Kick your Social Media Addiction in just 4 Weeks!

Alright so here we are in week 1 and I’m going to give a brief rundown of what we’ll be covering this week. Be sure to download and print the checklist and follow along during each lecture.

We talked in the last lecture about how The Success method comprises four parts: your Physical, Psychological health, Social Health and Addiction focused. You’ll find three lectures that focus on your physical, psychological and social health and then a lecture that is related specifically to social media.

In each lecture, you will have very specific tasks to follow and that’s why downloading and printing the checklist is important.

This week, we’re going to cover things like how to get on track with healthy eating and finess and how to get a good night's sleep.

We’ll also cover your mental and spiritual health while talking about intentional living.

Socially we’re going to talk about your family, friends, and professional relationships and play a part in your social media usage and then I’m going to give you some very specific things to do this week to start the process of retraining your brain by taking action on minimizing your social media use.

I’m excited to start this journey with you and as always, if you have questions, you know how to reach me. Let's Start!

Let’s start with nutrition. Your overall health is highly dependent on the foods that you put into your body.Your task for this week is going to be to research online what type of nutritional program you want to start and to pick one that you think will work best for you.

This isn’t a weight loss course or a course that’s going to teach you how to gain muscle. This is about reaching your maximum potential when it comes to your physical health. To do this, you’ll want to take a look at your own diet and understand where you can improve. For starters, look at things like, are you getting enough fruits and vegetables. Are you getting enough protein and fiber?

You’ll want to eliminate as much processed food as possible. With that being said, you should come up with your own nutritional goals - this may be to lose a few pounds or to just generally eat better. There are thousands of plans to choose from.

The reason I suggest sticking with a plan because if you’re like most people, it’s hard to know and understand how exactly to optimize your nutrition for better health.

Following a plan makes it much easier. My sister did the paleo method and I have a friend who tried Whole 30. Some people are interested in going gluten free or maybe vegetarian.

Whatever you’ve wanted to do, this is the week to figure that out and do what it takes to start -if it’s signing up for an online membership, purchasing or renting a book from the library or whatever it is you need to start.

Actionable steps week 1:

1. Find a nutrition program

2. Gather items you will need to make this a success: food, books, etc.

3. Get rid of junk food in your home - (soda, cookies, candy, etc.)

Okay now let’s talk about fitness. You can’t just eat well and sit around and not move your body. That would be counterproductive. Since we want this to be an all encompassing experience, we are going to recommend you also find an exercise or fitness plan.

Some people like combining the two. - there are many plans that incorporate both fitness and food together. Or, you can pick a nutrition plan and then make your own fitness plan.

This is the week to set some goals. If following a specific fitness plan isn’t for you, you can certainly take up something you’ve always wanted to try whether it’s martial arts, dancing, hiking, swimming, going to the gym, running, etc.

Whatever you choose keep this in mind: You need to be making sure you are doing some sort of intense cardio 3 times per week and in addition to that be sure you are moving your body every single day. If you have a fitness tracker - aim for 10k steps per day.

Actionable steps week 1:

1. Find a fitness program and sign up or

2. get necessary items

3. Make sure you are moving your body every single day - push yourself a little more than you normally would.

In this lecture, we're going to talk about sleep. Sleep is the last component for physical health.

I'm curious, do you know how much sleep you're getting every night? If not, it's important for you to find out ASAP. You can do this by looking at your fitness tracker or taking manual notes each night. What time do you really go to bed and wake up?

For this course, I am going to challenge you to sleep 7-9 hours every night. Here are some tips to make that happen:

1. Set a bedtime and stick to it every single night.

2. Set a wake up time and stick to that every single morning.

3. Limit your caffeine take after 3pm.

4. Lower the amount of "screen time" you have the hour before bed.

So remember to aim for 7-9 hours of sleep every night.

We'll continue to talk about sleep throughout this course as it's not always as easy at it seems. But let's start here and we'll check back in again in a week.

Your mental health is important

When I work with people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol and also have a mental health diagnosis, I refer to them as having what is called a co-occurring disorder. This is an official diagnosis when someone has a substance use disorder as well as a mental health disorder.

