Quitting Social Media 6 Days A Week

I don’t need to tell you about the negative impacts of social media on our mental health and wellbeing. This has been a much discussed topic in the news and in the medical research world. We have enough evidence showing that social media is not harmless. What I want to share with you is my own personal experience with dramatically cutting back on my social media time in the hopes that I may trigger some reflection for you about your own relationship with this technology. 

Earlier this year I decided that I only want to engage with social media once a week. That meant no scrolling or posting or responding to messages outside of that one day a week. This decision was inspired by the realization that social media was taking up too much of my mental space and personal time. These realizations will probably sound familiar to you:

• Instead of getting fully absorbed in an event or outing, I was taking pictures with the intention of posting on social media. As much as I tried to convince myself that this wasn’t impacting my experience, it was. I would frantically rush to capture picture-perfect moments and zone out at the end of the event to post away. It undeniably took me out of the moment. 

• My kids would often catch me scrolling during our family time together. I would miss out on little things they said to me and have to ask them to repeat themselves. It was nothing catastrophic and I was still very present with my kids overall, but this is not the model that I want my kids to learn from me.  

• As much as I like to think of myself as immune to comparison traps…I’m not. Like most humans, when I see others winning awards or achieving great things I can be hard on myself for not accomplishing “enough”. With social media you get to scroll past dozens of big wins each day (or hour)–more than you would encounter in normal life. I don’t think we were wired for something like that. 

There were many other reasons but the point is, daily social media exposure was doing more harm than good. The benefits outweighed the risks and, in medicine, when that happens, it’s time to make some changes. 

I decided to cut social media down to one day per week. There were many slip-ups and many days when I felt like I had to “make an exception” for this or that reason but now I’m pretty committed to it. I eventually started scrolling other apps (email, photos etc.) because my brain did not know how to kick the scrolling habit so I set limits on those apps too. 

I often find myself actually dreading my social media day. I approach it like a hot oven–I just want to get in and out and close the door. It almost always leaves me feeling worse off. 

Here is what reducing social media has done for me: 

• It cleared up the brain fog. We blame hormones, diet, inflammation and a myriad of other things for causing brain fog. These are all valid causes but I suspect social media scrolling is a big contributor as well. 

• I re-awakened my love for other hobbies like reading, journaling and watching actual movies (spoiler: they’re more entertaining and thought-provoking than 7 second videos).

• It made me more present with my family and everyone in my life. Looking back, I’m horrified that I used to carry out conversations with people while scrolling through social media–that feels so rude now. 

• I found time to exercise more regularly and be more productive in general. Those little scroll sessions add up and eat away at your time. 

• I feel less doom and gloom while still being aware of global issues. For news, I’ll check out my local news website a couple times a week and that’s more than enough to keep me up to date with local, national and global events. 

• My mind is….quieter and I think that’s the most precious change. What a blessing it is to feel relief from the excess noise. I can hear myself think more and I think that is essential to living a richer and more intentional life. 

I don’t think I’ve said anything shocking here. I’m sure you could have guessed at all of these benefits. I think the surprising thing to me is that having daily cut-offs (like banning all social media before 10 am) was not enough for me. I tried that and I found having full days without it was more impactful. 

There are many people who rely on social media as part of their job and I hope they have found their own balance that supports their wellbeing. There are also many of us who think we need social media more than we actually do (I was one of them). For those of you in that category, I want to share that reducing social media did not interfere with my business. I don’t have a lot of followers and views but I still have a busy practice and that’s what counts for me (although, I recognize that this may not work for other types of businesses that rely on having high social media engagement). It was useful to work with experts in the past who helped me show up on social media more strategically so that I can make the most of my engagement when I am on there. 

I’m actually considering reducing my social media further to just twice a month in the new year. Overall it’s been a fun experience and I want to see what more will happen to my mind and my life if I give myself that opportunity. 

How To Stay Motivated

There are layers to health.

On the more superficial level, health involves eating well, having healthy habits, taking natural remedies, supplements and medications, exercising and so on. This stuff is vitally important to keeping us functioning well in our day to day lives.

