Opinion, Play, Writing

“Me Time” – Don Charisma’s Opinion

May is birthday month for me. Today, I’m chillaxing … tomorrow more of the same hopefully 🙂

I will approve comments as and when I get a chance … you’ve already heard my thoughts on impatient people …

Me Time ? IN today’s world of facebook, twitter, email, blogs, portable phones, smart phones etc etc we’re constantly bombarded with stimulating stuff. It’s entirely possible to be doing stuff 24/7/365 … contrast that with only 50 years ago where people had fixed line telephones and 5 day weeks at work, in UK we only had 3 TV channels ! … Are we getting enough me time ? Is it healthy on the mind, body and spirit to be doing stuff all the time ? Can human beings evolve fast enough to keep up ?

Close as I can get to a one line opinion post … over to you guys …

Warm regards

Don Charisma

PS (The Buddha is my “celeb” name for this post … for fun you may think up a tenuous connection if you like, please keep it clean and respectful, otherwise I may not be able to post)

Resources & Sources

Question Marks – all-free-downloads.com

Notes for commenters:

Don Charisma Warning Improvised Writing

Comments are invited. BUT you are reminded that this is a public blog and you are also reminded to think before you press the “post comment” button. 

Good manners are a mark of a charismatic person – so please keep comments civil, non-argumentative, constructive and related, or they will be moderated. If you feel you can’t comply, press the “unfollow” button and/or refrain from commenting.

I read ALL comments but can’t always reply. I will comment if I think there’s something that I can add to what you’ve said. I do delete without notice comments that don’t follow rules above. For persistent offenders I will ignore you permanently and/or report you.

Most decent people already know how to behave respectfully. Thank you for your co-operation on the above.

Warm regards, Don Charisma

 

DonCharisma.org Opinion Graphic

108 thoughts on ““Me Time” – Don Charisma’s Opinion”

  1. Pingback: Concise Writing – Don Charisma’s Prompt | Don Charisma

  4. Happy, happy birthday! Wishing you a fabulous birth month, Don!

    And now my thoughts on “me time”:

    We don’t own a television or watch it anywhere. It’s been like this for several years, and it’s our choice. Oh, the time we have for me/us time is practically endless because of that. I barely check my Facebook these days. I find the more I distance myself from useless technology, the more relaxed I am. Technology is alright, but taken moderation for me, at least.

    Reply

    1. Fairly much the same for me, landlord’s TV is here and Thai TV I don’t understand so don’t watch much … mostly like movies anyway … as for the technology, I think we need to be able to separate ourselves from it, to get the “me time” we need … the half-way house of letting it nag us constantly, isn’t completely “me time” …

      Reply

  7. birthday month?? then happy birthday to you too 🙂 because I have a birthday this month too 😀
    great post

    Reply

  11. Happy birthday!!! One of the best gifts we can give ourselves – the gift of me time! enjoy and my most hearty wishes for a year for of all you need to make you continue to be happy, wise, thoughtful, caring…..and more more me time!!!!! Hooray!

    Reply

  12. I give myself a Birthday Month too! How funny! Just when you think you’re being original, some bloke in Thailand says it’s his birthday month.

    Reply

      1. Well Happy Birthmonth to you nonetheless! Have a wonderful time with you, yourself, and more of you!

  13. I can see your connection with the Buddha because he taught to be in the moment and mindful. When we are doing that we are nurturing ourselves. I have been taught to believe over the years that spending time on myself was selfish. I have learned that if I don’t spend time on myself that it affects those around me.
    Take time to spend time with yourself and enjoy your birthday. Hugs coming to you.

    Reply

    1. Thanks Suz, and you have learnt some valuable lessons, which I totally see and make sense to me 🙂 … I’m not a Buddhist as you know, but learn’t a lot from Buddhists … I’d say you’re there or there about, I think being mindful/aware/concious is more important than being in the moment … and being OK about how things are is more important than being in the moment … “It goes on” I think intimates towards equanimity, not apathy 🙂 … it’s common for people to be shamed for doing things for themselves, which is a shame in itself because it can make people desperately unhappy … I understand the whys and the ins/outs as I’m sure you probably do too … I always think of it like the oxygen mask on the airplane, fit one’s own first, means that I have life to be able to assist others … but then I like to keep things simple … maybe I’ll blog about it sometime 🙂

      Off to do a bit of looking around at cameras, I’m constantly on a budget, so will probably be just looking rather than buying …

      Hugs to you, and thanks for your friendship and encouragement these past months, you are a very charismatic woman …

      Cheers

      Don

      Reply

      2. Thanks, had a good look around and came to the same conclusion as last time looking for technology here, it’s hit and miss … for Nikon J series very much miss, only model I could see is J1 … So I’m letting it mull in the mind, nothing urgent here anyway 🙂

  15. “I will approve comments as and when I get a chance … you’ve already heard my thoughts on impatient people …”

    I’m curious why a power blogger like you, with more than 28,000 followers and with probably dozens of comments on every one of your posts, chooses to moderate every single comment, even those of people who follow your blog and have commented previously. It’s your blog and you can do what you want, but I’m just wondering why you have chosen to do that.

