“I was amazed at how clear my mind was and how calm I felt after a day of being unplugged.”

Over the weekend, I decided to take a sabbatical from social media. It can be a time warp. If you are anything like me, you get up in the morning and check in and then do a few check-ins throughout the day. And in my case, I help companies manage their social media, so I am on there for work and to add to it, I am on there for my CLS blog brand promoting and networking.

I am the type that gets overwhelmed with too much information- complete sensory overload. So sometimes scrolling through my timeline can be a bit much when people are willing to share way too much information.  I did something on Sunday that I had not done in a while.

I unplugged.

When I woke up, I did one social media check and then logged out of all of the apps so that I would not get notifications and so that I would not be tempted to check in. There was no need to rush out of bed. I took advantage of that and did a little meditation before my kids woke up. It was nice to enjoy the silence in the house.

After that, I turned my phone on vibrate and set it aside on the dresser. By the time I got up and made breakfast, I forgot all about the phone. I filled my time with binge watching shows and movies that I had stored on my DVR and still did not rush out of bed.

I did some writing, organized my week, and cleared many things off of my To Do list. Then I completely unplugged and watched two movies- no laptop in the bed, phone still on the nightstand, still not checking social media or answering text messages.

I was amazed at how clear my mind was and how calm I felt after a day of being unplugged. The urge to check social media went away and by later that night, I felt refreshed and answered phone calls. I logged on to social media, browsed, but was not interested and logged off.

I have to admit that I am part introvert, so there are days that I crave being alone. This kind of thing works for me. But I learned a few things.

• You really don’t have to be that connected during the day
• You can survive when you are not attached to your phone
• Taking time out for yourself is necessary not that I didn’t know this. I just remembered it
• It is necessary to be still in order to gain clarity
• When you step away from social media and being connected, you have not missed anything. In fact, you get a chance to focus on other things that you may have not been paying attention to.

When is the last time that you unplugged?

~Tamara

Read my blog column at Huffington Post