Maybe it’s not the quality of your sleep that’s making you tired.

Maybe it’s not the food you’re eating.

Perhaps you’ve grown tired of overconsumption of information and watching other people’s lives on social media. Perhaps metabolising all of it is draining your energy.

We consume so much more than the food we eat. It can take time to digest how other people act, and what they say, not to mention our own busy minds! We gain or lose energy from conversations, from thinking and from our way of being.

Maybe your body is craving more of your attention.

Last summer as part of my dissertation research for my MAPP (Masters in Applied Positive Psych) I spend four months offline. I documented the process and called it me-search. It was bliss! My body and mind loved it. Instead of consuming content, I fed myself extra meditation, soaked up sunsets, and listened closer.

On Monday I’ll be taking another social media sabbatical, this time for a minimum of six weeks (I’ve been doing this for several years and I often take an extra few weeks in the end if I’m not quite ready to return). I’m leaning-in to my urge to write poetry, read more books and allow my parasympathetic nervous system to take the lead.

The pandemic changed me. It changed all of us, and those changes matter… a lot.

Over the years time spent off-line has taught me about myself, my friendships and my relationship with social media. The things I want to disconnect from and who and what I would like to know more intimately.

And despite some debate, I believe that WhatsApp and Signal are social media networks, at least they act in a similar way when it comes to attention and dopamine. This isn’t about disconnection, or going off-grid. It’s the opposite of that. I’m regenerating a deeper connection.

Let’s write more letters, make more meaningful phone calls and live as we are really meant to live.