During the last few days I have been doing a general cleaning of my social networks and my consumption of them. To achieve this approach I had to realize the excessive time I was investing in them, it was something perhaps too dependent and in turn, I was looking for people in this same network with which to have the excuse to ''take a look at the mobile'' to stay in tune with all these stimuli.
I feel that as human beings we do not know how to set limits or, we are not really taught to set them and that inclines us to severe suffering because we end up doing things that we really did not want at that point and, by this I mean that for example I tend to be a person who does not socialize much by social networks and, people find it difficult to understand this and immediately tend to label me as ''rude'' when I decide not to answer a message.
I started to get involved in this situation, I would check my cell phone relentlessly, I would force myself to answer all messages to avoid these conflicts and, once again, I would go back to consuming more social networks. It's overwhelming, it's as if the design of these were there to keep you anchored (which in the end it is, but you get my drift). I want to maintain a healthy relationship with respect to the consumption that I am giving to all these platforms, I have even eliminated some that do not contribute anything of value to my life.
Because in the end that is what I want to achieve, to have relationships or links that I really have something to contribute to my life. Over time I realized that my emotional stability is again being affected by this excessive consumption and, in addition, I was again becoming a person with a slight touch of bitterness, although I am grateful that I could realize this to begin to correct it, I identified that mostly came from the bad consumption that I was giving them.
Sometimes I would like to put up a big sign that says: hey, I don't need to be here all day; to remind myself of this on a daily basis and, the truth is that I am practicing it and it is working out very well. I dedicate much more hours to art, to take care of my new plants and to read those books that for some reason I left abandoned. At the end of the day, mindfulness is attention or living in the present, it is not only a meditation tool, living with intention is part of mindfulness.
So I set myself a challenge to disconnect and live more in the present and also to take full care of my mental health (because if it has been affected). I basically only use it to answer important calls or messages, I live in a terrace and I don't go out much for personal reasons, but at least this allows me to breathe a different air than in my room and enjoy the warmth of the sky. Basically I am mostly avoiding contact with digital technology, I only give myself a space of 20 minutes to digest content on social networks and then I don't check them for the rest of the day.
The misuse of social networks or digital technology itself tends to seriously affect our mental health and that is basically what I want to avoid. Sometimes I feel that we have not finished abolishing slavery once we are imprisoned in the consumption of these, there is not a moment of the day in which we do not check them. That's why my main intention is to stop, breathe and continue. Now I want to do a lot more art and dedicate myself to it, rather than checking my cell phone.
We need as humans to put more intention to outdoor spaces and tiny activities to really live connected to our life and not to a social network. Just as we in turn need to put limits on people without feeling bad about it, because our health and mental stability are more important than a digital connection. Let's focus our attention to the real world and simply use the rest as a small recreational supplement, nothing more.
In the end, whenever I write I never make sense of that work, but I think this is a great message for me in which it dictates: you must stop, allow yourself to breathe and live without that pressure on your back.
My intention now is to share much more time with me, I must take care of my mental health because it is being a little affected and I must take care of me mainly. Disconnect to connect.
I want to be able to sit back and know that I don't necessarily have to take a picture with my phone of anything I see to ''post'' it on Instagram, I just want to look at that wonderful thing and keep it for myself, work and make it a part of me. I want to have a coffee and enjoy it in silence, without the need to show the rest of the world what I'm doing because that's my moment and I want to live it that way.
Likewise, this is me writing some nonsense to tell you to give yourself space to breathe and rest. Meet the challenge with me and let's disconnect together. I love you very much.
Translated with the help of deepL
Photos edited in Adobe Photoshop CC
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