The Mindful Social Media Practice: Exercises to Reclaim Your Time, Energy & Focus | Neha Modi | Skillshare
Search

Playback Speed


1.0x


  • 0.5x
  • 0.75x
  • 1x (Normal)
  • 1.25x
  • 1.5x
  • 1.75x
  • 2x

The Mindful Social Media Practice: Exercises to Reclaim Your Time, Energy & Focus

teacher avatar Neha Modi, Mindful Artist & Educator

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction

      2:01

    • 2.

      Class Overview & Project

      2:11

    • 3.

      Map the Behavior

      10:45

    • 4.

      Break the Spell

      8:02

    • 5.

      Alternative Behavior Hunt

      10:21

    • 6.

      Change the Environment

      8:53

    • 7.

      Final Thoughts

      2:35

  • --
  • Beginner level
  • Intermediate level
  • Advanced level
  • All levels

Community Generated

The level is determined by a majority opinion of students who have reviewed this class. The teacher's recommendation is shown until at least 5 student responses are collected.

142

Students

1

Project

About This Class

Do you often get lost in the never ending aisles of content? Do you feel powerless as you are being swept away by the ever changing winds of posting, liking, following and etc? If yes, then you have come at the right place.  

After wasting hours and days on social media and being overwhelmed by it, I finally took charge. I reflected, I unlearnt, I struggled, I understood, I changed  and finally made the shift from mindless to mindful social media and I hope that as you take this class, you too can do the same. 

This actionable class is packed with insights, exercises and downloadable worksheet to help you take care of your digital well being and make your social media experience rewarding and inspiring. In this class you will: 

  • Understand the social media habit loop and track your behavior 
  • Reflect on what you are getting out of your social media practice
  • Define what you want you want 
  • Find healthier alternatives to replace the unfavourable behavior 
  • Build 3 different types of social media boundaries to protect your digital as well as mental health 

Who is this class for?

This class is designed for the ones who not just wants to make conscious choices about when and how to use social media but also wants to create space for diverse experiences that go beyond the screen. 

All you need for this class is a pen, paper and an open mind. So are you ready? 

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Neha Modi

Mindful Artist & Educator

Top Teacher
Level: All Levels

Class Ratings

Expectations Met?
    Exceeded!
  • 0%
  • Yes
  • 0%
  • Somewhat
  • 0%
  • Not really
  • 0%

Why Join Skillshare?

Take award-winning Skillshare Original Classes

Each class has short lessons, hands-on projects

Your membership supports Skillshare teachers

Learn From Anywhere

Take classes on the go with the Skillshare app. Stream or download to watch on the plane, the subway, or wherever you learn best.