There is no such term when referring to behavior addictions such as porn, gambling, eating and so on. But that doesn’t mean the concept behind the diagnosis is not the same.I call this the chicken and egg theory. Do people turn to social media because they have an undiagnosed mental health struggle or do they have a mental health struggle caused by too much social media use?

Think of your social media use in the same way. Do you have a mental health diagnosis or suspect you may have a mental health disorder? Do you turn to social media to escape something else that may be going on? Or, do you think you may have a mental health disorder that is caused by using too much social media? Not everyone knows what came first but it really doesn’t matter.

What matters is that if you struggle with anything mental health related your addiction to social media will never be cured if you do not treat your mental health at the same time.This course is here to treat and cure your social media addiction. It is not designed to diagnose and treat anything else so if you are struggling with depression, anxiety, a mood disorder, it is possible that those symptoms will go after your social media addiction is treated but that’s not always the case because if you have something else going on, you will always be looking for ways to self medicate. You know yourself more than anyone and it’s up to you on whether or not you see a mental health professional.

I have many students who are able to break free from their addiction by taking my course and some students need a mental health professional to help them as well, at the same time. If you are unsure, what I suggest you do is get through the first 30 days and see how you feel. If you feel significant improvement then great! If not, there may be something else, other than an addiction to social media going on and it would be critical at that point to make the appointment.

Actionable steps for week 1:

1. Make an appointment with a mental health professional to rule out co-occurring mental health disorders

When struggling with addiction a spiritual loss occurs. The official definition of spirituality is the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.

Think back to your childhood and try to remember what you imagined your life to be like as an adult. What dreams and hopes did you have? Did those dreams involve you spending hours every day glued to your phone or computer looking at other people's lives? Probably not.

Everyone has something to give and while it may take a while for you to uncover your true potentials, you are closer now than you ever were. Why? Because you’re hereI want you to be sure to take time every single day to reflect on the type of person you want to be.

Think of ways you can help and what do you have to offer? I don’t mean materialistic things because spirituality is not about how big your house is or what kind of car you drive. It’s more about your ability to understand that there is more to life than money, what type of phone you have, and material things.

Being able to train yourself to be more empathetic and compassionate is a great start and then overtime you will start to see that there is something greater for you.

A good way to start the spiritual process or get back into it is to meditate every day. You can find a meditation app or go to youtube.

But taking time every single day to reflect and connect with your inner soul will be so liberating and beneficial to your quitting social media.

Actionable steps week 1:

1. Find time in your schedule every day to meditate (start with just 2-3 minutes per day)

2. Find a space in your home you dedicate to this (a quiet room, bedroom, outside, etc.)

3. Find an app or podcast. There are many free ways to meditate.

Hi again! This is the last lecture for psychological health and with that, we’re going to focus on intentional living. Intentional living is basically how you live your own life based on your own values and beliefs. I’m not here to tell you how to live your life but I am here to help you recognize some of your own deep down intentions. Each week, we’ll cover a topic on intentional living and you’ll have easy to achieve actionable items.

This week, I want to talk to you about the importance of goal setting. Believe it or not, we’ve already started that process and with the worksheets and checklists, I’ve made it easy for you to set these goals. However, we’re all different people and we all have different ideas on how we can live our best possible life. So, we already know that the goal for week 1 is to reduce the amount of time you spend on social media and we’ll talk more about this a little later. Another goal for this week is going to be to set goals. I’ve laid out specific goals for you but I want you to make this more personal for you.

I want you to think of one goal big or small that you have for your life and write it down on the checklist. I know that seems incredibly broad but think of something you’ve always wanted to do or maybe a way you’ve wanted to be. Something that you can work on this week. You’ll be setting goals every week, not just for the 4 weeks here but it’s something I hope you continue to do every week. Let me give you some examples.

Example: “I want to be more kind.”

So for this, you will put that as your goal and every day this week, living intentionally, you would aim to be the kindest person you can possibly be. Be mindful of every interaction you make.

