Sometimes life steps in and gives you the break you need. That’s what happened to me the weekend before Christmas. Long story short, I was without my phone for four days, and even though the situation could have been avoided, I reframed it as a positive digital detox experience.
Here are a few things I learned, and how you can apply them to your own digital detox. The best version of you might just be when you’re unplugged!
“It’s healthy for us to lose our phones in our house once in awhile and be away from them. Have nights with our loved ones where it’s a no phone or no internet night, or just unplug the internet. You might play a board game and have fun instead of sitting and watching Netflix or scrolling on Instagram and getting lost in the Instagram echo chamber.”
In this episode Avani talks about:
If you’re like me, you crave creativity and white space. What I realized when I was without my phone is that the white space has been there all along, I’ve just been filling it with Instagram and other apps on my phone. If you take a break every now and then, you’ll get the white space you’ve been craving.
You’ll need some time to get used to not having your technology around. We’re so dependent on our devices that the lack of connectivity will feel different. That’s ok and it will be helpful in getting those creative juices back.
You can discover a lot about yourself and how your brain perceives your everyday life when you don’t have something to distract it. Your imagination might go a little far and assign seemingly mundane situations with deeper meaning. Keep an eye on it because it can really give you great insight into your own personality.
I already have some digital-free tasks built in to my daily routine, like meditation, but I found myself enjoying more of my little daily tasks because I was already on this detox. You may notice yourself enjoying seemingly normal tasks even more as well.
Being off my phone made me feel in the moment more than I normally would. This is something that I want to get better at moving into the new year and this is a simple way to boost your mindfulness in a situation.
I thought that I needed my phone like I need my hands or arms. It’s just not true. We don’t need these devices, and it’s a good idea to practice life without them sometimes. Have “no phone nights” with your loved ones or unplug the internet.
We need to do this more often. All of us. I know that this would be instrumental in me being the best version of myself and I think that it can help you as well. I’m planning on doing this on a regular basis moving forward.
My brain is constantly “on”. We need to figure out ways to shut it off every once in a while to be better versions of ourselves. I realized I had become addicted to anxiety and stress and I was burying it in Instagram. When I didn’t have it, my brain made up things to be stressed about. If you notice this in yourself, make a plan to detox and remedy!