Transcripts

1. Introduction : Imagine that you have entered a grocery store, but you're not carrying a list. You wander aimlessly and pick some stuff. You reach home and realize that not only you bought the wrong things, but you also wasted time and money and will have to go again. Then you think if only there was a list with you? Well, I do wish the same though, not for shopping, but for social media. Hi, I'm Neha Modi an artist, mindfulness practitioner, and a top teacher here on Skillshare. So I love social media. It has played a huge role in my career. But what was once a way to share my art, connect with others, and get inspired, slowly became into obsessive checking, refreshing, and just plain mindless browsing. I started getting lost in the never-ending aisles of content and kept loading my basket with noise. I forgot what I really wanted. the excessive social media use drained my energy, yet I kept doing it. So if you also feel the same and are looking for a solution to make the shift from mindless to mindful social media experience, then you have come at the right place. In this class, I will take you through a mix of exercises and will provide you step-by-step guidance so that you can reclaim your time, energy, and focus. To take this class, all you need is an open mind, a pen, and a paper. You can access the workbook provided in the resource section to do the exercises, or you can follow along in your own journal. By the end of this class, I hope that you're not just ready to make conscious choices about when and how to use social media but I've also created space for diverse experiences that go beyond the screen. Let's get started. 2. Class Overview & Project: [MUSIC] Welcome and thank you so much for joining me in this class. Now, the quick solution to get over excessive social media use can be to delete all the apps or go on a detox, and it does work for a lot of people. But the problem is that it doesn't work for the ones who are dependent on social media for work. It doesn't work for the ones who keep falling back into the old patterns after the detox is over. As for my own experience, we need something that is sustainable for the long term. We need a mindset shift and that is where mindfulness and this class comes in. Now, I won't be giving you a fit-for-all solution because as with anything else, you get to decide how social media adds to your life. Though I will share the learnings from my own journey, the roadmap that I used to get started and move ahead on this mindful social media part. I have shared a workbook in the class resource section to help us work on the concepts that we will be talking about in this class. Go ahead, download it and take a printout, or you can also use your own notebook or journal to follow along. Now let's talk about the class project. The class has two projects. The first one is to finish the workbook, and the second is to share the images of the new behaviors, the new habit that you have taken up in place of the old one. I understand that a lot of these self-reflection exercises are very personal in nature and you might not be very comfortable in sharing them. Feel free to share the workbook, but if you don't want to, then just share about the new habit that you have picked up. You can share about the new activities in the form of pictures along with a little bit of description as to why you picked that particular activity. I'm here to cheer you and will look forward to see your class projects. Please do share them. Now without further ado, let's move on to the first step. [MUSIC] 3. Map the Behavior : [MUSIC] Ever wondered how you develop that habit of refreshing Instagram when you just checked it only 15 minutes ago? Or how in the middle of a conversation, you just grab your phone, even where there isn't any notification or how one let me take a quick break in the middle of work ends up being as a watching content that you didn't even want or need in the first place. Why do we do that? Well, it's because of a reward-based learning system. This system involves a trigger followed by a behavior and then a reward. Over time, our brain then learns that when we experience a certain trigger, certain behaviors can make us feel better and when done repeatedly, this loop turns into a habit. Interesting, right? Now that you know how a habit is formed, let me share with you another important insight regarding this. The most motivating way to reward a behavior is on a variable ratio schedule. It means that the reward is delivered after some of the behavior and not all of the behaviors, thus making the reward unpredictable. The easiest way to understand this, though, is true a slot machine. The machine has an average win ratio, but that doesn't guarantee a consistent rate of reward. Because of that, the players keep pressing the button, hoping that the next one will be off. The uncertainty leaves them wanting for more. It is this variable ratio schedule that social media heavily relies on. As we post, scroll, or swipe, we are rewarded or not with likes, comments, retweets, followers, and matches. Sometimes we hit it big and sometimes we don't. Just like the slot machine, there's always some sort of unpredictable reward out there. Now, this anticipation of reward releases dopamine in our brain. This dopamine not only acts on the areas of our brain that are involved in pleasure and reward seeking, but also motivates us to repeat those behaviors. That is why it is so hard to put down our phones and distance ourselves from social media. How do we stop ourselves from chasing this dopamine? How do we change our social media habits that are not serving us? Well, this is where mindfulness, the practice of paying attention to the present moment with non-judgmental awareness comes in. Mindful awareness is deeper than noticing the habit itself. It is about focusing on the trigger, behavior, and reward, all the components of the habit loop that we discussed earlier. But paying attention to these elements, we can shut our brain out of that automatic mode and create some space for change. To build that awareness and to understand your social media habit, in this first step, you are going to track your social media behavior for the next few days. Just do your regular routine. The only thing that you need to make sure is that you track it from the reason you picked up your phone to the content you saw