Example: “I want to have a better relationship with my mom.”

For this, maybe you would send your mom a text on Monday and call her on Wednesday. Or perhaps go see her on Friday.

Example; “I want to take a vacation to Egypt

For this, maybe on Tuesday you would work out the cost of this trip and then on Friday you would work out how much money you would need to save in order to make this trip happen. You get the idea!

So let’s get started- go set a goal now!

Alright so now we’re going to dive into your social health. Each week we’re going to talk about family and family plays a role in your social media addiction. Family is one of the biggest reasons we don’t say to cut out social media all together and we’ll get to more of that in the later part of the course. If I had to bet, most of you would say that about 95% of your family is one Facebook or Facebook and then scattered out to other places like instagram, snapchat, etc.

So here’s what I want you to do this week. This is going to involve a good old piece of pen and paper. I want you to make a family so to speak. Start with your immediate family and then see how far you can go. Once you have your list - however you want to organize it - a tree, a list, whatever, now put a star next to everyone who has a social media account. Then take a second look, put a check mark next to those who you see regularly, in person.

The family that you have on social media, the ones with a star, do you know their phone numbers or email addresses? How would you communicate with them if social media didn’t exist? Of course, you want to be in the know when babies are born or someone gets engaged. I want to challenge you this week, to reach out to a family member, who is on social media, in another way. See how that feels. Whether it's a text or an email. Just reach out to say hi.

Now I want you to take a look at those who you see on a regular basis. Those with a check mark. I want you to commit to stop communicating with them via social media all together. You’re probably wondering why? Why? Because there is absolutely no reason for you to like, comment, or direct message them through social media if you have other ways you contact them or if you see them on a regular basis. Do you have a photo you want to share with your mom? Don’t upload it and tag her. First, nobody else besides your mom, really cares about that photo. If you think someone else might be interested in seeing the photo, then send a group text. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for you to be communicating with your immediate family on social media. True story, and one you know all too well. My friend Karen was out shopping at Target with her husband. They posted a photo of them at Target together because well, I guess that’s what people do. Then, in the comments section Karen posted a photo of a pair of pants in the comments, that she thought her husband would be interested in. Apparently her husband was in the electronics section because in the comments he wrote, I’m in the electronics section babe. I like them but can you find a different color? She responded, he responded, and the conversation went back and forth for quite some time. Just think about that for a moment. Was it necessary? Absolutely not. In fact, to Karen's friends, this looked quite foolish. But, how many of us are guilty for oversharing on social media? I know I am and you may be too. But, second of all and this is another main reason for not communicating with your family on social media is This is retraining your brain to think about the way you are communicating with your family.

So let’s recap. This week, you are going to take inventory or make a list of your family members then put stars next to those who have social media and check marks next to your immediate family, the ones you see or text almost every day (think, husband, wife, kids, parents, etc.)

From there you will reach out to 1 distant family member via another avenue such as email or phone and you will commit to not communicating with any of your close family via social media. If you have something to say, say it to their face, call them, text them, whatever just stay out of social media.

Okay so now let’s talk about your friends. I am going to assume, one the main reasons you use social media is because of your friends. Let’s start with this thought. Have you ever had a close friend that you know personally, whose life is a mess but on social media their life looks glorious? I want you to assume that’s everyone who uses social media and you’re probably guilty of it too.

If you’re a parent, do you post cute photos of your kid or do you post them throwing tantrums, misbehaving, or pooping their pants? Do you like to travel and post a lot of travel photos? Do you post only the fun stuff or do you post the icky stuff like how you had diarrhea after you ate that shrimp or how you struggled to get to the top of the mountain for that perfect photo op. We’re all guilty of glamourizing our life on social media so this course, over the next 4 weeks, is going to teach you how to change the way you look and think about social media. This week, I want you to look at everything from a different perspective. Everything you see posted, assume it’s the best of the best. I have a story to tell you about a family member of mine. This family member had so much negative drama in her life ranging from forgetting to pick up her kid because she was too drunk to going through a divorce, drugs, alcohol, suicide attempts, etc. It was a very dark time for her. However, somehow, she was able to put herself together enough to go out and post photos of her having a great time at musical festivals, photos of her “fake” traveling (she never had enough money to actually travel so she mooched off others and played it off as it was her own trip) photos of her and her son who also had his own issues, and overall had an online life that was nothing like her own. Even when she was in the hospital for a suicide attempt she managed to take a beautiful selfie and made it look like she was at some sort of resort when in reality it a small waterfall at the hospital.

