resurrect my interest and grow a vegetable garden. After working in front of a computer screen all day, I would change into my gardening clothes and tend to this garden. It was a great escape to be outdoors in the sunshine, prepping plants for growth. I walked 20 feet to the garden during harvest season to grab fresh tomatoes, snow peas, carrots, and lettuce to make a healthy, delicious lunch.

The garden was one of many mini-vacations I started to engage in to add more fun, creativity, and balance to my life. I also revisited my passion for art and took photographs of landscapes, plants, and insects. The pictures were beautiful, and I transferred them to large canvases, added oil paint, and created a one-of-a-kind, multi-media painting series.

I considered writing this book because I felt positive effects as I engaged in these activities. Spending time outdoors and being physically active lowered my stress levels and increased my happiness. I felt more connected to nature and experienced more joy in my life, which inspired me to consider writing this book. More people need to know about the importance of taking techno-breaks and enjoying the power of mini-vacations no matter how little time they think they have to spare.

44096.png MY LIFE

The idea of inventing mini-vacations started when I was young. I used to think about adventures I could do on seven acres of pristine land my parents owned in the Okanagan in British Columbia. Being in nature was my sanctuary from the challenges and struggles of growing up. Whenever I had felt sad or frustrated and had time, I escaped outdoors and engaged in a mini-vacation.

Creativity was an essential part of my life, so I worked hard and managed to win art scholarships to attend university and obtain a visual art degree. I continued down the creative path, attending large gift shows, selling art, and exploring ways to be innovative.

As an entrepreneur and working mother, I needed simple ways to relieve the anxiety and exhaustion of being a co-owner of a 2,000-square-foot, high-end men’s retail store and juggling the demands of raising young children.

I started exploring healthy ways to relax and destress. The research eventually led me to become a local columnist for a newspaper and a magazine, and the experience and feedback from readers inspired me to write my first book.

I was asked to be a speaker at numerous events, featured in media such as Breakfast Television and magazines including Woman’s World, newspapers, blogs, online websites, and interviewed as far away as New Zealand.

In 2007, I became a Certified Life Coach and author and created a website, www.escapethepace.com. After a few years, I coached clients across North America and decided to gain more knowledge in the career development field. My curiosity led me to get certified as a Career Development Practitioner, and I’ve since been helping clients successfully navigate through life and career changes.

If you enjoy the book, email me your thoughts or escape ideas to: [e-mail]. I always love to hear what you’re doing to bring more escapes into your lives. If I don’t respond immediately, I may be escaping the pace, so please be patient as I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Happy escaping,

Lisa Rickwood — Chief Escape Artist (CEA)

CHAPTER 1

Serene Mini-Holidays

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Whether you thrive on constant activity or enjoy a slower pace, there will be times when you want to take short, relaxing mini-holidays where no one expects anything of you, and you have a moment to rest and recharge your body, mind, and soul.

These mini-vacations may happen at home, work, while you travel, or when you are out in nature. The trick is they should be calming and help you de-stress and relax.

44096.png TECHNOLOGICAL ESCAPE PLAN

There’s no Wi-Fi in the forest, but I promise you will find a better connection. —Ralph Smart

Our lives have merged with technology for quite some time. While we work, we may connect to the Internet and digital devices to complete our tasks. When spending time at home, we may watch TV, doom scroll (scroll through online feeds and focus on negative news), review and respond to social media, play video games, and research online.

There are many challenges with technology. One issue is the constant bombardment with notifications and distractions from emails, texting, social media, and more. While there are benefits to having this information and connection with others, it is also distracting and makes us less productive.

We lose a lot of time scrolling on social media and viewing others’ lives, the latest news events, and updating our status. We get sad and depressed due to focusing on negative-based news. The need for constant connectedness makes us anxious. We feel like we have to check our email and texts, thus becoming exhausted. Sometimes we need a technological break.

A positive