Mindful/Slow Living

Now that I have not been online as much lately. I have been practicing more mindful living. I have been living in the moment more. And it has been a wonderful experience. So what has been present showed me.

• Focus on myself/time spent alone-This experience has given me time to allow my thoughts and emotions to shine. The thoughts and emotions I am worried about are my own. I feel a sense of peace not having lots of other opinions and emotions invade my space. I am not saying don’t care about others, but give yourself space for your own thoughts, emotions and goals. It is good to not worry about what others are thinking. There is a sense of peace to that.
• Romanticizing my life-Focusing on myself has made me realize how much I enjoy my life. I have interesting hobbies that I can immerse myself in. I am really starting to appreciate plant care so much more now. This time spent away from the screen gives me more time to tend to my plants, and put more focus on caring for them. I realize how awesome it is to be a plant mom. On a bigger scale, this can go for parents of children. If you put energy into yourself, you will then have energy to put into your children. And you will realize how awesome it is to be a parent. I think of all the trips I have planned, local and out of state, and the wonderful trails I am able to walk around here. I just feel I have so many exciting things going on in my life, and it starts by focusing on yourself, and unplugging. 
• Learning to not put others on a pedestal-This goes along with the last one. When I would scroll or be on Youtube. I would romanticize the life of others. Also, the idols I was obsessed with. But when I put my energy on myself. I realized I had nothing to be envious of. I have lots of interesting things going on with me, why am I worried about them? When you put the focus on others, your world revolves around them, and that is not how it should be. Unless, you are a parent, the only exception, but for strangers, that’s a big no. Their lives are great in some ways, but so is mine. It is time to take others off that pedestal, and put yourself on it. We all have plenty of interesting things going on in our lives, and if you don’t, time to make that happen! We got to stop living vicariously through others and start living our own lives. If you put energy into others. You have no time for yourself.
• Peace, fulfillment and appreciation-Probably the most prevalent emotions I feel at the moment. Peace of mind that I am not worried about others, seeking some sort of validation. I am just doing me. Fulfilled in all the hobbies I partake in and being able to immerse in the activities I do. Appreciation for what I have and what I am able to do.
• Creativity-When you give your thoughts space. You can end up having interesting thoughts pop up. Also, when you aren’t scrolling, or being fed information nonstop. You get ideas. I have gotten a lot of ideas just from sitting with myself. Goals, more activities I should try, ideas about life. You can get the most random thoughts. Once I was in my car, just sitting, looking at a tree. I wondered what kind of tree is this, can it hear my thoughts, are they conscious? Just random stuff like this, you are just present, this is stuff you miss when you are just scrolling.
• Feeling refreshed- Now that I just sit with myself before work, and during my lunch break. It really helps refresh myself and energizes me to go into work, or back to work. As someone who gets overstimulated easily and drained by others around me. It is best to give myself space to breathe and think and fill my energy up to get out and socialize, and be around others. I feel scrolling did not help that, but sitting with myself brought my energy back up. 
• Freedom-I feel a sense of not being attached to wanting to post things or get some sort of validation from others. I can just freely live my life and do things without having to take photos to post. I can just enjoy what I am doing. 

These are all the things I got from living a bit more mindfully. I am sure there are more, but these are the things that stand out right now. I like giving myself that refresh on Saturday, so I can recharge for the week. It is fun finding different activities to fill my time when I am not online.