So think really hard when you look at other people’s photos. Maybe you do the same thing? If you do, you need to stop. This week you’re not going to post a single status update or photo at all and we’ll cover that more in the next couple of lectures. So what kinds of tasks can you do this week to take action with your friends? Let’s do these two things this week:

1. Be conscious about what you see on social media

2. If you need to reach out to a close friend, use direct messaging if you don’t have their number but if you do have their number, text instead. Let’s stay away from public posting this week.

Alright, again refer to your checklist. See you in the next lecture.

Alright so this is our last lecture on social health and we’re going to talk about you as a professional. If you're a student or if you’re a co-worker or whatever you do professionally, this is important stuff here.

I think one of the biggest mistakes is when people mix business with social media pleasure. You may think you are cool with your co-workers, teachers, etc. but if something happens and you’re friends on social media, there’s just too much out there for anyone to get a hold of. It’s important that you stop being friends on social media with anyone you would consider to be in a professional relationship. There’s a better way to have an online relationship professionally, but always keep it professional. I’d like to not think of Linkedin as a social media site but rather a networking site. This week, I want you to make a list of everyone you have a professional relationship with, find them on Linkedin - if you don’t have an account, then create one, add them and then delete them from your other social networking pages.

Let’s start there and then we’ll talk more about what to do with your professional relationships next week.

To recap:

1. Sign up for a Linkedin if you haven’t already

2. Make a list of those who you have a professional relationship with and are friends with on social media

3. Friend all your professional colleagues or anyone you have a professional relationship with

4. Delete those same people from all of your other social media sites

Alright so now that we’ve started the success method by making actionable goals for your physical, mental and social well-being it’s time to get down to the good stuff. When it comes to beating an addiction, it’s important to incorporate positive yet challenging goals in all areas of your life but you also have to make sure you are taking action on your specific addiction and that’s what I’m here to talk to you about now. So, this is week one and there are some very specific things you’ll need to do this week. These are steps to take, on top of everything else we’ve talked about so far.

Let’s talk now specifically about your social media usage. Today, I want you to make a list of all social media accounts you have. Once you make that list, I want you to rank them in order of importance. By the end of the four weeks, you’re going to be down to just one social media account so start thinking about what account you want to keep.Here are some things to think about when keeping an account. If you’re like most people, social media is a tool to keep in contact with friends and family, however, most people have more than just friends and family but acquaintances, co-workers, friends or friends, etc. This week, I want you to delete just one of your social media accounts. Make the one you use the least. Just get it out there. Because you’re taking actionable steps, this is going to feel really good. Do not make a post about how you are leaving XYZ. When you do this, it leaves the door open for other people to try and change your mind and that’s not what you want. If there are specific people on that account that have no other way of getting a hold of you then send them a direct message with your personal email or phone number letting them know you’re deleting the account. Okay, so now the last step for this week. I want you to not post anything for the week on any social media account. Here’s what you’ll see when doing this. One, you’ll probably notice that nobody is even going to notice that you haven’t posted and if someone does notice, they’ll send you a direct message. Then you know they are there for you. Two, this is the first habit that you’re going to change. So it starts right now.

Let’s sum this all up.

1. Make an inventory list and highlight one account you want to keep

2. Delete one social media account - the one that means the least to you

3. Stop posting immediately (You can comment, just don’t post)

Alright so we’re done with week 1! This is really exciting! Let’s take some time to recap your specific task items and goals for this week. Remember the success method? Physical Health, Psychological Health, Social Health and Addiction Focused.

