According  to our travel schedule, the kids and I would’ve been on our 3rd getaway..but we all know what happened with that. So, needless to say, we were all pretty psyched on the boy’s birthday getaway last weekend. I found the most secluded beach house we could find (it’s southern California, there’s plenty of that) and paid an arm, a leg and probably my kidney 🙄 just for 5 days (the owner is a friend, I expected a major discount 😅..she will be reading this oops).
During our small getaway, the kids and I realized that our use of SM has slowly creeped up on us, especially once we turned off our electronics at the getaway

It’s amazing how much better you feel when you’re not constantly bombarding yourself with everything that’s going on in the world. When you take a moment for yourself to breath and get back to nature, even if nature means the plants on your patio….I didn’t know how much I needed this and how detached I had become from myself.
I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep for more than a few months now with little explanation as to why.
I’m constantly worried about something even when there’s nothing wrong and my kids have realized that I yell a lot more than before 🤣.
Oh, and my eating has been anxiety driven, something I’m totally against but haven’t been able to control.
At first, I attributed it to the pandemic, the home schooling and the lockdown, all of which are valid and have somehow contributed to the overall mental exhaustion.
I thought logging into Facebook or Twitter or Instagram was a way to calm myself and kind of get away from it all. The truth is, I enjoy these forms of SM,.. almost too much. But I didn’t realize how much their contribution was in my overall wellness.
There isn’t a time I have logged on and haven’t been confronted by yet another tragedy, yet another form of injustice, yet another crumbling of an aspect of society. Like most of you, I have scrambled to donate, sign petitions, march, raise awareness, research more and figure out other ways to be part of the solution. But I don’t know if most of you have felt overwhelmed by it all. If not, then you’re better than me, because as an empath, I absorb everything and after a while, it takes a toll on me.
I timed myself and spent a total of 3 hours doing something social media related during our 5 day getaway….the rest of the time was spent Cooking our favorite foods, dancing with the kids, walking the beach, and throwing stones into the ocean. Most cold evenings we sat on the balcony, them drinking warm cocoa in the summer and me, drinking wine of course.
I noticed 2 things about myself on the second day..I slept like a baby and woke up actually rested…I laughed a lot and didn’t get easily aggravated…That’s why I want to keep that going.
So the kids and I made a pact..they’re already on a limited electronic use schedule and they decided to cut that down to 2 hours a day and none on the weekends..I,on the other, have an unrestrained use of SM so I think I’ll take an actual break…mentally getaway completely and see if my world will still be there🤔..I’ve done it before and it was challenging..because I’m not talking about silently lurking and not posting, I’m talking about self-accountability and total checkout 🤗
I’ll report back on whether I stayed the course, the insights I gained and what I did during my detox period..If I fail at it, I’ll report that too 😄..see you soon.