It’s okay to take care of yourself.

The world is fast pacing and people get caught up with the ups and downs of this world. we get caught up with a lot of things happening in our lives: We have to make a living, get active in social activities, be involved with family life and all this can make us forget about ourselves. We get caught up until it becomes too late when we come to realize that we need to unplug and take care of ourselves. What does it mean by the term unplug? Mirriam-Webster defines unplugging as temporarily withdrawing from responsibilities and obligations of everyday life(such as work or home duties) thinking of yourself as a human being instead of a human doer and making a conscious effort to unplug and recharge. Unplugging can also take the form of disconnecting yourself from social media and taking time to enjoy nature and spending real time with friends and family.

How do you know it’s time to unplug? when you feel mentally drained this can be in the form of being easily distracted from important tasks, when you multitasking a lot and getting little done(texting while driving or even always having to check on social media every few minutes), getting anxious or nervous with tasks you were comfortable with, social media stress, when you feel your productivity is decreasing with each passing day when you lose focus or creativity when you use gadgets or text with people on the same room or real-time when you don’t enjoy time out by being busy browsing and checking out trends and when you end up losing awareness of your environment.

Social media has currently been the reason why people need to unplug as it can take a lot of time to just swipe watching videos on youtube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, etc. You may wake up with a huge plan on how your day is gonna be like but the moment you open social media apps you may end up swiping and by the time you know the day is already over you start feeling guilty and blame yourself hence leading to mental health issues like depression and anxiety because you failed to meet your responsibilities. With the current rise of AI like CHATGPT everything is everywhere and you can get anything on Google and other media platform but if not careful this can lead to you mental ruin.

Why the need to unplug? To improve your social relationships and interactions imagine these common scenarios you are trying to communicate something with someone and they are busy texting on their phones how does that make you feel just imagine how different that would be if only they listened, or people are out for dinner but instead of interacting real-time with each other they are busy texting and swiping on social media just imagine how different that would be if they went on that dinner without their phones they may end up knowing one of them as been struggling with depression that they could help but now it is ignored. Be aware of others’ feelings and your surrounding and spend as much time with them as they may be there today and tomorrow they are not.

How to unplug? Take a break from something that you’ve been doing for a long without results, for instance, reading the same page of a book for 3 hours and you are understanding nothing, take a break go for a walk get some fresh air to distract yourself from your surrounding. Take time off and go on a vacation if you need to. A change of environment is good for unplugging – spend time with nature. Remove social media and phone notifications. These notifications are the main reason for social media stress – be intentional about your social media usage. Avoid using your phone during meetings, dinners, and conversations this will enable you to foster healthy relationships. Give yourself a social media fast this can be giving yourself a time off from social media to enable you to recharge.

In conclusion, ” you always have to remember to take care of yourself first and foremost, because when you stop taking care of yourself you get out of balance and you really forget to take care of others” Jada Pinkett Smith.