and most importantly, what you felt after you kept down the phone. You need to be curious about each and every step. We're going to do that through the good old pen and paper. Now to track your behavior, you can use the workbook or you can copy the format and use it in your own journal. I would suggest recording everything for at least three days out of which one of the days should be a weekend or a holiday. Now, if you want, you can gather notes up to a week too, it is entirely up to you. Now, let me tell you about each and every section that you need to fill in the tracker. Every habit has a trigger that prompts you to do that action. It is the element that makes you go for an automatic choice. Now a trigger can be a specific location, time, emotional state, your action immediately before the behavior, or the people around you. Triggers can also be thoughts, sights, sounds, physical sensation, sense, or taste. In my case, some of the triggers that I wrote are, boredom, after an argument, phone on the table while doing work, while trying to express myself or share my work, waiting for a bus, and etc. Now, if you find it difficult to know the trigger, then as soon as you get the urge to check your phone, ask yourself the following questions; where am I? What time is it? What's my emotional state? Who else is around me? What was I doing right before I picked up the phone? All these questions will help you find about your trigger. Once you know your trigger, you can write it down in your tracker and then keep using whichever platform that you wanted to use. In this section, you have to make a note of which apps or websites you visited after picking up the phone and what you did. Did you post something on your feed or went to check a message from a friend or just started browsing, or did all of it one after the other? Even if you started with one platform and ended with another, do write all of it. Like in my case, one of the entries I made was, started with Instagram to reply to the comments of my latest post, then saw some other posts and started liking and commenting, etc. In another instance, when my trigger was stressed, I wrote that I just started browsing Instagram, saw loads of reels, and then from there, move to Facebook and then again back to Instagram. As you saw, this section is about writing an account of what exactly you did. Sometimes it can be short, sometimes it can be long. There might be times that you will not exactly remember what you did, but write as much as you can. This information is important as it will help us determine the quality of the reward we are getting as we move ahead in this exercise. This section is quite straightforward. All you have to do is just write down the minutes or the hours you spend after each social media session. Because of our phones and technology, most of us do have a clear idea as to how much total time we're spending on social media in the day. But what this information here will do is that it'll break it down further. It will help us see the time spent on different sessions throughout the day. It will also help us find out the correlation between different triggers and the time spent on a particular social media platform. For example, after I did this exercise, I realized that whenever I was angry or confused, I spent way more time on Instagram and hopped from one platform to another compared to when I just wanted to post something or message someone. Now the next thing that you need to track is the need. Now the need or the craving is the motivational force behind every habit. Most of the times, what we crave is not the habit itself, but the change in the state that it delivers. We watch TV or play video games because we crave change or escape or relaxation. Similarly, we impulsively check social media not just because we enjoy it, but to distract us from stress or anxiety or to meet some other kind of need. We cannot change a bad habit unless and until we know the underlying reason behind doing it. That is why after each and every social media session, whether it's five minutes or 15 minutes long, make sure to write the need in this particular column. Now I understand that identifying a need can be difficult sometimes and that is why I have provided a list of some key needs in the workbook. Take the help from them and see what matches in your situation. Identifying needs in the moment can get difficult sometimes because the emotions themselves cloud our awareness. Feel free to finish this column at the end of the day or whenever you are comfortable and while you write them, make sure that you're honest to yourself and don't judge your answers. There is no right or wrong here, we're just collecting information and we don't have to label anything as good or as bad. We do things, we perform habits because we get some sort of reward. That is why it is very important to know the reward we are getting after our online outing. After you have finished scrolling or posting, take a moment to think about how you're feeling. Do you feel inspired, happy, angry, envious, bored, or lonely? Did the action improve your situation? Ask yourself these questions so that you can really understand what you are feeling. Most of the times we jump from one activity to another and might fail to notice the little shifts in our mood. But for this particular exercise, do try and make a note of what you're feeling after using social media. Once you do that, make sure to color it. You can color the positive feelings or mood with one color and the opposite one with another color. The times when you cannot pinpoint the exact mood or feeling, you can just indicate it with color too. I experienced a mix of positive and negative emotions and made sure to record and color-code each one of them. I request you to do the same, because the more we understand about our mood, about a reward, the easier it will get to make wise choices about social media. Go ahead and for the next few days, spend some time to really know your habit. Made sure to fill in all the columns. Also, carry the tracker with you so that you don't forget to fill in any detail. A clear idea of your reasons and your mood is essential to move forward in this mindful social media journey. Please map your habit and once you do that, join me in the next lesson. [MUSIC] 4. Break the Spell: [MUSIC] Welcome back. Now that you have filled up your