Blissful Thinking: Advent Unplugged Wrap-Up

This Advent I linked up with other bloggers and took intentional steps to "unplug" from social media as well as make this season a time of reflection as we prepared for Christmas. You can read about my goals for Advent here and how it was going about half way through here.

After mass this afternoon, we will officially begin celebrating the birth of our Lord and King, Jesus Christ! It seems Christmas is sweeter this year because of the steps I took to make it reflective. Below are a few updates on how this Advent went for me:

I really appreciated not having the Facebook app on my phone. I found I wasn't as distracted from what was going on in my own house and conversations with my husband and I was using the time when I was nursing to read things that were enhancing my life in some way. I'm really not convinced that I'll download it again. In full disclosure, there have been a few times where I did use safari to go on FB for one reason or another, but it definitely wasn't the norm. As I said last week, I think there was more addiction to this form of social media than I originally thought; so glad that it became more apparent to me so that I can avoid being that "into" it again.

The Relevant Radio app was actually only used a handful of times, but I found it fruitful when I did tune in. I'm excited to keep using this as a way to learn more and grow in my faith and am grateful that it was part of this Advent season for me.

Being aware of the daily readings allowed me to follow along with the Advent season and gave me something to reflect on each day. This is something I have done intermittently in the past, but I really hope to keep this as a part of my day from now on.

Setting aside time for Brandon and I to reflect upon quotes from Padre Pio and a corresponding bible verse was also helpful. We talked about things we wouldn't have otherwise and it was a good reminder each morning and evening that Advent is a time for reflection and preparation and prayer.

Last week in a meeting someone asked, "Are you all ready for Christmas?"

"I still have presents to buy and wrapping to do. But I'm really not feeling stressed. Advent was a time of preparing my heart for Christmas and remembering the true reason for the season, and I'm just really looking forward to Christmas."