Day 21

Company for dinner

The Advent Cal(m)endar contains habits to increase clarity, focus and calmness. Every second day, I open a door and post about my experiences.

Hi readers! I hope you are all getting ready for the festivities (if you celebrate them)! I usually keep Christmas deliberately simple, but I have painted Christmas cards for my family, planned a few meals and prepared decorations with candles, stars, and pine cones. Some gifts are still waiting to be wrapped though… Today’s post will be a bit short as I am somewhat unwell, but you can probably guess the reasoning behind today’s habit anyway:

Have dinner without a screen

I live alone, so who keeps me company during my dinners? Exactly, my laptop (this sounds so sad!). I usually watch YouTube videos. However, for the last few days this has been out of the question, as the habit of Day 17 is “No more than 20 minutes of YouTube” (and I eat quite slowly…)! What I have been doing instead: Reading book recommendations, comparing book contents and prices, and buying a lot of books – all while eating. As this is an elaborate activity for me and I try to find the perfect combination of books at the lowest cost, it can easily take up several dinners.

But as other posts have already demonstrated, I’d like to reduce screen time, regardless of whether it’s time watching videos or time buying books (I am also not really rich enough to keep buying books every dinner)! So, what should I do instead?

When you read about mindfulness, it’s often recommended to properly savour your food and do nothing else while eating. I frequently follow this advice at breakfast, and I enjoy having a cup of tea just looking at the hills and the sky outside. But honestly, for dinner, I’m fine with wanting entertainment, as I like to eat slowly and get some distraction from work (since I usually continue working after dinner). So, I have decided to put all those books to good use and read (I just need to be careful not to get food on them, as I often re-sell or donate them!), or listen to an audiobook (which prevents the risk of food on my books and does not require looking at a screen, so it’s “allowed”).

Dinner today is broccoli pasta bake, and my company will be the Underland audiobook, a monumental non-fiction work about landscapes and stories underground – I am not very far into it, but so far it’s absolutely fascinating!

What do you do during dinners? Is there really anyone who eats alone and does nothing else at the same time?

Happy last Advent weekend!

Hannah