tracker and have more awareness about your social media habit, I'm hopeful that you are ready to break the spell, so let's get started. Now we will do this exercise in two steps. In the first step, we're going to look at the information, the data that we have collected to understand what we are really getting from a habit. In the second part, we will define what we really want. The first question that we're going to explore together is, what do I get from this? Before you write your answer in your workbook, thoroughly look at your reward column. Take a moment to analyze and consider how many times did you use the positive color? How many times was it really worth it? Did it really fix problems or led to another problem such as lack of sleep, lack of socializing, comparison with others, and etc? How do you feel when you look at the outcome of the reward column? Do you want to bring some changes in the way you use social media? There is no right or wrong answer here. All of us are different and everyone will have a different reason or a situation when social media may seem right or not. Put back your curiosity hat and non-judgmental lens and then write what you're feeling in the workbook or your journal. For me, this question prompt really worked as it gave me the reality check I needed. Even while filling up the tracker, I could sense where it was going. After all, most of the time my reward column was of the negative color. But seeing it all together in the end and then writing about it made me 100 percent aware of what I was getting and what I didn't want any more. I realized that there were very limited occasions when I actually enjoyed using social media. Another important realization was that whenever I use social media to overcome a negative emotion, well, no surprise here, all it gave me was a temporary relief or distraction. Nothing sustainable, nothing really rewarding. I also noted that whenever I used social media for a very long duration, it either made me feel irritated or exhausted in the end. In the past, whenever my son or my husband would pinpoint about my phone usage, I either ignored them, argued with them, or just give some random reason to justify it. I think this happens with a lot of us. We don't like to be told about a bad habit. But I feel when we reflect on it by our own, when we write about it, just like we did in this case, we end up being honest. The resistance towards the habit lowers and we end up making space for change. The wonderful part is that this gradual shift towards change doesn't happen by being forceful. It happens by being mindful. You can ask yourself this question every time you are done using social media and you don't have to write the answer each time in a journal. Just gently check in with yourself after you are done using social media. These little check-in sessions will help you become more and more aware of the reward that you're getting. You will learn to see the rewards that are giving you a temporary relief and the ones that are truly adding to your life. By introducing a moment of self-awareness, we can make the whole process an intentional one rather than an automated one. With that thought, let's move on to the next part of this lesson. Now that we have created a space for change by having a deeper understanding of what we are getting out of a social media habit, it's time to define what we want from it. Just like the way we have a check-in system to know the reward value after we are done using social media, we need to have a check-in system before we start using social media, or for that matter, even before we pick up our phone. How do we do that? Well, we can do that by setting intentions for each and every social media platforms that we use. To set intentions, you can ask yourself questions like, why do I use social media? What do I hope to get out of it? What do I want to find out? What do I want to give through it? How do I want to feel while and after using social media? Take the help of these question prompts to understand your true intention. To give you some more idea, here are some examples of intentions that can be used for social media. Connect with family and friends, express yourself, have something to do when you are anxious, get inspiration from artists you admire, build an audience, participate in an online community, learn new skills, watch funny or entertaining videos, network for business, find an escape, get recognition for your work, make a career. For example, my intention for Instagram is to share art and mindfulness-related content, build an audience, and connect with like-minded people. For Pinterest, it is to find inspiration and ideas, and Facebook is for keeping in touch with acquaintances and to get information from Facebook groups. For YouTube, my main intention is to learn. There was a time when I used to refer to both Instagram and YouTube to learn about things like home decor, cooking, and etc. But because of this exercise, I've stopped using Instagram for those purpose, so for any learning-related things, I refer to YouTube. Because of this little shift in intention, I've ended up saving a lot of time and energy. So spend some time defining your intentions. It may seem like a small step, but I feel that once you do it, it can give you a lot of clarity. Another important thing to note is that your intentions don't have to be grand or heavy. It can be entertainment. What matters is that the activity you are doing on that particular platform should serve a purpose that aligns with your own. Once you become aware of your intentions, you will have a sense of direction and because of that, you will know when to check-in, what to share, who to connect with, and how to best connect with them. Do spend some time figuring out your intentions and writing them down in your workbook. Also, your intentions can change over time. Rather than making it perfect, just go with what feels right at the moment and if it doesn't work out, you can always write new ones. The next time you get this urge to check your email when you're bored, just ask yourself if it is intentional or why am I doing this right now. This why will stop you from falling down the rabbit hole. Before we end this exercise, I just want to say that though the act of stopping to notice and not letting yourself be swept up by emotions is powerful, it does takes time. You will have to do this