How Unplugging Helped Me Reduce My Anxiety and Stress Levels

I thought I had a handle on it. I thought that everything was under control. But the fact was, social media and the need to be constantly connected was taking over my waking and sometimes sleeping life. At one point in my life I had a full-time job, a casual job, a small side business, two blogs, three Twitter accounts, one personal Facebook page, four other Facebook pages, three Instagram accounts, two Tumblr accounts, two Pinterest accounts, nine email addresses, YouTube accounts, Google+ and possibly others that I cannot think of right now. It's a wonder that I could concentrate on anything at all let alone find time to really engage with any of the content I was also subscribed to.

It was no wonder that I felt like the walls were caving in on my life last year and had something I would describe as close to being a breakdown at the age of 31. When that happened, I made the decision that it was time to prioritize everything in my life and start fresh with what was actually essential to my daily life. Turns out that not many of the above were -- who knew, right?

I knew in the back of my mind that unplugging altogether was the answer, at a point in my life I was so anxious that I feared being alone so much that the thought of completely disconnecting from the outside world felt too overwhelming. So, I eased into it. I decided what was working and what wasn't working with my online life. I reconsidered the direction I was taking my life in and whilst I knew I was desperate to escape the rat race and build a life of my own, I had too many plates in the air at all times and they all came crashing down.

Something wonderful happens when you make the decision to finally slow down and re-evaluate your life, where you are at, and where you want to go. In the first week of culling the majority of my online life, I had three writing opportunities come my way and a meditation app idea all of a sudden in the shower. Within a month, my app was launched and I had secured ongoing writing work and had started setting some short-term goals with where I was taking this. My dreams of becoming the next Tony Robbins' or Buddha like figure were quickly transforming into my writing and I was gaining a larger and larger following. I'd stepped out of my own way and had allowed what was trying to come through me to come through.

After a short while of just taking it easy, my plate began to fill up once again. I have an issue when it comes to saying no sometimes and I am forever thinking of new ideas. But I was filling up my plate again with the knowledge of my minor breakdown I was recovering from, so took a vastly different approach. Today, everything is going along smoothly, whilst at times it can get a bit overwhelming but such is life, we must recognize these times and make adjustments.

Just last weekend I went to the next step and bought a $15 clock radio from Kmart and have now banned my phone or any device from being in my bedroom. They must be at least 10 meters away from me during the night. After all, why do I need the Internet during the night? If anything happens during the night, then I'll just have to wait until the morning to find out, like we did in years gone by. I've noticed almost immediately since doing this that my mind is quieter at night, I fall asleep easier and stay asleep. My anxiety that sat in my chest for so long has subsided. I feel clearer during the day and fresh like I did in my youth. I feel like there is a direct connection to removing all devices, and hence my forever-running mind, from my immediate space during the night. There is no doubt research to support this, but for me, unplugging definitely helped to reduce my anxiety and stress levels and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone feeling overwhelmed by the online world.