We had our first snow of the season! Between the past few days being cold and snowy, daylight savings time ending, and working, there haven’t been enough sunny hours in the day to take new outfit pictures for the blog. I’m hoping to post a small H&M haul next week, so here’s hoping for nice weather this weekend when I have a few days off from work!
Work has been tumultuous throughout this pandemic, to say the least. At the peak of COVID-19, work slowed down for me a teensy bit. Now that businesses are reopening, and people are getting tired of quarantine/getting antsy to return to normalcy, work has suddenly become even more chaotic than it was pre-COVID.
Lately, I’ve been finding it difficult to put my mind at ease on my days off. I find myself constantly gripped with this feeling that I’m somehow “running out of time.” I wake up, have coffee, browse on my phone, maybe do a couple things here and there. Then just like that it’s the afternoon, and in a couple hours I’ll have to eat dinner, get ready for bed, and work will be in less than 12 hours again. Time felt precious, and it seemed to dwindle so fast.
So on my days off, I found myself feeling anxious. The clock was always ticking too fast. All day I would feel like my time off was running out, and I never felt like I had made the best use of my day. The day would end, and I would feel like I once again failed to savor my day off, and I would feel frustrated and angry.
Then the other night, my husband and I had a movie night. We made popcorn, snuggled into some blankets, and watched Hocus Pocus for the first time. It was the calmest I had felt in a long time, and I wondered why. My guess is that those two hours were the longest time in a long time that I put my phone down, didn’t check it even once, and just focused on being present and appreciating the experience. It’s crazy that two hours is a long time, but that’s the world we live in now.
So for the past couple weeks, I’ve been testing my theory. On my days off, I reduced the time I spent scrolling through social media from several hours to less than 10 minutes. I’ve gained so much free time back, because I no longer waste it glued to my phone. My focus has shifted from what everyone else is doing on social media to what I’m feeling and doing. I feel less rushed, less stress, and more recuperated.
Social media can be a great place for inspiration, but it can also be toxic for mental health. Subconsciously, I felt obligated to constantly check social media, which was causing stress in itself. The time I wasted doing so caused even more stress. So while social media can be a source for inspiration and connection with others, sometimes it’s important to connect with yourself. Get cozy and watch a movie, read a book, take a walk and be with nature, or just spend quality time with loved ones.
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Thanks for reading!