But health runs deeper than this. And sometimes, if we ignore these deeper issues we get stuck and have a hard time doing the things mentioned above.

It’s hard to keep up with healthy diets and habits when we feel unfulfilled in our lives. We need to feel fully engaged and alive in our lives in order to have the inspiration to take care of ourselves. And the more we take care of ourselves, the more alive we feel in life. It’s an upward spiral.

Healing and getting healthy should not feel like a boring checklist of things to do.

This is why, once I get to know my patients, I start talking to them about more than just eating well and taking natural remedies. I love talking to my patients about ways to bring inspiration, depth and fulfilment back into their lives.

Sometimes this involves seeking out deeper social connections that allow them to be fully themselves and share their passions.

Sometimes, this involves figuring out how to feel like they’re making a difference in the world and lives of others.

Sometimes, they just need to surround themselves with more inspiring things. Whether that’s through travel (near or far) or picking up new hobbies or connecting with spirituality or even just reading a profound book.

If you’re feeling unenthusiastic about taking care of your health, maybe it’s time to stop thinking about getting healthy as just eating a bunch of healthy foods or taking a bunch of supplements. Maybe you need a perspective shift where you start thinking about getting healthy as a journey to a life with more depth, fulfillment and inspiration. Work on getting the superficial and deep layers of your health to a better place simultaneously.

Trust me, it will make the journey to getting healthy much more fun and more likely to be a success. If you want help on your health journey, get in touch.

Are Low Motivation and Low Mood Holding You Back from Health?

Imagine living just one day in a perfectly healthy way. You wake up refreshed and ready to go. No need for caffeine. You make a healthy breakfast for you and your family. Everyone is out the door on time feeling put-together and enthusiastic. You get through the day on healthy snacks and a healthy lunch – no cravings for afternoon sweets. You get home still humming with energy to not only make a healthy dinner but to work out as well. By bedtime all your evening chores are done and you’ve wound down enough to fall asleep within 15 minutes of hitting the pillow.

Contrast that with the reality that most people deal with. Waking up feeling unrefreshed. Definitely not “enthusiastic” about the day ahead. Tormented with cravings for sweets, carbs and coffee to get through the day. Just enough energy to make dinner after work but certainly not enough to work out. Lying in bed feeling tired but still not able to sleep.

Most people have a huge gap between their current health habits and the ones they wish they had. How do you even begin to move in the direction of the healthy lifestyle you dream of? Many try to muscle through on raw will power. You declare that, starting this week you WILL work out three times. Starting this week, you WILL NOT give in to cravings for junk food. But then as each day rolls around, you’re hit with the reality that you’re not motivated to do these things. You just don’t want to.

It’s hard to follow all the steps for a healthy lifestyle when you feel down and have zero motivation. You can try to impose all kinds of rules on yourself but if your mind is not in the right place, it won't happen. This is why it’s so important to be gentle with yourself and start with the right foundation. You need to nurture yourself back to better health rather than trying to force it.

Whenever I have a patient who is stuck in an unhealthy lifestyle, they’re relieved when they find out that I won’t be throwing them on a super strict diet, exercise and supplement plan. Because both of us know they’re not ready for that. We start at the foundation. We work on gentle ways to restore good quality sleep, balance stress hormones and support mood. We replenish nutrients that are lacking. We SLOWLY take out toxic foods, habits and chemicals that drain energy and cloud thinking.

With this approach, mood steadily begins to rise as patients start to feel less drained and more clear-headed. Motivation returns. Soon enough doing a couple minutes of exercises here and there doesn’t seem so far fetched. Resisting cravings is not as hard as it was before. Healthy recipes are more appealing. You get the picture. An upward spiral has begun. Habit by habit a new, healthy lifestyle is being created. All because we started with nourishing the things that are important for mood and motivation.

That healthy lifestyle can seem impossible from where you’re standing right now. But with the right approach, I have no doubt that you can get there.