My 5 day social media detox

A couple weeks ago each one of my family members caught the viral stomach bug; think lots of tummy aches, vomiting, nausea, diarea – which also meant lots of cleaning & laundry. 

Yes, I caught the virus too being 24 weeks pregnant. And between every moment I wasn’t vomiting or feeling like a log on my bed I was floating to my 2 year old who couldn’t put herself to sleep or my 5 year old who was also vomiting throughout the night.

It was a lot. 

And as a routine I would tune into social media to get a ten second “break” but really the overwhelming nature of social media really added to the problem. 

I decided to take a break for my own mental health and to rectify the habits I had been unconsciously forming.

Understandably, if I were more a routine content creator or contracted I would have to do certain specific things to make sure I kept up with my responsibilities.

But here is what I did for a social detox:

1. Deactivated my Facebook and Instagram accounts – this might be the most crucial step. 
2. Removed the apps from my phone. This prevents any temptation to re-download it again before the week was over. I did give myself just the week as I have social media clients to manage.
3. Buy/borrow a book. Most of my scrolling time takes place in the evening and I decided to replace it with a book. It really helped with getting to sleep on time and balance my mood for the rest of the next day.

Once I ended my detox, I re-activated my accounts and re-downloaded the apps but I kept them off my home screen. Scrolling to find these apps gives me a few seconds to remind myself that I need to be cautious in developing habits.

I’m sure there could be better steps or processes to detoxing but this was mine. It wasn’t planned but I sure felt a world of a difference during the week and feel more cognizant of bad habits forming after.