    Reply

    1. LOL … no need to quote, I do remember writing this …

      The relevancy to “Me Time” is that it makes me happy that way. When I’m happy I’m enjoying my me time 🙂

      So that’s curiosity taken care of … was there another relevant question, or are you fully enlightened now ?

      Cheers

      Don

      Reply

      1. Well, I’m not sure you answered my question, unless having to moderate all comments is simply something that makes you happy. But why do you feel it necessary to moderate all comments, even those from people who have commented on your posts before? Seems like a lot of extra work for you; something that make take away from your “me time.”

      2. I read all comments anyway, so moderating them is no extra work, my disclaimer says this – “I read ALL comments”, that’s very clear. As I have a legal (and perhaps moral and ethical) responsibility for what gets published *including comments*, it allows me “not to have think” about my blog when I’m away from it during my “me time”. So it’s entirely relevant and entirely a very carefully well thought out choice. The past is not a good way to measure the future, so NO a couple of polite previously approved comments means *nothing* to me. Since moving to moderating *all* comments I’m very much happier with the operation of my blog – I’m happy with it – it makes me happy – Which was the short answer I already gave you, so I have already answered your question.

      3. Okay then. It’s your blog. It’s very successful. So whatever makes you happy! Thanks for taking the time to elaborate.

      4. I sense a difference of opinion, which I’d prefer you just state rather than endless questions. I was serious about the “me time”, do have other stuff I’d like to do apart from running this blog. I’ve processed nearly 30000 comments now, and seen a lot of shit go down … for how I want to run my blog it’s the best solution, wish I’d done the stricter moderation sooner. If I had control at a finer level then I would use that, there’s plenty of bloggers I do trust to print their comments immediately, a few hundred I can easily think of. Commenting in WordPress does leave a lot to be desired for powerbloggers, but I just work as best I can with the tools that are given.

        One other reason for the all comment moderation is that it allows me to keep track of comments. When I was doing 500-600 comments a day it would be easy to miss someone’s comment and therefore not reply. I like to reply personally as I enjoy the interaction, with almost all bloggers that comment.

        I did blog about all this here – https://doncharisma.org/2014/04/22/announcement-comments-on-don-charisma-blog/ perhaps it was before you started following …

      5. A difference of opinion, yes, but not a criticism of you or your blog or your decision to moderate all comments. I wasn’t being snarky in my last comment. I was genuinely interested in understanding why you choose to moderate each and every comment. And you answered my question, so thank you.

        I, too, read and respond to virtually all of my comments, but rarely do any of my posts generate comments in the triple digits, so I don’t have the same volume issues to deal with as you do. Perhaps if I got 500-600 comments a day, I might do the same as you.

        No, I didn’t see your announcement about moderating comments. I only recently started following your blog, so it’s likely that it was posted before I started.

        And you probably didn’t see my post on how much it pisses me off when my comments are moderated. http://mindfuldigressions.com/2014/05/06/your-comment-is-awaiting-moderation/.

        But hey, different strokes for different folks, right?

      6. Great then you’d probably be one of those people I’d add to my “approvals” list if there was such a thing. People may maintain whatever opinion they wish, one thing I’ve learnt running opinion posts.

        I’ve also seen my own comments “awaiting moderation”, and I don’t disagree with you on that. There are also bloggers who never post a reply, which again doesn’t encourage me to comment again, nor feel that *any* connection was made. But with that it’s not really a biggie for me, and I give the blogger whatever time they need to approve and reply if they want to.

        Bottom line is that each blog has it’s own reason for existing. Some people are professionals who blog for their business, some are individuals who want to “fight the power”, blog about their cooking or spread love/joy. So for different purposes different choices will be made. We’re not all forced to have the same theme, we’re not all forced to reply to comments. It’s the “democratic” part of WordPress – do your blog how you want to do it. Mine is personal/professional so there are limits to where I will go with it.

        The EXACT MAIN PURPOSE of my *FULL* comment moderation was to ensure that I saw every comment and was able to reply to it, to ENABLE ME TO COMMUNICATE MORE EFFECTIVELY WITH PEOPLE, NOT LESS. WordPress doesn’t have any other way of doing it. If there was a better way I’d use it. Having a “safe” list for commenters would be my favoured option, it would probably save me time. Instead their’s only a blacklist. So I do what’s best for me with the available tools.

        So I don’t think we’re entirely at odds even with differences. We’re probably even on a similar page just different blog purposes and different experiences.

        I find that I’ve learnt a lot from people expressing differing opinions, I have many smart, intelligent and clever people in my readership, so continue to encourage them on my opinion posts. However I don’t encourage morons, trolls or any other of a list of covert/overt bad behaviours that I have no interest in “playing” or entertaining on my blog, it just mostly wastes my time – my disclaimer and graphic were designed to weed out these people. To a very large extent it seems to have been successful.

