In this weeks post, read about…
How the experiment is going so far, Wellness walks, and boundaries for mental wellness, and what the detox has meant for me.
How is the experiment going so far?
At the beginning of this month, I let the charge run out on my iPhone, and iPad, and I bought a flip phone.
The experience has changed me immensely. I no longer panic about missing the next news bulletin, or have the need to respond to people on social media straight away.
My wife and I have carried on with our daily “wellness walks” (walk outside somewhere new for 1 hour minimum, only answer phones to family, and don’t talk about work) and after a few days where we didn’t know where to go, we have discovered some new parks, walked along the beach, and even went for a drive to walk around a lake (within government guidelines of course).
Wellness walks and boundaries for mental wellness.
As a part of the anxiety crackdown, we have noticed that working at home through lockdown, has been very easy to blur the lines between work and Homelife. It’s too easy to drag the laptop into the living room so you feel more comfortable on a zoom meeting, or eating whilst at the computer, because we have work to catch up on, even working overtime seems to have become a social norm these days.
Acknowledging this, my wife and I decided to do something about it, and have put up boundaries, declaring that each room must have a purpose… dining room for eating, office only for work, living room for relaxing, etc. Putting these rules into effect has made a huge impact on our lives, and we no longer feel drained of energy, or fed up with working at home, while the wellness walks provide us with the chance to get into a different environment, and away from the home working scenario.
What has the detox meant for me?
Detoxing from Social Media has really helped me to put my life under the microscope, and both my wife and I now work smarter, not harder. Considering the fact that I bought my iPad and pencil for writing, I have barely used it for that purpose, and it has become my source of entertainment in the past, watching Netflix whilst washing up for example. Unfortunately… I tend to binge watch, and so, this experiment has not only helped me to balance my digital social life (on my computer only now) but also my working life, because I can concentrate more, and not feel the need to watch more YouTube, or Netflix, which also chewed up a lot of my time now. I have even (on occasion) considered getting rid of my iPad, and sticking with the flip phone after the experiment.
All in all, this experiment has been massively influential in the way I used to run my life when Social Media controlled me, and the changes I feel, have definitely made a huge difference, not only to my social life, and working life, but to my wife, family and friends too.
If you wish to detox your social media life, and get back in control, instead of being chained to your mobile phone all the time, why not do a search on your favourite search engine? Help is only a click away 🙂