Mindful Monday - Less Social Media, More Focus , happiness and improved health

I spent today pretty mindfully. Woke up quite fresh ( just before sunset ), even though I slept later than usual, went on a medium length walk in nature and tried to eat a little more food than usual.

I feel I might have lost a tiny bit of weight this season and the last week or so, I try to get more food in. Basically more protein, vitamines and minerals. All the good stuff.

I also listened to a couple of podcasts. One on self love ( we can't practice this enough. Most of us are really hard on ourselves ) and another on productivity, focus and social media.

It led to me deleting some apps from my phone and installing a new one called Brain.FM. The idea of this application is to listen to certain music for a set amount of time and to choose to either focus on a certain task, relax or fall asleep. I'm trying out a little trial right now. If I like it enough, I will try a monthly membership for a dollar or 5.

I can't help but feeling that my focus is still straying way too much ( especially when I have internet connection, which is most of the time ). I already managed to not have my phone next to my bed ( most of the days ) but I want to take more drastic steps, cut back even more.

This afternoon, I spent some time decluttering my house and re-organizing some stuff, especially the things I write.

Having a laptop and a smartphone doesn't stop me from writing loads of things down on paper. I spent some time sifting through this and organizing it, even writing the content of separate notes on one piece of paper, so I could throw out the old paper.

All of this made my head a little clearer. Thanks to the brain.fm app I managed to spend some time going through my Hypersensitivosaurus / nanowrimo story once
again.

It's still not clear to me what direction I want to go in exactly, but there's also no rush at all. It's just a matter of focusing, getting back to it as often as possible and taking things paso a paso.

Yesterday night I had a little insight though, that still needs more time to simmer. I had already mentioned that I want to turn it into a children's book but I now realized that I feel like making it a story fun for both children and adults ( who read it to the kids ). I'm still not sure of the age of the kids though and how that will impact my writing.

One of the underlying themes of the story will be mindfulness but in a non woo woo - this one's for you @riverflows - way.

The podcast I listened to on focus and productivitiy, or to be more precise on The Link Between Attention Elite Performance and Happiness made me aware - for the umptieth time - that it wouldn't be a bad move to get off Whatsapp.

_{Sorry mom! not really sorry.}

It's too addictive and it's not like I can't reach out to the important people in my life without it. In fact, it will lead to deeper conversations that actually matter. I could 'talk' to the important people in my life more often, whether it's on the phone or face to face.

It's about time to let go of FOMO on family gossip and get some of my health and time back.

Fun Fact: Fomo is Portuguese for hunger.

I am starting to get fomo right now, so I'm gonna cut it short. These days I listen to my body more and more.

P.S. I just realized that I could have used Brain.FM while writing this, so I started listening to it while writing this P.S. part ( and then I started adding to and editing the post , to enjoy the music and focused time a little longer. And now it's 25 minutes later).

What about you? How focused are you? Do social media and a smartphone make you happier and healthier? Do you take certain precautions to not be distracted all the time? How are you treating yourself? How high do you score on self love?

Try Brain.FM for free yourself: BRAIN.FM

You might like this podcast: The Unmistakable Creative
The episodes I refer to in this writing:
Love Yourself like Life Depends on It
The Link Between Attention Elite Performance and Happiness

_{Picture taken on my morning walk in Monte Frio, Portugal}