Do you remember the days you’d complain to your mum about being bored, and she’d send you outside to play... and out of the boredom you became creative. With my siblings and friends on the estate we would make up games, make T-shirts, we coloured, drew, painted. We played in the present, mindfully, the only tool we had, to use was our imagination. Now as an adult when you think you’re bored. Our first thought is to reach for our phone and scroll through the insane world of social media. Down the rabbit hole we go, 30minutes later we come out of it sometimes feeling positive mostly feeling negative. We’re so addicted now to the outside world of photos, status’, likes, followers, it’s like we’ve totally lost our ability to just ‘be’ without the need for outside interference. Imagine now in this day and age, feeling the sense of boredom whether it’s waiting for an appointment, a friend, tea to cook, tellys broke. Whatever. And NOT picking up your phone... Well this is what I did 4 months ago, I thought it would be good for my mental health, sanity and a way to try and be more present. I came away from my personal Instagram (i deleted my personal Facebook years ago.) and unfollowed everything on my business page, so when I was posting about The Retreat that’s all I could see. I then put all social media in a little app box on my phone, listed ‘Work’.
And then there was quiet.
Complete silence.
My days were made up of mindful actions and activities. Time spent with others was actually time spent with others. Time spent alone was actually me having the opportunity to become creative again. Drawing, reading and meditating. What i found most interesting is the ability to do something wonderful or see something incredible and not feel the first thing I must do was to post it, instead of LIVING IT!!
**By unplugging from the outside world I was actually recharging myself, mentally, physically, emotionally.**
A proud moment when I saw my screen time had halved in time. Wow!
As I come out of my little hermit crab shell and back into the social media rat race, what I have learnt from this experience and how I personally will move forward is this...
1. Mindless scrolling of social media seems to just kill your imagination, creativity, and ability to be present.
2. Instead of reaching for the phone, pick up a book, journaling, exercise, just something that feeds the mind, the body or the soul.
3. If you decide to use social media, don’t use it to impress people, use it to impact people. It’s cheesy but spread positivity not negativity, it’s bad for you and EVERYONE around you.
4. Only follow people/businesses that inspire you.
5. DO NOT get caught up in things that aren’t meant for you. As soon as you notice you do, PUT THE PHONE DOWN!!
6. Try setting a time limit on how long you spend on social media a day. You won’t believe how much more spare time you suddenly have.
7. Not checking your social media in the presence of anyone. If you must take a picture wait to post it. Don’t waste precious time with loved ones with your head in social media land!!
8. Don’t be afraid to have a ‘detox’ from social media even just for a couple of days. We take better care of our smartphones than ourselves. When the battery is low we recharge it. Do this for yourself!! *unplugging from the outside world will help to recharge YOU!!*
9. Post when you are inspired to do so, comment when you are inspired to do so. Mindless updating is a sure way to kill the spirit.
10. Enjoy social media for what it was intended to do. I read so many other blogs and YouTube videos that are so inspiring about social media, that it reminds me what it’s there for. INSPIRE OTHERS + HELP OTHERS + SUPPORT OTHERS + BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD.
Remember your childhood, we never needed validation from the outside world then and you don’t need it now.
By doing this maybe we can teach our children to be more mindful, and that technology has many many great qualities for the world but it doesn’t have to be their complete world. Lots of love and light Faye x
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