One Week With No Power

[Extreme Z7]

July 6, 2017

I was minding my own business, when suddenly the lights went out and the ground began shaking. A 6.5 magnitude earthquake just hit my area of residence. It was not that strong where I was and my house was basically unscathed but from what I heard, it hit the local power plant really bad. It would take a week before the power would come back. The power just came back a few hours ago as I write this and I thought I would like to share my experience of living with no power for about 7 days. (Through a personal development perspective, of course)

My Normal Routine:
Do some minor exercise and yoga first thing in the morning before breakfast then work with "hyper-speed" on various projects. I'm a recent Computer Science graduate with no employment but have convinced my parents that I won't look for a job yet until I pass a certain prominent I.T. fundamentals exam scheduled this October so I can easily get an I.T. related job without hassle. Unfortunately, I.T. has nothing to do with my creative life purpose.

I'm seriously considering becoming a music producer (specifically a video game music producer). I also do a bit of drawing occasionally, okay,. .  quite a lot of drawing, actually. Plus, I have a big indie game project that I started 2 years ago back when I was seriously considering becoming a game developer before changing my mind. However, the project still isn't finished and I don't want to abandon it completely and I believe it will still take several months before I can really complete it and focus on other things. I'm also the only developer working on the game, I make everything from the coding to artwork to the music.

Bundle that with my 1 hour daily meditation habit and 30 minute daily self inquiry habit. And also me trying to squeeze in some reading there as well. And it's still not the full picture because of family matters, addictions and distractions.

My Happiness Level:
Not very high. I'm overworked and stressed out. No surprise there.

My Routine After The Earthquake:

My exercise and yoga in the morning was not affected at all.

The only activities I could engage in with no power was meditation, reading, and drawing without the POWER of using google for image references. I had much less distraction. During the hours I normally would spend either working on a project or in entertainment/distraction was spent mostly drawing (I plan to post all the drawings I made soon). On two separate days I went outside and did nothing but walk around town for about an hour or so (Although I do actually do this occasionally during my normal routine as well). I did 1 hour of self-inquiry work a day instead of the usual half hour. I would also occasionally do long sits of doing nothing when I didn't want to draw, read books, or go outside.

Unfortunately, I've already read all the self-help/personal development-related books I have so all the books I read during the week were fiction books for entertainment purposes.

My Happiness Level:
Mostly bored as hell but a few days into it, I noticed that I wasn't stressed out. This simplistic lifestyle was refreshing and I learned a few things about how I should restructure my normal routine in order to live a more conscious life. Even the fiction books were really helpful, I could lose myself in a world of fantasy instead of thinking about my work schedule like I usually do.

Things I Learned:

• Peace is more important than Productivity
• I don't need to go on "hyper-speed" all the time. It's incredibly unconscious and it makes me feel miserable. Better to work mindfully and take breaks whenever I'm losing concentration.
• I can cut my workload in half and my distractions by a lot more but it will take a lot of emotional work. But the important thing is that I can do it. It's going to be especially difficult while my mind won't let go of that big game project but when I finish it, there will be a huge space that I'll have to handle strategically.
• I should probably be drawing more even though it's just a side-hobby for me. It's a really easy outlet for me to get my imagination out there.
• I should buy more personal-development-books. I clearly don't have enough personal-development books.
• All of the above should be implemented slowly and with patience.

[Visitor]

Amazing what changes when something we rely on a daily basis, such as electricity, is no longer there.

As you said you get used to it, to some degree. I lived in the bush for a few years without electricity, running water, telephone, or transport. When i did get back to civilization it took me awhile to get used to a toilet again, and I had trouble getting out of lovely hot showers.

On a full moon, a few neighbours would walk the few kilometers through the bush to visit me without using a light. They would invite themselves over for dinner, but they always bring lots of fresh vegetables from their gardens. Sometimes they bring musical instruments to play some blue-grass music. 

Everyday I collected water from a nearby dam and I would split and break up dry fallen wood for fire. many birds would come as soon as they heard the axe or splitter. They would surround me by about 10 yards radius and wait for me to finish so they can get the termites from the split wood. If I didn't produce any be the time I gathered my quota I would seek out an old stump, full of termites, to break open.

They were good times. Though I have to admit the town comforts are very good too.

Thanks for sharing your thread@Extreme Z7, it brought back some fond memories.

[Extreme Z7]

@Visitor Good for you

I myself am very very far from being accustomed to that kind of lifestyle. I'm still pretty attached to my electronics and entertainment although I am still pretty young.

i did just meditate for 10 hours today, though. It was to challenge myself. I believe I've gotten even more benefits from that compared to my 7-day no-power experience.