With the cold kicking in, the power is once again going out. These power outages can really get one down. I know. I’ve done my fair share of complaining. And we may feel justified in our complaints: we can’t warm our babies’ bottles, we can’t pop onto the Internet to help a kid with a project, we can’t finish the dinner or get the washing done. Not to mention the financial implications of hours where you or your staff are not being productive.
We have a right to have a bit of a moan. But thinking negatively can really drain your energy!
I felt I needed a bit of a pick me up on this particular subject so a friend and I made a list of 100 benefits to the rolling blackouts. We thought we’d share it with you in the hopes that it will light up your day as much as it did ours.
- Spend less time on devices (We don’t need to plan a “no technology day” anymore)
- Spend more time connecting with family and friends
- Less noise pollution
- Less light pollution
- It’s atmospheric (there’s nothing like candlelight to make a scene beautiful)
- Play games instead of watching TV (get back to our own childhoods of snakes and ladders, Monopoly, charades etc.)
- Have more conversation
- Go to sleep earlier (a healthier option for most of us)
- Wake up earlier and get more out of the day
- Take a break from working
- Brings people together
- It gives us something to talk about
- Compels us to move towards alternative power sources
- There is a lot of research being done into sustainable power
- We use less electricity – reserving Earth’s resources
- When we have power we get more work done
- We learn to plan ahead and have contingency plans
- Tell stories – giving our kids the cultural background of the stories we grew up with
- Tell our kids our life stories and family history
- It’s like camping!
- Teaches us to toughen up a bit
- Pulls us back to the simplicity of life
- Get back to the “olden days”
- More family time
- More opportunity to talk to and connect with your partner
- Read books and give our kids a love of reading
- Make shadow puppets
- Do crosswords and Sudoku and exercise our brains a bit
- Getting back to the REAL stuff of life
- Put the focus back on what is important
- Teaches us to be creative
- Teaches us to be resourceful
- Stop wasting time on social media
- Work on areas of your life you don’t take time for due to work and distractions
- Time to sort your cupboards etc.
- Gratitude for having electricity in the first place (and running water)
- Appreciate hot water
- Appreciate having a dishwasher, phone, TV, computer, etc.
- Back to reality – all human beings are equal
- Breaks down class differences
- Listening to good audiobooks / music in traffic
- Time to chat in the car
- Learn patience
- Learn something in the car – take an audio course
- Listen to an entire book while sitting in traffic (catch up on reading time)
- Improve your career / finances / etc. in the traffic (via audio programs)
- Learn a new language in the car
- Learn to accept the present moment as it is ‘cos there’s nothing you can do about it!
- Be prepared – have your coffee, audiobooks etc. ready to settle in
- Learn to prepare your mind for delays
- Get over the “in a hurry” mindset
- Slow down
- Learn to leave early and take it easy
- Teaches kids to be ok with the dark
- Learn to budget (making less money due to blackouts)
- Simplify financially
- Making a plan BEFORE the coal all runs out
- Creating new industries
- Cash to be made in generators, solar power etc.
- Learn to handle financial ups and downs
- Switching to energy efficient bulbs etc.
- Makes us very conscious of energy consumption
- Less wasteful of electricity – only using washing machines, dishwashers etc. when full
- Fulfils our human psychological needs:
- Provides us with certainty (we KNOW the lights will be out at some point!)
- Provides us with variety (more creative in how we spend our time)
- Provides us with significance (looking after our kids in the dark)
- Provides us with love and connection (spending more quality time together)
- Growth (reading, learning, talking to each other)
- Contribution (becoming more aware of what people with no electricity permanently have to go through); teaching us empathy.
- Gives us more of a Spiritual connection – time to pray, meditate, connect with source
- Mentally – it removes the problem of too many options that deaden the mind – like too many TV channels making us spoiled for choice
- Financially it makes us more creative and focused on budgeting, saving and investing
- Shops closed means we spend less
- Less time spent on shopping
- Helps us to be more family oriented
- Socially we may go out more and so connect with people we love more, or, we may go out less, therefore saving on petrol, take-out bills, etc.
- Physically, we are given a break from the constant electromagnetic field around us
- In our careers – it gives us the opportunity to step back from the chaos and rethink strategy and the bigger picture
- We can see the stars more clearly at night
- We can get creative with glow-in-the-dark paints and toys
- We can have fun decorating with solar lanterns
- We can play with sparklers
- We have the opportunity to become more inward focused
- There are less distractions
- We can connect with ourselves and our feelings
- We have the opportunity to face our fears
- Play music, sing
- Connect with your neighbours – sharing information and checking up on each other
- Eating take-out – having a break from cooking
- Eating more raw foods and all the health benefits of that
- Not bathing / showering / washing dishes – save on water
- More emphasis on breast feeding (can’t warm up bottles) – healthier for our babies
- Kids learn to sleep without their night lights – better for overall sleep and health
- Less noise when the kids go to bed
- Kids less stimulated by TV / computer games before bed
- Kids and teens learning real communication skills (not just text-based interactions)
- We’re forced to become more solution-based than problem-based
- We’re having to find ways to deal with the additional stresses and frustrations – tools that will help us in other areas of life
- We’re learning to find benefit in adverse situations which gives us a better overall approach to life
Mia Von Scha is a Transformational and Parenting Coach, an inspirational speaker, an author of children's books, a mother of two beautiful girls, a wife to a crazy and devoted partner, and a lover of life. She is
trained in both in traditional therapy, with a BA in Psychology and a certification in Trauma Counselling, and in various alternative therapies including Neuro Linguistic Programming, Life Coaching, Hypnotherapy, Stress Biofeedback, and Time Paradigm Techniques. For more information, please visit her Website for further information
trained in both in traditional therapy, with a BA in Psychology and a certification in Trauma Counselling, and in various alternative therapies including Neuro Linguistic Programming, Life Coaching, Hypnotherapy, Stress Biofeedback, and Time Paradigm Techniques. For more information, please visit her Website for further information
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