Once upon a train track, I was waiting for a train and two very full ones went by.

“Tis the Job of a Yogi to be Love and Light” so eventually I got on a stupidly overcrowded train and smiled at the shared insanity of it all, in attempt to lighten the London Death Stares. Ones that only a true Londoner can manage, where you are both contemptuously grilled and summarily dismissed simultaneously.

I have been out of town for a while and I get it. Life moves fast in London, too fast to say sorry or smile. But as a fully paid up member of the human race (yoga teacher and a mum) I am shocked to see how disconnected people are becoming from each other.

“Suffering is caused by change in the outside world, as well as impressions, desires (samsakra), misconceptions (vritti) and conflict. Suffering is omnipresent for those who have the capacity to differentiate.” ||15|| Yoga Sutras

We are forgetting to look around and remember each that each number of the thronging mass is a person with dreams and hopes, not just big stompy feet and a grump on.

“Showing respect for others without regard for social station, or for place, time, or circumstance in all spheres of this respect is a great virtue.” ||31|| Yoga Sutras

The world needs people who can lift this mood, and change the general vibe of detachment to that of valuable connections.

“Never producing pain by thought, word, and deed, in any living being, is what is called Ahimsâ, non-injury.” Swami Vivekananda

Be it through putting our phones down, and catching some eye contact, smiling (and then stealing their wallet so they learn never to trust anyone again! joke) or just adding one tiny bit of love and connection into others lives with a compliment or a gesture.

Social media is not a way to stay in touch. If anything, it is a tool, and unless you use the right tool for the right job you will generally mess it up. (Phones are quite good for phone calls I hear and sometimes you can even speak directly to a person.)

I have never felt so all alone and naked as the day I went for brunch by myself and forgot my hiding device. It was strange not to have a thing to pretend to be busy with.

No others to engage with. It was epic and refreshing. I listened in on others’ conversations and I thought about the people around me and what their stories might be.

It took me back to a time before phones when I liked to guess what others did and make up stories about them. I see now how important this is for us to create a lasting vested interest in the surroundings.

We need to be in engaged with those we come in to contact with.

“All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.” –Black Elk

Nova Milesko runs Teacher Trainings, CPD workshops and Digital Detox Retreats for more details www.novamilesko.com