Welcome to week 2! How did last week go? I hope you were able to stay focused and work through all the things we mentioned in week 1. If not, it’s okay, you can still continue just keep in mind, this week we’re going to add on to what we already talked about. So you’ll need to make sure you are working towards getting those items completed while you work through week 2. Again, we’re going to talk about your Physical, psychological, and social health and then we’ll have some specific social media tasks for you to take care of. I hope you’re enjoying this course so far and always know, I’m here to help. Let’s get started with week 2.

Hello and welcome to week 2 of nutrition. Let’s quickly recap from last week. This past week, you should have been working on:

1. Choosing a nutrition program

2. Gathering necessary items - food, cookbooks, plans from a website

3. Gotten rid of junk food

4. 
   

Okay so this is action week! I hope the program you chose was a program that works best for you and your lifestyle. Remember, this is not a diet or weight loss course so the program you chose should be one of healthy/ clean eating not one for weight loss unless that is your goal.

This week I want to talk to you about the importance of proper scheduling and planning. This can make a huge difference. If you’re prepared each week then you’ll be less likely to gorge on foods or eat out for a quick bite. It’s important to plan all of your meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. How you do this is up to you. I personally have a little calendar on my fridge.

Each meal should be planned out and then you should make your grocery list from there. It’s much easier to stick to a meal plan when you have all necessary items ready for the week.

Alright so spend some time today planning your meals and making your list. You’ll want to do your shopping today as well, if possible.

Good luck this week!

Alright welcome to week 2 of the fitness portion of the course. So let's recap from last week:

1. Find an exercise program

2. Purchase necessary items

3. move your body more

Alright so here we are in week 2 and I'm going to ask you to step it up. This week, you should be implementing 100% with some sort of program, whether it's a gym membership, a home workout program, a biking app, etc.

So the goal for this isn't to go all out with fitness unless that's something you chose to do. Ideally, you'll work out pretty hard 3 days per week and light exercise the other 4 days.

For example, if you chose, let say, a running app. You would want to run 3 days per week and on the other 4 days, make sure you're walking regularly, maybe do some yoga or stretching and just be sure you're not sitting for long periods of time.

So for this week, I want you to schedule out your plan. Here is an example of what your schedule should look like:

Sunday - walk 1 mile

Monday - Zumba

Tuesday - Walk around the block 3 times

Wednesday - Zumba

Thursday - yoga

Friday - Zumba

Saturday - walk 1 mile

I want you to work out a manageable and obtainable fitness schedule. Don't do something that you'll get burned out on too easily. This isn't a workout course with an intention to lose weight or gain muscle, etc. This is a way to start living to your absolute best.

Okay so let's recap. This week:

1. Make a fitness schedule

2. Take action every single day

Easy right? Okay - see you in the next lecture.

So now you're in week two. I'm curious, how did you get on with your sleep? If you're like most people, having an addiction or not, you likely had trouble falling asleep or sticking to a routine. Let's recap from last week.

Last week we talked about:

1. Set a bed time and stick to it every single night.

2. Set a wake up time and stick to that every single morning.

3. Limit your caffeine take after 3pm.

4. Lower the amount of "screen time" you have the hour before bed.

Alright so now this week, let's take it a step further. You had set a bedtime, and now I want you to pushforward that bedtime by 15 minutes. So if you had a set a bedtime to 11:00 - this week aim for 10:45pm. Keep your wake up time the same.Still having problems falling asleep even after limiting your caffeine past 3pm? This is another shift I want you to try this week. Move your caffeine intake time up by one hour - try limiting your caffeine after 2pm. And drink plenty of water or non-caffeinated beverages like caffeine free tea after 2pm.

You're also limiting your screen time before bed which is good, so keep doing that.

Now this week, I want you to start a sleep ritual. Sleep rituals help the body prepare to get good quality sleep through the night. Here's how this works.During your last hour before bed, pick a calming activity to do. Some people enjoy drinking hot tea while reading a book. Others may practice meditation or even a calming yoga practice (which you can find for free on YouTube) - I highly recommend Yoga with Adrienne but you may want to find one that fits your needs. Others like to write or journal - just be careful with this as you don't want to use a computer - pen and paper is always best. Whatever it is, think of this as your self-care. Your one hour each day is just for you. But when you choose your ritual, it's important that you take part in the same activity every single night or this wouldn't be a ritual.

