{"id":221,"date":"2010-12-15T16:35:49","date_gmt":"2010-12-15T16:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/?p=221"},"modified":"2010-12-15T19:59:27","modified_gmt":"2010-12-15T19:59:27","slug":"in-good-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/2010\/12\/15\/in-good-company\/","title":{"rendered":"In Good Company"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Today I did something I have always wanted to do. I burned my To-Do-List. Now I only have 2 things to do today. Write while my children are at school, and then play.<\/p><\/div>\n

For the longest time I couldn\u2019t decide if I should continue to write my Hands Free book privately or if I should start sharing it on a blog. I knew that by \u201cputting it all out there,\u201d I was taking a risk.\u00a0 I would be exposing the struggles of my life for all to read and critique.<\/p>\n

For weeks, I have had unsettling dreams as the debut of my blog grew near.\u00a0 But then my Hands Free inner voice quickly reminded me that along with distraction and disconnection, I am letting go of perfection. I knew that by letting the world know my inner conflicts and my weaknesses, I would be one step closer to the person I wanted to become. I would be one step closer to having the inner peace that would come hand in hand with having a less distracted life.<\/p>\n

Yet on the day I debuted my blog, every single apprehension, fear, and doubt that I had been experiencing was silenced. \u00a0As the encouraging comments came pouring in, I was eased into a gentle hammock of affirmation; words of support lifted me and wrapped themselves securely around me.<\/p>\n

No longer did I have to wonder if I was the only one feeling this way. No longer did I feel that I was alone in this battle against the destructive forces of daily distraction. No longer did I feel like I was the only one who wanted to burn my to-do-list and make playing the only real priority of the day. I had started a conversation and the world emphatically answered.<\/p>\n

Now I know there are men and women out there who want to stop checking their Blackberry and start checking their marriage. There are moms and dads who want to stop building their contact list and start building lasting relations with their children. There are people who no longer want their lives to be dictated by a merciless schedule, but instead dictated by their heart and soul.<\/p>\n

I thought I was going to be the one giving the messages here; but yesterday I received one loud and clear. This message was spoken by men and by women. It was spoken by people who work outside the home and by people who work inside the home. Someone over age 60 spoke this message, as did someone under age 30.\u00a0 The message was spoken through many different voices and multiple styles, but the message was unmistakable: There is an army of us that want our life back.\u00a0 The Hands Free Revolution has begun.<\/p>\n

For one person, it started with the choice to build a snowman instead of doing work.\u00a0 For another, it started with the choice to talk with his son while taking him to practice instead of driving on auto-pilot. For one mom, it meant listening to her daughter talk about a book she was reading instead of checking email. And for another, it meant giving her 13-year-old daughter a bedtime back rub rather than watching television.<\/p>\n

Daily distraction, consider yourself warned.\u00a0 I\u2019m going Hands Free; and I am not alone.<\/p>\n

Besides daily distraction and disconnection, what is something you are holding on to that you want to let go of? For me it was the impossibly high standards I expected of myself. What is holding you back from having fun, being yourself, or simply living life? Let it go.\u00a0 See how it feels to be free.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the longest time I couldn\u2019t decide if I should continue to write my Hands Free book privately or if I should start sharing it on a blog. I knew that by \u201cputting it all out there,\u201d I was taking a risk.\u00a0 I would be exposing the struggles of my life for all to read […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[1521],"gutentor_comment":9,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/IMG_29001-248x2701.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1fUJF-3z","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}