What I'm Giving Up for Lent
Today is Ash Wednesday,
Now, I’m not Catholic… but Westmont College (where I attended from 2013 - 2017) recognized Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season, so I’m somewhat familiar with the tradition of it.
As a nondenominational Christian, I honestly love and admire the various seasons and traditions that Catholics celebrate. One of those traditions is giving something up for Lent (the period of time between Ash Wednesday and Easter, usually 46 days). This year, I didn’t have to think long about what I wanted to sacrifice.
Yesterday was a little rough. I didn’t feel energized by my morning routine, I felt trapped by it. I didn’t feel excited to go to work, I felt stressed by a never-ending to do list. I was hungry, and I opted for fast food. I was impatient when I got home, and I snapped on my husband. Ew.
This morning, I knew something needed to shift. I wanted (needed) to regain inspiration, creativity, motivation, energy, and patience. And one thing came to mind to help me get there: no social media scrolling.
Intentionally consuming content is one thing. Mindlessly consuming content is something else entirely; and it’s quite honestly toxic.
So from today (3/2/22) until Easter (4/17/22), I’m giving up social media scrolling. I can still create things, respond to messages, go to a friend’s page to see their post, etc. But the hours of getting lost in a tiny iPhone screen has got to stop (or be controlled, in the very least).
To start, I did these three things:
Check “Screen Time” to confirm which apps are the most problematic (Instagram was my most highly used, followed by Spotify… which is from podcast-listening, so that one gets a pass, followed by TikTok).
Silence all Nonessential Notifications (which I’d recommend even if you’re not taking a social media break).
Print out a Habit Tracker to check off the days (I’m using this one from James Clear).
After setting myself up for a successful next few weeks, I needed a consequence for automatic app scrolling.
I decided on this: because I want to build the habit of creating instead of consuming content, every time I open an app to consume content, I’ll respond by creating instead. That will definitely curb the desire to over-consume…
So that’s where I am this Wednesday. I’m excited to see what the next 40 days of no scrolling will teach me. If you feel like joining along, I’d love to hear about it and cheer you on, too!
