I thought I can easily practice what I preach to my kids and detox from electronics whenever I want! I thought I have full control on my time and what I do with it, until I recently got completely sucked into the dark side of social media! The negative side of that world which officially and fully sucked every ounce of peace in me! If you know me, or if you read the little scattered pieces I write here and there you will know that my struggle with balancing life merely revolves around mental peace!

Mental peace is PRICELESS! And it doesn’t necessarily mean tanning on a beach with a care free mind, or a no responsibility sense in the world… but more of knowing how to deal with life no matter what it throws at you. The story was different though when I allowed the voices in my head to completely take over and control my inner peace for over a week.

I have absolutely no shame to say that I am super jealous of my husband! I don’t know if it is a (man) thing, or just a (Tamer) thing but he has an unexplainable ability to tune out and shut the noises out in his head whenever he wants, versus me who basically welcome the noises in my life, in my head, go to sleep with them nagging me and continuing their chatting in my dreams! I can easily wake up daily with a morning headache caused by the utmost fact of allowing all the voices to speak freely whenever they want and however they want in my head. Perfect analysis huh? I would think that since I am that smart in identifying the problem, I should have had some sort of ability in controlling its outcome!

I unfortunately didn’t, I gave in to the frustration of opportunistic people, to my protective instincts of my family and my intellectual properties, and to the mere disappointment in the delusion of social media and networking in general. Ladies and gentlemen… we have absolutely no privacy in this world! The moment we establish an online account on one of the social media platforms and worry about it in some form or another, our privacy and our mental peace are poof! Gone!

I woke up tired every day, I was distracted around my kids, I was constantly checking my phone and laptop, I had nothing on my mind except how a certain recent dilemma on social media is bothering me. Until Tamer swooped in and listened to all the voices in my head and spoke slowly the magical words: Shut the noises out! …. Just like that, he said it and left! I looked at him and was so jealous how is he so calm? How does he manage to practice self-control like this? And why does he make it sound so easy to accomplish? I can’t simply detach from the world, stop reading what people say or stop getting annoyed with certain posts… until I realized that I can! And I did! It was as easy as making a decision, as easy as weighing the options. What really matters? So, with every success, there will be haters. With every big thing, there will come consequences and a price to pay… The question is here what really matters? So, I came up with a plan!

Step one was reminding myself that the time I spend frustrated on social media naively thinking that I can fix everything instantly and on the spot, is so valuable! Is time that I will never get again.

Step two was another fresh reminder that one who devotes himself to a message, to a cause works for a cause…not for the applause. That being said, shutting the noises out is necessary, not just for mental peace… but for maintaining steady successful steps towards a bigger goal.

Step three was as easy a push of a button, I deleted social media apps from my phone. I forced myself to lose the privilege of easy access to this noisy world.

 

Three simple steps that started with a sane decision that I come first, my mental peace comes first, my family comes first and all the noises can shut up and speak later. That we are given a beautiful gift every day, the gift of time… wasting it is a crime! And wasting it while intentionally allowing the negative energy into our lives is a bigger crime! So… I decided to take a break, to shut the noises out in my head, to choose mental peace, to recharge and come back stronger, steadier with a much healthier mental self. Today I took a moment to stop, reflect and give myself a fresh reminder that we always have a choice… maybe not in what life throws at us, but in how we deal with it. #peace #shutthenoisesout