Alright so let's recap:

1. Push up your bedtime by 15 minutes.

2. Keep your wake up time the same

3. Limit your caffeine intake after 2pm

4. Create a new ritual

Alright, you got this!!

Welcome to week 2 Mental Health. Last week I talked about the importance of tackling your mental health and if you had any incline about having an undiagnosed mental health disorder to make an appointment. The reason I jumped on that so fast was because sometimes it can take a few weeks just to get an appointment so the hope is, if you needed to, you’d get an appointment before the end of this course. On top of making an appointment, whether or not you did, we can talk about other ways now to take care of your mind. Even if you don’t struggle with a mental health disorder, your mental health is very important. Essentially, this entire course is mental health related. You see it’s all intertwined - you eat better, you sleep better, you have better relationships that all has to do with your mental health.

This week, though I want you to try and focus on being in the now. Not the past, not the future, but now. This is not going to be easy, but every time you find yourself dwelling on something in the past, don’t fight it, recognize the thought, and then move away from it with easy. Same thing about the future. If something is stressing you out or you are worried about something that hasn’t happened yet, pause and think to yourself: Is there anything I can do about this problem right now? If your answer is no, then move away from that thought, flush it out. This isn’t easy to do but practice overtime. It'll start to become more natural but you have to try and focus on it every single day. That’s your mental health task for this week:

Be in the now

See you in the next lecture.

Alright so here we are in week 2 talking about spirituality. Now I get that everyone is going to have different spiritual needs and desires. Last week I challenged you to find a meditation app, make time for meditation and create a meditation space. This week I want you to challenge yourself to do a little more meditation. If you meditated twice last week go for three times this week. If you meditate for 10 minutes each time, go for 15 minutes. Whatever works for you - just aim for more this week.

There’s another thing I want you to do this week. If you’re religious or a spiritual person there are many churches or spiritual centers you can attend. If you already have a church, I want you to be sure you attend this week. If you don’t have one, find one that aligns with your religion and try to make an appearance.

I get that church isn’t for everyone but many churches nowadays live stream their services so you can view the sermon from home. If you can’t view a live service check out youtube and find one that may suit you.

If you’re not a religious person, watch a video this week that aligns with your spiritual practice. If you’re into science - watch a science video on youtube. There’s something out there for everyone - try it!

So let’s recap for this week:

1. Challenge yourself to meditate a little more

2. Attend a church or spiritual center or watch online

3. If not religious, find a video that suits you

Alright! So that’s your spiritual work for week two. See you in the next lecture.

Welcome to week 2 on intentional living. So last week we talked about goal setting. Did you set a goal? Were you able to work towards that goal this week or maybe even perhaps accomplish that goal? Let’s keep that going because goal setting is the base for intentional living.

So your goal for this week can be the same as last week as long as you are taking actionable steps to accomplish your goal. Your goal can be as simple as finishing this course or as complicated as travelling the world, but whatever it is, make sure you’re working towards it.

Now for this week, I want to talk to you about journaling. When you live intentionally, it’s important to get your thoughts out. You can do this with a traditional pen and paper which is what I prefer or if you’re not into that think of maybe starting a blog or just typing on your computer. This week, I want you to think about what you want to journal about. I suggest you start by journaling your thoughts about this course. Part of journaling can be goal setting. This doesn’t have to take long but I highly recommend journaling a small amount every single day. Make it part of your sleeping ritual or journal your intentions for the day right as you wake up.

Okay so let’s recap for this week:

1. Set one goal

2. Start a journal

That’s it for week two psychological health. Next, we’re moving on to social health.

Welcome to week two: family

Last week we talked about:

• Make a family list and use stars and check marks to differentiate

• Reach out to one distant family member not via social media

• Stop using social media for close family members

How did it go? Did you find this exercise to be difficult? Changing the way we think about social media can be incredibly difficult but I hope you’ve started to see a change. Now I want to clarify. By the end of this course, I do not expect you to be social media free nor is that the goal. I expect to help you break your addiction. Of course you still want to be able to see your grandma’s garden or your cousin’s baby. Nobody is expecting you to hibernate.

