I’m always looking for ways to look after myself and try and keep my mental health in a good place. A great place to start, I found, was through restricting my social media time, in an attempt to be more present and to get a tad more sleep – something I’m in dire need of!
Reading More
I have been trying to make more time for reading this year, I was a huge reader and since becoming a mum I have really struggled. This year I set myself a challenge of reading 12 books, and proud to say I am already on 10 books! How have I managed this? Firstly I have opened out to E-books and Audio Books, meaning I have more options to have a little ‘me’ time. The second step is that I try to read for half an hour a day, it’s not a challenge I always meet, but it’s a good place to start!
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Switch off
I have some bedtime rules for myself which I feel have really helped. I set my phone to airplane mode at 21:00 in order to stop me doing any scrolling once baby falls asleep. I then try to put my phone down completely at 21:30, and not watch anything past 22:00. This is when I usually read a little bit, sometimes I’m so tired I don’t even finish a page, but it’s fantastic to have some quiet time before bed that isn’t screen related – although I am sometimes reading my Kindle, but it isn’t the same ‘screen time’ as a laptop screen.
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Switching On
Another rule I now have, is that I won’t check any form of social media until after breakfast! Me and Bubba now listen to an audio book whilst I make breakfast and we eat. This has worked wonders to stop me endlessly scrolling through breakfast and makes me be more present with the bubba!
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Social Media
One thing that I have found works wonders to limit the amount of times you ‘check in’ with social media. I now only check Facebook and Instagram 4 times a day, each time I try not to scroll for too long and am trying to be very strict on myself with it. Since putting this in place I have noticed a massive boost in my happiness and my anxiety has dropped! It really makes you consider how much time you spend on social media when you limit it and truly think about it.
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Overall
Overall there are days when I do really well, others when I ‘fail’. I am never too hard on myself now though as I want to keep my mental health in a good place. Each day is the chance to start again, and ignore yesterday if it didn’t go to plan – it’s all good for learning. There are also many days that I end up working later than I would like, but those are things that sometimes need to be done and are not the end of the world! I strongly recommend a digital detox – banning it completely for a time period, or a digital diet – as above, put a few restrictions on your usage!
How do you use restrictions to maintain your health?
Do you ever carry out a digital detox? Will you?
Let me know your thoughts or journey in the comments!
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