over and over until it clicks for you, but it can and will click eventually. Now there are some other steps too that you can take to complement this practice and help you move further on this mindful social media journey. One of them is to replace the unfavorable behavior with a favorable one. Join me in the next lesson, where we will hunt for better and rewarding alternatives. [MUSIC] 5. Alternative Behavior Hunt: [MUSIC] Our habits are like an old-fashioned cassette tape. We cannot erase the behavior without overriding it. Even when we have taken an inventory of all the times social media wasn't as rewarding as we thought, just trying to stop it on the shear basis of mindfulness and intention won't work. Most likely we will fail and fall back into the old patterns because our cravings, our needs will be unmet. That is why it is important to look for healthier behaviors that we can replace in place of the older one. A behavior that can not only help in meeting the needs, but is also more rewarding than the previous one. Once again, bring out your tracker and focus on the needs section and highlight the needs that even after using social media, did not give you any positive rewards. As you shortlist the needs, here is one important thing to consider. Some of the times, your needs might have the possibility to be met by social media, like when you're using it to showcase your work or to connect with people. But then because of other reasons like excessive time spent or using it at the wrong time of the day, it could be turning into a negative outcome. For situations like these, we will be establishing boundaries in the next lesson, so feel free to leave them out for now. Once you have shortlisted the needs, you can write them in the workbook. Use a different page for each individual need. You can write them exactly as you had written in your tracker or you can consolidate similar types of needs and write it as one. Feel free to write as many needs as you want. The goal of this lesson is to find an alternative behavior that can actually meet your needs rather than just aggravate it or give you temporary relief. Like in my case, I had three major recurring needs that I was trying to meet with social media, but it wasn't working out the way I thought. The first one was relief and escape. The need to zone out or just escape for some time, especially after an argument was one of my recurring needs behind social media. The next on the list is the need for reassurance. Now, I use social media for inspiration. Even though most of the times it has been a positive experience, while doing this exercise I noticed that many a times those inspiration seeking sessions went really long. It was interesting to realize that it was my underconfidence, the need to be absolutely sure about what I was doing or writing depending on what that activity was, what's the reason behind my excessive social media use. The next need that I wrote in the journal is the need for stimulation. I've spent hours scrolling through social media not because I felt it was the best use of my time, but because I was trying to meet my need for stimulation. Even though social media and phones are one of the easiest way to get some stimulation, I wanted to break this dependency and that is why I wrote it down in the journal. Now that the needs have been written down, it's time to find the alternative behavior that can actually help to meet these needs. What new behavior will you execute in place of the old one? Well, that can range from taking a walk to listening to music, to reading, to meditation, to playing an instrument. There are many, many options. It is absolutely personal and depends on the needs that you have shortlisted. I cannot tell you exactly what to do, but here are some steps that you can take as you look for better and healthier alternatives. The first and the most important thing to consider is that your new routine should actually meet the needs that you have written down. For example, in my case, to meet the need of relief or escape, I decided to opt for walking and music. For my need for reassurance, I decided to journal. Now, just because I have written music and long walks as an alternative behavior, it doesn't mean that I haven't done them before, but then, previously, I didn't make a conscious attempt to replace social media with music or long walks. That is why writing it down in the workbook and treating it like a plan changed the way I approached listening to music or taking walk as an activity. It became more intentional. When you decide your new behavior, don't worry about it being unique. The goal here is to replace social media with a healthier and better alternative. Old or new, it doesn't matter. Now you are going to use this alternative action to break a deep-rooted and an enticing old habit. Try to pick something that is easy and you enjoy or enjoyed at one point in your life. It can also be something that you've been wanting to do since a very long time. The less the resistance, the better it is. For example, to meet my need for stimulation, I have shortlisted reading as my new behavior. It is something that I enjoyed for a very long time, but I'd stopped lately. I started with fiction as that's more fun. I also took the local library subscriptions so that I could access more books. Similarly, if you want to journal or draw, then start with a small size book. The less space, the less intimidating it'll be to fill it. If your need is connection, then go to a meet-up or join a class that is of your interest area. Maybe take a friend with you. In short, when you shortlist your new behavior, get creative, make it appealing, make it easy for you. Now, the next thing to consider is that your new habit should be something that works for you rather than against you. That is why substituting social media with Netflix isn't a good idea, but don't get too ambitious. Do remember the previous point of it being easy and something that you enjoy. For example, doing five-minutes of deep breathing is a good starting point rather than committing to a long meditation session. Of course, as you get comfortable, you can increase the duration, increase the intensity of that particular activity. The last thing to consider while choosing the alternative is that it should be something that you can measure. As it is a beginning phase, the measurable the activity, the