I completed my 72 hour
media fast this weekend for my 6x1 class. I was honestly happy to do it. I had
been considered doing my own media fast for a day or two, but it was nice to
have a reason to stick to it. I guess in a way, I had it a little easier than
most people because this weekend I was in intensive training for yoga from 9 am
to 6 pm Friday through Sunday. Doing the media fast during this weekend made my
training more beneficial, and make me feel really good on a spiritual level,
but there were definitely some difficult parts, and I did learn some important
things about myself.
First of all, I've always
considered myself an nature person that is kind of above the whole technology
thing, however, this fast showed me that I am just as addicted to technology as
everyone else. The first thing I realized then I put my phone and my computer
away was that I had no way of waking myself up in the morning. I don't own a
watch or a clock, aside from my phone, and I had to be up at 8 am every day
this weekend in order to get to the yoga studio on time for training, so that
was a problem. I ended up using my roommate's old alarm clock but I did have a
few minutes of panic.
The next thing I noticed
was how mindlessly I go through my day checking my phone or staring at screens.
Whenever I was eating or going to the bathroom or doing normal things, I had
such a huge urge to be reading something from my phone or watching something on
my computer. Whenever I was walking somewhere or cleaning or cooking, I wanted
to listen to music or to a podcast so badly. I couldn't check instagram or
snapchat or text my friends to see what they were doing and at some points that
was kind of nice, but other times I had pretty extreme cases of FOMO (Fear of
Missing Out). When I got out of training, the only thing I wanted to do was lay
in my bed and go on Facebook or watch a movie or something, but instead I read
books, cleaned more, made a face mask, and went to bed way earlier.
Besides
all of these urges and hard moments in the media fast, I could definitely feel
the benefits almost immediately. First of all, my mind was not full of random
useless things from other people's lives or from a TV show or something and I
wasn't waiting for anyone to call me or text me so I felt like I was more
mentally present than I had been in a really long time. I felt myself being more
active and way more productive without all of the distractions and temptations
to prevent me from doing my work or from working out. I ate more consciously
and I ate less because I was actually being present with my food and not just
eating while looking at a screen, and best of all, I slept way better. Probably
the worst habit I have right now is watching a TV show on Netflix right before
bed. I always stay up way later than I had intended to and it takes me longer
to fall asleep. I read a little bit before bed and then fell asleep faster and
earlier than I had in a long time, which was awesome because I was much more
energized for my yoga training than I would have been if I had stayed up until
1 or 2 am like I am used to doing.
I feel like this was
really beneficial for me. Especially staying away from my phone. I am
definitely going to make more of an effort to be more present and to leave my
electronics behind in a drawer in my room or something as much as I can. The
best benefit of staying away from technology is that I felt myself giving more
time to my creative outlets. I was writing more and painting and brainstorming
for film projects for the first time in weeks. I always want to be working more
towards my creative life, but sometimes I spend all my free time scrolling
through Instagram or watching a show and then I don't have time to work on my
projects, which is such an unfortunate waste. The more I stay away from the
constant distractions, the more I can create, which is extremely important to
me and probably the best thing I have learned about myself from this
experience.
