You may have noticed the trend lately of people trying the latest “detox” and “cleanses” the last couple of years. They are meant to rid your body of anything that may be harming it or just not the best for it. Myself along with the 11 other U.S. participants just had a “detox” of our own…
We just spent four days without any wifi connection! (Keep in mind, we don’t have a cellular connection here like our 10 UTM friends.) Although we were all very worried about our Snapchat streaks being lost, not being able to check our social media, or check-in with family, this was one of the best experiences for us on this trip.
Our four-day detox of digital connection allowed us the opportunity to fully immerse ourselves in the Malaysian culture and to spend time with our host-families uninterrupted. It took away the distraction of being caught up in our digital lives and allowed us to fully utilize our senses to dive into our physical lives.
We’ve all been guilty of being present physically but not necessarily mentally. In today’s age, most of us have a tendency to subconsciously check our phones more often than necessary. The co-dependency of having our phones constantly attached to our hands has eliminated many of our abilities to be fully present in the moment. Hence, the detox we all just experienced! Not going to lie, I am one who definitely needed this experience to learn what it feels like to be fully connected to the world again!
After spending the last four days fully focused on creating a stronger bond with our host-families and UTM friends, I would say our detox was a success! We all had the opportunity to reconnect with our family and friends tonight when we arrived back at Scholar’s Inn on UTM campus; however, we aren’t staying put long… On to our next adventure in Sabah! (We will have our wifi connection on our next adventure to keep y’all posted along the way.)
Ms. Tessa Meyer (@tessa_c_meyer) is a pre-service agricultural teacher candidate attending Iowa State University (@AgEds_IaStateU) and a graduate from Hawkeye Community College [IA] (@GALC_Hawkeye, @HawkeyeCollege)