easier it gets to sustain it. Also, the brain doesn't work well when you give it ambiguous terms. For example, I will go for a walk when I'm stressed rather than going on social media. It should be, I will go for a 10-minute walk whenever I'm stressed. Based on these points, do write down all the new actions that you have come up with for each of the needs. In the column below it, write down any steps that you might have to take to facilitate those actions. Do remember to write the reward too that you are going to get from each of the new routines. If you're not sure about the right fit, then experiment. You don't have to fix only one option. Once you have filled up the plan sheet for each of the individual needs, you can do something to remind yourself about it. Now, those visual reminders could be a post-it on the fridge or the mirror, a printout on the wall in front of your desk, a screensaver on your phone or your laptop, any other object that you will see throughout the day that will remind you to follow through with that action. In my case, I started carrying a book every time I stepped outside of the house. Whenever I had some time to kill and I opened my bag to take out my phone, I would see the book. That visual cue reminded me of my plan that if I needed stimulation, I should read. The visual reminder to work on my need for reassurance was a journal and a pen near my bedside table. Based on what your new alternative is, figure out the visual reminder that will help to keep your habit in front of you. All this planning and detailing will ensure is that when the need arises, you will not have any excuse and it'll be easier to follow the new habit. Over time, that new routine will start getting stronger and a new and a better habit will be formed in place of an old one. As you make that shift from the old behavior to the new behavior, remember to be compassionate towards yourself. There will be times, especially at the beginning, that you might fail and fall back into the old routine. But when that happens, instead of talking negatively to yourself, you can gently remind yourself of the plan and then get right back to it. Don't wait until the next day or the next Monday or the next month to start off. Just like it took several repetitions to form the old habit, the new habit too will take many repetitions. Aim for small steps instead of perfection and slowly you will start seeing the change. Yes, once you find your treasure, your new behavior, to replace the old one, don't forget to post about it in the project gallery section. I think it will be very inspiring for everyone to see the various things that can be done to meet different needs instead of a one-stop social media. Now, let's move on to the last lesson which will close all the loose ends and help us move smoothly and efficiently on the mindful social media parts. [MUSIC] 6. Change the Environment : If you're trying to eat healthy, a common piece of advice is to avoid having any junk food in the house. If the cookies are right there on the table, you will probably take one or three. But if they are on the shelf of the supermarket, you're unlikely to eat them. Similarly, we do need some rules, some changes in our environment so that we don't give in to the temptation. We need to establish some social media boundaries so that we can draw the line required to sustain our mental and emotional energy. Now there isn't one solution that works for everyone. Just like the way our triggers and our intentions are different, so will be our boundaries. But to give you a clear idea and to help you pick up the boundaries, I have divided the boundaries in three categories. Let's start with the first one. There are various ways that you can set time boundaries when it comes to social media. You can set the time of the day you want to use it, as well as a number of hours. You can also figure out the days of the weeks that you want to completely cut off from social media. If you are not sure as to what's a reasonable amount of time to spend on social media each day, then you can get the answers from the tracker. You can take into account all the time you spend on social media wherein you have a valid reason to login and then come up with a number. You can also consider your intentions behind using different platforms, then ask yourself, how much do you actually need for each of those platforms. You can have different time slots for work and personal use in case you manage and run different accounts. Now, this time limit isn't set in stone, so just see what works for you right now and you can always adjust it later. You can also ask someone close to you to get a different perspective. Once you come up with a number, make a big deal about it. With that, I mean, pluck a slot in your schedule for it. Just like the way you would schedule other important activities in your day or the week, schedule your social media time too. Give it 100 percent attention and importance. Instead of quick bites like one-minute in the elevator, five-minutes while waiting in the line for coffee, or 15 minutes before taking a bath, have a hearty, long-lasting snack and make it count. While you're using social media all that should matter is you and the content that you are browsing. In my case, I have scheduled daily time slots for YouTube and Instagram, and weekly once for Facebook and Pinterest. Now sometimes if I have a specific need and I want to login into any of these platforms outside of my time limit or my day, then I just login to the particular need and logout immediately. No scrolling, no liking, no messaging if it is outside of my schedule time. The interesting part is that because of all of these time limits, I've actually been able to do much more. I've been more focused and thus more productive. Give these time boundaries a try. Now let's move on to the next boundary. When it comes to setting space-related boundaries, there are three aspects to consider. The first one, which I feel we often overlook, is the mental space we are in while browsing or consuming content. Most of the time we use social media as a quick fix when we are stressed or going through a bad mood. It might feel good initially but then after the initial rush, that stress comes back. Also during that mindless scrolling, we might see some content which adds to our anxiety and makes us feel much worse than we were feeling