Unplug to Recharge
For the past year and a half, many hours of our lives have been spent in front of a screen. Whether it’s been virtual meetings, working from home, school via a computer, or hours of mindless scrolling through social media - we need to unplug. The amount of time plugged in is draining our mental battery.
Unsure if you’re overly connected?
When the phone “dings”, do you automatically look down to see if it’s an email that needs your attention or a text you can’t ignore? Has it become difficult to leave it “on read” and continue doing whatever it was you were doing? Maybe you find yourself responding to something during “family time” because work or school has infiltrated your personal space. Is your cell phone or tablet ever more than a few feet away from you?
If I were to be asking myself, my response would be “D: all of the above”.
How does one actually unplug in a world that is based in technology?
Picture the battery of your cell phone or tablet. If you don’t give that battery a decent amount of time to recharge, it will drain and the device no longer functions. Now, think of yourself as that device - the battery is your mental wellness. It needs time to recharge, refocus, and reset.
Our current times make it harder to walk away as for many, our safe places/personal spaces (like our homes) have become more than just home. What has worked for me is to create a schedule and strict boundaries that mimic a typical day. I close my laptop when my day ends and I leave it closed until I return to work the next day. I’ve disconnected my work email accounts from my phone so that little red notification isn’t glaring at me begging to be read. When someone calls for work related purposes outside of my regularly scheduled hours, I allow it to go to voicemail and will return the call when I return to work… regardless of where work is.
I know the thought of “well I’m not doing anything so I can answer that” has popped up. However, that’s the thought that has left us feeling more fatigued and on the verge of burn out. Creating healthy boundaries can improve not only your own mental wellness but also your relationships, sleep hygiene, and overall mood.
We need to be putting ourselves at the forefront of our priorities. Work and school are important, but we cannot do our best - meet the standards and expectations we have set for ourselves - if we do not know how to unplug and recharge.
We often find peace of mind by gaining perspective on our behaviors. When we unplug from the virtual and digital world, we recharge our brains and return to a more healthy state of mental wellness.
