The word detoxification is everywhere on social media, magazines, even the news. These posts recommend, "Stop doing this and that! Reset your body by you fill in the blank." One thing I haven't seen is detoxifying your mind. I suppose if you 'freed your mind,'- you won't buy the product or services of what these articles are promoting. So there you go!
Three weeks ago, I detoxified my mind by mistake. The storage on my phone was full. I spent hours deleting pictures, text threads, etc. to gain some room back so that I could take photos of my kid at his first swim lesson. I noticed that there was an 'other' category in my storage that seemed to be getting bigger the more I deleted. What the hell was this 'other'? Believe me, I did everything to get rid of it, but to no avail. The only option I had was to reset my phone to factory settings to get this mysterious category off my phone.
When I realized this, I got the sweats. What if I didn't have everything backed up. What if I deleted something important. But then it dawned on me, what if I deleted everything? Do I need all of this digital clutter? What would that feel like not to have to scroll through 4,000 pictures to find that one? And why do I have 10,000 images anyway?
So I went through my pictures again, saving only those experiences that brought me joy: my daughter singing with Michael Franti, baby pictures, the beautiful view from on top of Table Rock in Calistoga. I said thank you to all of the other images and screenshots that remained.
And then I hit, factory reset. It was the scariest moment of my life, and it was the most freeing.
At that moment, I realized the digital age had control over me. I took pictures to 'prove that it happened,' I took screenshots for crafty ideas that I'll get to "one day," and I was using technology that was taking me away from my loved ones (binge watching Netflix cough, cough).
Now, I am very aware of what I save and look at on my phone. That delete button freed me. It reminded me of the importance of having a purpose to all that I do, what I post, what I save, what I take pictures of. In this day and age, it's effortless to become a digital hoarder, and when you hoard, you can't free your mind for all that higher stuff like spirituality, creativity, and humility.
Free your mind baby, delete it all!