I remember reading about study done by an American University which found that a week of camping or at least a weekend of it in simple terms “resets” our body clocks, purely because our bodies learn to wake up when they are supposed to, working with the sun instead of our day to day schedules.

At the time I sort of thought nothing much of it, but recently I’ve come to appreciate seeing these types of studies and I think its important to pay a lot more attention to them, even taking some of their advice into our own lives.

This last week I discovered what it truly means to me to relax and unwind. I’ve always had a little bit of trouble doing this, mostly because I didn’t realise what I had to do to not only relax my body but also my mind at the same time. It hit me how much time I spend on social media. Scrolling, reading, watching and looking at it for all of my information. And at a really fast rate too. It might have been a combination of a rough night’s sleep and a day of said scrolling, watching etc. But after feeling overloaded with information I decided that for that next day I wasn’t going to go on social media. No Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, none of it. Also no Youtube which is a big favourite of mine as well. I was just going to rest my mind and see how I felt.

And as a pleasant surprise, I didn’t miss it as much as I thought I would. Overall I would say that my uses for social media aren’t really very social at all. I don’t post that much and I only communicate through it to organise plans in person. So to have a day where I could go about my plans and actively make sure I wasn’t scrolling and watching things I usually would was kind of awesome. I felt really balanced and calmer at the end of that day and with very little decision making, decided to carry onto the day after that and the day after that. I would check notifications if they applied to me (work messages, texts from friends etc.) but overall I reduced my time on these apps significantly.

I think from experience the thing that can trip people up so much is the factor of boredom. So when these moments occurred I did rely more on tv and reading but I also tried to have at least a few minutes where I could practise being bored and having a slower day. Did that last very long? No, but everything does take practise and I was glad I incorporated that part into this challenge. I think (particularly for young adults and teenagers) we aren’t good at being ok with boredom. It freaks us out and we go back to what we know will temporarily fix that feeling because that’s what we’ve done the last few times and so why not do it again, right?

Well sometimes we all need a break and without realising it, can feel so much more at ease, clear minded, happier and focused than before. One thing I noticed immediately after the first few days of this exercise was how easily I could fall asleep as opposed to my experiences in the past. Usually I am pretty good with sleep but I wouldn’t be able to count the numerous times that I have laid awake, my head buzzing with random crap because of all the social media I had looked at in that last hour.

Reflecting on it now, it’s absolutely ridiculous that we can feel so concerned about checking in with these apps, to make sure we’re updated and know everything that everyone else knows. I think for the future I’m going to try to be off social media as much as possible: enough of the mindless scrolling, late night check ins and feeling overwhelmed with information before even starting the day. Social media is supposed to enhance our lives not define them. We are better than that and it’s time to start realising it more.

I encourage you to set yourself the challenge of a day without social media and to reflect on how you feel. Don’t be afraid to not check on things for a while. Give yourself a break.

xxx