I’ve noticed that once I write a blog post, I sometimes forget what I wrote about, as if the information were hanging out in my memory just long enough for me to write about it. There have been a few occasions in which someone I know in person has mentioned liking something I mentioned in an older post and I’ll have to ask them what I said in it. This can give me some difficulty in remembering the lessons contained in certain posts or points of view I had about books I read a long time ago. A perfect example of this is the post I wrote earlier this year about my social media addiction.
For a while, I was able to stick to the stuff in that post and successfully avoided spending hours aimlessly surfing the internet. Soon enough, though, my old habits resurfaced and I was right back where I started. Things stayed pretty much the same for me until a few days ago. A friend worked with me on this and gave me some more good things to do instead of spending so much time online, such as catching up on reading some of my books, juggling, unicycling, and doing other things that feed my soul.
Since that conversation, I’ve been using guided meditations right before bed and shortly after waking up, prioritizing reading, and avoiding social media much more than I usually do. I’ve felt much more at peace than I usually do, each day feels slower and more enjoyable, and I’m finding it much easier to be productive now that I have a lot more free time. And staying away from social media has actually been easier than I thought it would be. I think part of that is because I’m feeling so good and I know that scrolling through an endless newsfeed is a great way to lose that good feeling, so the temptation to jump back on is easy to avoid. I’m feeling pretty good about my chances of continuing to limit my social media use going forward and, in the meantime, I’m just going to keep enjoying this good feeling and the increased productivity.