Episode 126: 50+ Ways to Have Fun Without Screens

Let's take a break from our devices and have fun! In celebration of the Global Day of Unplugging this weekend, this episode is an unscripted brain dump of over 50 ideas for fun things you can do with friends, with a partner, with kids, and by yourself that don't involve screens. In addition to my own ideas, I've included ideas  that my kids wrote down when they were in elementary school, to give a kid's perspective as well. 

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The information contained and documents referenced in the podcast “Your Priority Centered Life” are for entertainment, educational and informational purposes only, and are not intended as, and shall not be understood or construed as, professional medical or health treatment, diagnosis, or advice. We strongly encourage listeners to consult with medical providers or qualified mental health providers with issues and questions regarding any physical and/or mental health symptoms or concerns that they may have. Furthermore, the opinions and views expressed by podcast guests, partners and/or affiliates are not necessarily those of the podcast host. Dr. Alise Murray’s opinions and views are expressed in her individual capacity and are not to be construed as those of any of her podcast guests, partners and/or affiliates.

Transcript

(Transcript is autogenerated and may contain minor errors.)

Hello, hello. Today we are going to be talking about the Global Day of Unplugging. This is a day that has been commemorated around the world for, I think, 10 years approximately. And it is coming right up. In fact, it may be starting in just a few hours for some of you. It is March 7th at sundown to March 8th at sundown.

Even if you're catching this podcast when it's already started, it's pretty good. Perfectly fine to just jump right in or if you catch this podcast when the event is over, I invite you to create your own day of unplugging because this is an idea that I'm really excited about. The idea here is we're not talking about being completely off the grid, totally unplugged. We are talking about taking a break from screens. And this just gets my creative brain buzzing. It's exciting to me to think about all the different possibilities when you are getting away from your usual habit. You know, when we're Uh, saying, nope, I'm not going to pick up the phone. I'm not going to turn on the TV. I'm going to try something a little different, just for a few hours.  

So, in the spirit of that, I thought that I would do the podcast a little bit differently today.  I am usually someone who takes some time to prepare notes and to jot down a bunch of ideas and then I'm referring to those notes on screen as I'm recording the podcast, but today I said, Nope, let's just really in the spirit of being away from screens,  let's just completely brain dump this and, get into some ideas for some fun things that you can do with Global Day of Unplugging because I love a challenge like this. 

 So we're going to see what happens. We're going to see how many ideas I can generate in 15 minutes, and we'll just see what kinds of things we come up with. And you might find certain things that grab you for Global Day of Unplugging. So let's go.

 First of all, Think about connection. Think about people in your life that you might want to connect with. So, simply getting together to do some of these activities, getting together just for a chat with friends, friends you haven't talked to for a while,  you could call them on the phone.  You could even write an old fashioned letter.  To just really surprise them. Make a greeting card for them. Connect with your kids, and with your partner.

Let's think about your senses. Think about if you are not looking at a screen, what would you like to look at? So maybe you want to go to a park, walking by a lake, walking on the beach  or going up to a hillside. I have fond memories of being in the Palouse in the Pacific Northwest and going up to Kamiak Butte and seeing this beautiful view while having a picnic with friends.   Looking at books, looking at art.  Checking out a part of town or a nearby town that you just never seem to get around to visiting. Go ahead and check it out.

See what you can see. Window shop. Check out the neighborhood.  

And think about  sound as well. Listening to some good music.  Maybe there are certain artists that you would really like to explore. Checking out their music.  , I am currently listening to the Thousand Albums Project. The Thousand Albums to Listen to Before You Die. I listen to one album a day. So does my husband, and that's a lot of fun. We listen to These albums and then we talk about them. Go hear some live music, Not just listening to music, but playing music.  You can sing, you can play an instrument,  you can set up pots and pans.   This is something probably done in brief doses, but getting out pots and pans and,  boxes and things and some chopsticks and then letting them pretend they've got a drum kit and just go to town.     

Scent. Getting outdoors.  I love the smell of dirt. I love the smell of wood.  I love camping.   You might wander into an essential oil shop or a candle shop and just have fun.  Smelling the different fragrances and,  see what you enjoy. You can even do a little bit of blending fragrance oils and making your own scents. That can be a lot of fun.  

Touch. You can go for a swim, you can feel the water on your skin. Especially if you're right now in a part of the world where the temperatures might be a little bit hot. You can lay in the grass, you can dig your toes in the dirt,  forest walking, barefoot walking, just cuddling up in a blanket and taking a nap.  Wouldn't that be something? Maybe something you haven't done for a while.  