        Cheers

        Don

  16. Happy birhtday!
    I took enough me time, you know. I don’t like to be estressed :P. But actual technology prevent to stay connected with yourself. That is the reason why I try to work and have a rest.
    Before I forget, since I follow your blog day by day I’m more and more inspirated and I’m having a new ideas for my blog, so thank you very much for following me. Have a very nice rest for your birthday 🙂

    Reply

  19. Reblogged this on healthsmartmomma and commented:
    What do you think about today’s technology vs our health as a society? Do YOU get your ‘me’ time away from technology?

    Reply

  20. Happy Birthday!

    Today’s world is entirely unhealthy on the part of technology and how much time we spend connected to it. I used to have a hard time just setting my phone on my nightstand during the night in case someone called or texted me. Now I just don’t even bother, it goes on my nightstand and stays there. I even turn the ringer down and it’s in a place where I can’t see it. It’s so easy to use technology all the time because there’s nothing stopping us except our own willpower and quite frankly, as humans, we don’t have much especially when there’s no real “consequences” for it.

    I personally love when I’m able to step away from all the phones and have a night out to dinner with my family, or go on a walk together, it’s so refreshing and re-energizing.

    Reply

  22. After learning more about Buddha, I think it’s more of inner peace that radiates regardless of whether you are alone or not. You’ll have constant me-time because you are in touch with your inner self. I remember more the Laughing Buddha, as embodied by the little boy in the video I shared in one of my posts. I wish we were all like that. The world would be a better place…Just my two cents’ worth (well, considering where I am, my twenty-five centavos’ worth, he he).

    Meanwhile, wow, you’re fellow Taurean! I wonder when….

    Reply

    1. that’s for people to wonder, a little mystery never hurt anyone 😀

      I think the constant inner peace is a nice ideal, and there are those who can maintain it, I guess 😀

      Reply

      2. For sure, my understanding is that a Buddha only seeks equanimity, equanimity is inner peace 🙂 or without the mumbo jumbo, inner peace is accepting whatever is within and being OK with it 🙂

  23. Happy Birthday month to you! I think we all need ‘me time’. To work constantly, whether it be in the sense of traditional work or just being on the go, can be mentally draining. We all need down time. I’m glad you’re taking some for yourself.

    Reply

  24. I make a point to give myself at least 5 minutes of me time every day. Obviously the venue varies depending on where I am, but mostly its on my porch at home with a cup of coffee just zoning out and watching the birds fighting at the bird feeder. At work, I generally take a few moments to go outside and watch the waves. Nothing like a good veg to reboot the brain!

    Reply

  26. Ahhhh, Don how you’re right! We’ve been all inter-connected to one another since 2000 (as far as I’m concerned).. but, what to say? I like it 🙂 Is that good for health..? umhhh… no, it’s not. Work, family issues, bills, annoying people, during our free time we’d need to rest and surfing the web, bloggin’, internet banking, aren’t properly restoring tasks. On the other hand, by way of the Internet I had the chance to know so many wonderful people that I won’t stop doing this. 🙂 … my gosh.,. sorry for my wordiness and have splendid time, dear Don 🙂

    Reply

      5. 😛 ok.. let’s go to dinner now. Thank you Don for this great blog-chat. I like you 🙂

  29. I’ve been studying the Biddhism’s Eight Fold Path to Enlightenment. It’s all about Right Views, Right Purpose, Right Concentration. I think Me Time fits right in because if we don’t have a handle on who and where we are, we’re wandering aimlessly. Meditation, (Right Concentration) is all about me time and what’s cool is that it can be done, if you’re focused, even among chaos. That’s my 2 cents. Me time for me is so important because otherwise I’d be just so overwhelmed. I need to shut it all off at least a couple times a day. ;). Great post. I enjoy your blog.

    Reply

    1. I’ve done a 10 day vipassana retreat and know most of the basics of Buddhism … agree partly on the meditation, although there is a lot of “work” potentially involved in meditation … for me “me time” would have been when I was taking a break from meditation, sitting on the bench outside the center, eye’s defocused and not doing anything apart from just being alive … and very much agree with the constant state of mindfulness – that’s where my meditation eventually took me, too much discipline involved in strict ana-pana, vipassana or meta … so I do it my own way now – don-charisma-meditation 😀

      Reply

  30. Happy Birthday Don,
    With the nicer weather coming here, I would imagine that a lot of people are going to be busy with other things too. Have a nice break.
    Leslie

    Reply

  31. To use the name Buddha means for me, it is time to relax alone without any kind of disturbings. Just enjoy your time. When are we going to congratulations to you?

    Reply

  32. No politics, no religion, no dicey stuff and no Tequila…what else is there? Ah…there is always art depicting all of the above…sans Tequila.

    Reply

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