What a crazy month I have had. I have been feeling the highest of highs and lowest of lows!! I wanted to do monthly life updates, to share a bit more about me and my growth, and June was going to be the first month. Then sh*t hit the fan, well more accurately my phone hit the water. I broke my phone. Joy. At the end of June, I went to Florida for 2 weeks and before the first week was up I lost my phone for good.
My blogging came to a halt as EVERYTHING I needed was on my phone. I had my laptop so I could write, but I take my photos and edit them on my phone! And now I was without one. I didn’t have a phone for 5 days, and then when I got a new one, I didn’t have service for an additional day. It was a very unplanned digital detox!
*I swear this experience gets better*
This situation has shown me how much I have grown as a person in these last few months. I am someone who is constantly on their phone. Snapchatting, texting, and constantly checking Instagram. To be honest, I was rather positive from the moment it happened. I knew I would get it figured it out and everything would work out. Everything happens for a reason after all.
When I realized my phone was never coming back was when I felt the most frustration, obviously. I spent an hour and a half on apple chats making 0 progress at 11:30 at night and I was over it. My family was stressed because I was supposed to be alone the next night and the whole following day. No one was gonna be closer than 3 hours away for almost 24 hours and I would have no way of calling anyone for help. A digital detox is not great when you’re home alone!
Let’s Look on the Bright side!!
It all worked out. I kept telling myself that maybe this was supposed to happen. It was the universe’s way of telling me to get off my phone and enjoy my vacation. To disconnect and enjoy in the moment. I’m a type 7 personality on the enneagram, which basically means I’m constantly on the go and struggle living in the moment. Which when it comes to my phone, is so true. I was on this awesome vacation and here I am trying to show people who aren’t with me everything going on, and wanting to know what they were doing. Who cares!!! Be in the moment. This might sound absolutely crazy, but if it wasn’t for my phone breaking, I firmly believe I would not have had as great a time as I did.
The digital detox was the best thing. If you are feeling stuck or overwhelmed, breaking away from your phone can instantly raise your vibe. It’s nice to be able to share what I see but what I learned was I still did! My cousins came on day 3 of no phone, and I did download Snapchat on my cousins old Iphone. So by day 3, I used my laptop to text and my cousin’s phone to snap.
*Not a true digital detox, but if you understood how much I was on it before, you would see how I consider this a detox*
The best part was that neither device has cellular service. So when I was outside by the pool, or we were out on the boat, I had no connection to anyone outside of those who I was with. I wasn’t thinking “oh who snapped me back” or “let me tell this person what we just saw!”. The only thoughts were of what I wanted to share in x amount of hours.
I still got to share everything I intended to, but I learned it doesn’t have to be instant. Instagram only got checked twice that whole because I went on my laptop. AND I was only on for a few minutes because I hated it. Crazy how when we’re without the thing we’re so used to, we still manage to thrive without it.
On the first full day of not having a phone, I saw a shark, a sea turtle and some dolphins. I badly would have started taking snaps to send, and honestly would have got out of the water while snorkeling to go share that. And without the phone, I couldn’t. I got to stay in the water, and continue to search for fish. There was time to sit, reflect and appreciate the beauty of the ocean before getting home and sharing. I still had a camera, so I still got pictures. It was the best of both worlds.
What happened when I got my phone back?
I had a phone (in its full working glory) for one day after that mess. It was my last full day on vacation. The phone was left inside. I didn’t take it out when I went to the pool. I enjoyed my family. Now it did rain for the majority of the day, so I was on it a bit more than I would have been but it was still a ton less than before the phone saga.
sunset from the water!
Sunrise from the balcony:)
So what did I learn from the digital detox?
I learned to function and be more independent of my phone. Coming back from vacation, I crashed. I was so upset and grumpy constantly. I give this partially to the change in negative ions in my environment and to my phone usage. That week in the Florida Keys, I had 2 major factors of raising my vibe. The ocean and a digital detox. When I got home, I was in my house with my phone 24/7.
From this I decided to turn on my screen time feature that Apple has to offer. I set a limit from 11 pm to 10 am. This allows me to wake up, read and go for my walk without chatting to anybody and scrolling on social media. I have it set that I can only talk to 4 main people during these hours as well. After a week of doing this, I can say I love it. It has reduced the amount of time I spend aimlessly scrolling on instagram and I focus more on myself.
Moral of the story?
Overall the impromptu phone detox turned out to be the best experience. If you are feeling stuck or overwhelmed maybe consider doing the same. You don’t have to be on vacation for it to happen. It doesn’t have to be a week either. Consider doing it for a day. If anything, consider setting a screen limit for yourself, to disconnect a bit longer.
You will be surprised with the joy and content you find when you’re not constantly seeing what others are doing.
Hope you all are having a happy week and a good July!
Love,
Em
Check Out Some of my Other Vacation Posts!
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