Recently I took a break from work and spent my time with family and loved ones, this entailed driving for hours, sitting in parks, appreciating gardens, eating berries and media fasting. In one of these moments I had this so called epiphany that helped me to live a better life, or at least had changed my perspective. In over a week I became more positive and optimistic in viewing where I currently am and how the future is looking.

We all have our dreams and aspirations, and things that we want to achieve in our life. After all isn’t that what the media portrays? You were born to be great. No one ever tells us that that greatness comes with a lot of sacrifice and ordinary days in the background. No one wants to be average anymore, as everyone of us is destined to be on top. How disappointing it is to be where we currently are, not realising that greatness can come regardless of where you are in life.

I had this crazy experiment for the week, I underwent media fasting. Similar with limiting and being hyperaware of your food intake, media fasting entailed doing just that, but instead of food and drinks we are talking about the different sources of information that we use to feed our brain. I was asking myself, without the values portrayed by the media, who am I then? Being able to distance myself from the world, even for a moment, helped me to clarify some things about myself and how I would want to live my life.

At first, it took me quite some time to get settled to the fact that I am no longer allowed to use social media. By muscle memory, I find myself scrolling to go to my social media folder only to find disappointment where my previous social media icons used to be as I had deleted all of them. This freed up more time for me to focus on more productive things such as listening to podcasts, ebooks and gave me more time to have genuine interactions with the people who matter.

Benefits of Media Fasting

Realising that everything I wanted is influenced by what I’m seeing through advertisements or how curated other people’s lives are, being able to distance myself from it helped me see that I don’t need a lot of things to survive. I just need to have an essential few that makes life worth living and meaningful. This digital solitary experience also helped set the pace for self-acceptance, positive self talk and healing as I am coming to terms that I don’t have to be perfect for me to accept and be at peace with myself and where I currently stand.

I hope that this perspective sticks with me as I move towards the future. All I know is that currently, I will be more aware of the information and media that I feed my brain as it definitely affects my outlook and attitude towards life.

Until you read from me again, here’s to a more positive life! Cheers!