Unplug yourself from the outside world and sometimes your inner thoughts to practice positive self-care. What does it really mean to unplug? For me, it will mean ignoring all the steps after turning off my alarm, which happens to be on my phone, early in the morning:
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Viewing Instagram photos, sometimes posting pictures to my own timeline. I’m not very consistent with this, but like to look and like what others are posting on their timeline.
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Close out of Instagram and head to Facebook real quick to see which comment groups i need to add content to so that more people may read my posts and follow or share my content.
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Send a morning text to my sister, hope for her to have a good day.
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Breeze through Twitter, flag profiles I need to return to to further read their highlighted content.
And this is all before the final alarm goes off to tell me to get my ass up before I’m late to work. On the weekends or days off, that constant view of social media before wiping the cold out my eyes or emptying my bladder is an issue. Why do we connect to the outside world in this way? It’s a drug, at least I think so. As if the world will cease to exist if we don’t view the latest update of what someone online has to say.
I tried to tell myself that on the weekends or at least on Sundays, I would not bother to open my social media accounts but it just calls me. Okay, now I sound crazy. Seriously, the entertainment of reading other people’s thoughts online is exactly that, entertaining. But not all content is fun and this is why we must take the time to unplug it all. People of all ages are being bullied. Comments are open to interpretation and sensitive images are being shared like a pen.
A facebook friend, recently posts that she was taking a sabbatical from social media to get her thoughts together. This unplug confession was interesting to me, bringing about some questions in my mind about how do you lose your thoughts while socializing with people online? Analyzing the question closely, some can lose themselves while never being on social media at all. The mind can only process but so much in a certain time period. There should be a healthy balance between socializing online and in person with people that you know and even like in real life.
Hmm, I guess in these few days that I will dedicate to this unplug challenge (it’s really for one day, but I’m extending it for the entire weekend), I’ll see what I’ll do with all this time not spent online. Does reading on a kindle count, playing games? I have a few Words With Friends games open that I should catch up on before the system forfeits my games.
It’s supposed to be a rainy day Saturday, perfect day to spend indoors, which I planned to do anyway and play some games on the Switch we got our daughter for Christmas. Have you played the game Overcooked 2? Or Mario Kart? I did want to go online and find my friends to play with but I’ll have to leave that for another weekend.
Do you have any suggestions for a weekend where you just unplug?
Self-care Challenges – Letter to Me, Meditation, Reading, Walking, Podcasts
1 thought on “Self-Care Challenge – Unplug, Unplug, Unplug”
I love your idea that unplugging from social media is a form of self-care. I do this very rarely, but when I do, it’s an enormous mental and emotional relief. I should make an effort to do it more often. Other ways that I practice self-care are to take the time to read something I’ve been looking forward to, or spending some quiet time alone, journaling or praying. I rarely watch tv, but watching a good chick flick is a good one too. One thing I need to work on is not feeling guilty about taking the time for self-care!