And taste,  what fun. You can  visit that bakery you've been curious about, meet up with friends at a new coffee shop, go to a restaurant,  take the kids for ice cream,   my kids used to enjoy going to the candy store where you could see the machine that stretches the saltwater taffy,  and then eating it. 

You can go to a farmer's market.  Often times they'll let you sample  different kinds of fruit and vegetables that you may not have experienced before. I'm fortunate enough to live near the Pike Place Market, so that is a feast for the senses.  Maybe there is a market near you that would be fun to visit.  

And when we're talking about the senses, it's not just the five classic senses. there are also the kinesthetic and vestibular senses.  Meaning how you feel in your body. So doing some sports, doing, if you're with kids, you can set up like a backyard Olympics, you know, set up some fun games involving crab walking,  kicking a ball around cones,  jump roping. Just kind of thinking about different things that you can do.   

Also, you don't have to do things during the day, since we're talking about sundown to sundown. Think about things you can do in the dark. Flashlight tag.  When my husband and I were dating, we went on a candle light picnic. We went to a place near the water where the city lights were reflecting off the water. And we sat at a picnic table, lit a candle and we had a picnic dinner, very romantic. I used to with the kids, especially when they were squirrely and I just wanted them to settle down. Once in a while, I would say, let's pretend there's a power failure and we would just Turn everything off except turning on camping lanterns and little electric candles  and that tended to get them into a calmer space.  So once they're calmed down a little bit, then you can read picture books and some other things that kids enjoy doing.  

Crafts. And of course adults enjoy doing these things too. All sorts of different crafts you can do, and they don't have to be anything really fancy.  Adult coloring has really become popular. Or sketching. Don't worry about how good you are, just have fun messing around with crayons, with pencils, with paints, whatever you can get your hands on. With collage. Gluing different things together  to make something new and interesting. Scrapbooking.  Even if you don't have a full scrapbook, you can make a scrapbook page.   

 Self care.  Think about taking a bath, giving yourself a manicure, pedicure,  doing a spa day. Kids love doing a spa day.  

And there's so many games you can play with kids while we're on the subject.   You can play restaurant.  Coming up with menus and then they just serve you leftovers.   If you really feel like  being adventurous, you could play like a reality TV show, like a chef thing. Get out certain ingredients and say, all right, see what you can come up with with these ingredients and give them a time limit, see what they come up with and, and then  see how good it is. See if it's edible. 

I am actually going to, I still have some slips of paper that my kids,  when they were younger I used to ask them to, if you have an idea for something that you would like to do, Write it down on a piece of paper, put it in, I had an old lunchbox, put it in the lunchbox. And from time to time, we will draw a piece of paper and we will do that thing. And of course, I would look through the pieces of paper to make sure there wasn't anything in there that was, like, completely out of line. Like, fly to New York or something.  But the kids were pretty good about coming up with things that were not outrageously expensive. And interestingly, They tended to come up with things, not even with my prompting. They typically did not mention things involving screens. They wanted to do something different.

So I have that lunchbox. I have not looked at this in years. I'm going to take a look. And I'm going to just see what ideas, and this is so sweet, my kids handwriting,  Of just some things that they suggested. Have a slumber party. Yes.  Learn how to do balloon animals. Interesting.  Go to a farm. Have their favorite dinner. Mac and cheese. We used to call it the orange dinner. Mac and cheese, baby carrots and mandarin oranges. Gardening.  Yeah, you totally do that. Nerf guns. Um, doing a zip line.  Go to a play. Do different types of races. So what I'm pretty sure what my daughter meant here is to do like obstacle courses, relay races, that sort of thing. Go to the aquarium. Go to the mall.  Roll out a big piece of paper and draw a picture together as a family.  Yes, and I remember once my kids took a big box, and they made it into a building.  They drew, uh, they drew windows and everything on the building, and then they pretended it was on fire, and they grabbed a vacuum hose, and they pretended they were putting out the fire, um, and they saved the stuffed animals inside.

We used to play jack in the box when they were very little, have them get in the box. And then they would pop out unexpectedly.  

So there are a lot of ideas , it's just limited to your imagination. And hopefully, I've helped you to,  come up with some ideas.  I'm going to leave it there because  I want you to get out and do some of these things. And incidentally, since we are talking about Global Day of Unplugging, there is a good chance that there might be some fun events in your area to commemorate this occasion. So you might check it out and see. You might be surprised at what you find.

Have fun. Have a blast. And I would love to hear from you. If you do something on Global Day of Unplugging or another day that you really enjoy, please feel free to mention it to me. 

Drop me a line at hello@dr-alise.com. I would love to hear from you and to hear how this goes. So I'm excited. Get out and do it. Have fun.