Mindful Moments: 26 September, 2021

So yesterday was my final hours of my media detox, which was suggested by @ericvancewalton in his book Mindful Moments. Overall, I would say that the detox was a positive experience. I actually extended it on my own for some of the day and didn't actually get back onto my socials until later in the day. At first I thought starting the detox halfway through the day was was bad idea, but I'm glad I did because it made me more aware of the instant changes that happened when I started it back up. In fact, I would say that I noticed a bigger change when I went back to it than I did when I stopped it...and it wasn't a good change.

When I went back on my socials tonight, I noticed that almost all of it was negative. I mean...it might have been 100%. Furthermore, I noticed that the posts I first interacted with were all negative. I try to live by the philosophy to be the change that I want to see, so it was a bit revealing that I was drawn to the negative and even brought it down further. In short, I'm the problem, not the change.

Now I will say, I haven't been on d.buzz yet. I'd expect it to be a lot more positive there. It usually is and my feed is much broader there.

So here are some of the important things I've learned during my media detox period:

I can do it. I know I had my doubts going into this, but it was actually easier than I thought it would be.
there was nothing substantially good missing from my life.
plugging back in almost immediately had negative effects on my life and relationships
I'm no Saint and I tend to add to the problem. Social media isn't really something I'm likely to clean up from the inside.
the detox is better if others do it with you.
I think most would benefit from detoxing from the phone as well as its apps.

Thanks to Eric for the suggestion. I don't know what changes I will make from here, but I think whatever they are, I will be good.

I did 10k, but I didn't post it in time...oh well.