in the beginning. That is why even if it is your designated time slot and you know the reason why you're using that particular platform, if you are in a bad mood, then take a break. If it is not time-sensitive, you can always come back to it later. It may seem little but to drive my point further, here's an example. Suppose you have to go for a party and you're very excited for it. But right before you enter the venue, you have an argument with your partner or your friends. Now, would you like to go inside and meet everyone right away, or would you like a minute to gather your thoughts, calm down and then enter? Well, it's the same thing here too. When you take care of these little things, not only will you safeguard your mental peace, but will also prevent any negative or rude interaction that can happen online. Another aspect when it comes to space is physical space. The space in your house where you will use or not use social media. For example, you can decide that you will not use your phone while on the bed, or on the dining table, or in your work area. Or you can also do the opposite and decide the spaces where you will use social media. Like in my case, the only space that I use my phone when I'm at home is my living room. After I'm done browsing and interacting at my designated time slot, I keep the phone away. This physical distance helps in breaking the habit of reaching out to the phone just out of impulse and without any reason. The final thing to consider when it comes to space-related boundaries is picking up the device. Just because these platforms are available for desktop, mobile, tablets, it does not mean that you need to use it in all these devices. Like in my case, I use Instagram only on my phone and iPad and never on my computer. All these practices may seem very simple or even insignificant on their own, but the thing is that the speed at which phones and social media have come into our lives, we didn't get the chance to think about these little things. That is why we need to go back to the basics. Instead of doing a detox or completely deleting everything, we can do these little changes to bring in a more balanced and mindful approach. One of the important steps in making the shift from mindless to mindful social media is to make our online experience interesting, fun, and valuable. We can do that by setting some content-related boundaries. The people we follow online are essentially the people we're hanging out with in the online space. Just like the way we have clear boundaries on the people we like to hang out often with and the people we want to avoid at all costs, we need to have similar boundaries for the online space too. Go to the list of people, brands, and pages you follow on all of the social media platforms, look at every single one of the accounts and ask yourself, why are you following them? Are they bringing you inspiration, motivation, making you laugh, challenging your mindset or contributing to your growth? Think about what things you wish to see, unsee, and what you want to feel when you browse through your feed. Based on these pointers, you can easily decide whom to follow and whom not to. Do try some spring cleaning of the various social media platforms that you're following. It will be a relief to declutter all the negative things and people and it will also make your social media experience uplifting. Much of our lives these days is intertwined with our social media presence and social media does a wonderful job too. It has helped us to connect and get educated in ways that was never possible before the Internet. But just like social interaction in life outside of the Internet, if we don't navigate through these online spaces with our health and wellness in mind, we can get stuck in unhealthy and emotionally draining habits. At the end of the day, you can follow 50 or 500 people. You can spend one hour every day, or just few hours over the weekend. You can be active on one platform or five different platforms. But the point is that you should be the one who is deciding that. Go forth and make the boundaries that work for you that aligns with your intention so that you can keep using the good parts of social media. 7. Final Thoughts: [MUSIC] Congratulations, you did it. Thank you so much for staying through this class. I really appreciate the time and attention that you have given. I hope that the exercises in the class have enabled you to build awareness about your social media behavior, and I've provided you enough steps to bring the shift from mindless to mindful social media use. The thing to remember is that a mindful social media practice is less about how much time, and more about how that time is being used. It is important to be intentional about each and every aspect of social media, or even technology for that matter, so that it can add to your life and not take away from it. Your digital self is an extension of your real life, so treat it with care so that you can have a meaningful and gratifying social media experience. Do try some or all of the exercises that we did throughout the class for some days, and see how it works for you. Please don't be hard on yourself for doing them. Also, don't forget to share your thoughts, your experiences about these activities. I understand that sharing all the parts about the workbook can be uncomfortable, so share the ones that you are comfortable with. One of the things that I really encourage you to share is the images of the new actions, the alternatives that you have picked up in place of the old ones. Suppose the image of the new book that you bought, or your playlist, or you while doing yoga or dancing, I would love to see them. I'm sure it will inspire and give ideas to others too. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to post in the discussion board. You can connect with me by following me on Instagram. You can also follow me on Skillshare so that you would be updated on future classes. But yes, as we discussed in the boundary lesson, click on the "Follow" button, only if my content aligns with your intentions and your needs, and only if it adds value to you. Thank you once again for taking this class. I wish you well on your mindful social media journey. Do remember that it takes time to rewire old habits. Give yourself please as you make these big little changes. Take care, and see you next time. [MUSIC]