With that in mind, let’s get started with this weeks’ family goals.

Think of a family member that you feel guilty about not calling or seeing. You may like their post on social media but you don’t call or text or see them nearly enough. Just think of one person. Now this week, I want you to reach out to them and make some plans. Remember, you don’t want to do this publicly on social media but rather through another avenue such as text or phone. Make a lunch date or plan to see them in person.

To take this even further, when you do see your family member that you haven’t seen in a while, don’t post the event on social media. Don’t check in anywhere, post any selfies, or take any food photos. We talked about living in the now. When you do this, just enjoy it and be in the now. Now normally, if you haven’t seen someone in a long time, you’d probably snap a selfie and post it with a caption of “Had so much fun catching up.” Right? Just think about that for a moment. Who do you want to know that you and a family member caught up? Do you want your old high school friends to know? If you really feel inclined to tell somebody about this meeting, then text them the photo. Think about the tables turned. When you scroll through your social media feeds and you see an old friend post a selfie photo with someone you don’t know, do you keep scrolling? I bet you do but you don’t care do you? So what makes you think other people are going to care about your photos? They don't and they don’t.

Alright so let’s recap for week two family:

1. Continue to not use social media for communication with your close family members

2. Reach out to a family member and set up a time to see them in person

3. Don’t post the event on social media

Last week we talked interacting with your friends not using social media. We also talked about consciously looking at your friend's statuses and photos - is that their real life portrayal or their fake social media life?

True story, I was talking with one of my clients today, a single mom, baby's dad was in the military but when in town never came around. She was saying how in two years he had only seen his daughter once and that was when she was born. He called her up because he was in town and wanted to come see her. Of course she agreed. He showed up, they spent the day together, went to dinner, and everything was good. He told her he'd call more and then left. Well a few weeks went by and never called and was not returning her texts. But you know what pissed her off the most? He posted all the fun things they did on instagram and made himself look like a wonderful and involved dad. So the next time you see a photo of a single dad having a great time with their kid on social media I want you to remember this story.

Alright so I hope you've been noticing that as well about your friends - what you see isn't real life.

So we talked about making a real connection with a family member and I don't want to overwhelm you by asking you to make a real connection with a friend as well because I know you're busy, we're all busy but what I do want you to do this week is to continue to not interact with your friends on social media, still be conscious of what you are seeing, and pick up the phone and call someone. Call, Facetime, Skype, Whatsapp, whatever it is you use to have a real connection with people, do that this week. I know it's weird and uncomfortable to have a spur of the moment call. If you can't think of anybody to call then that right there should be a big red flag for you. Think about who you really have in your life. If you don't have anyone to call then you shouldn't have any friends on social media either. These human connections are important and it's an important exercise to help you think and get out of your comfort zone.

Now that you're in week 2 I also want you to think about what it's been like. Have any of your friends reached out to you asking where you are because they haven't seen you post on instagram or facebook or wherever? My guess is going to be probably not. That's not because they don't' care it's more because social media is a very selfish tool - it's very much hey look at me rather than I wonder how my friend is doing, and I'm talking about being nosy about drama, I'm talking about intrinsically caring about what people are up to.

Let's recap:

1. Don't interact with your friends publicly on social media

2. Be conscious of what you view

3. Call a friend this week

Welcome to week two school/work/co-workers

Last week we talked about signing up for Linkedin if you didn't already have one and then deleting your professional acquaintances once you found them on Linkedin.

I have a special Linkedin task for you today. You may be thinking wow, Linkedin in social media too right? It's different. It's a different type of social media that doesn't involve posting photos of food or vacations but rather posting and conversing about professional topics. Remember, this course isn’t about abstaining completely from social media but rather breaking your addiction to it and finding healthier alternatives.

So let’s talk about your professional task today. Think about someone you work with or someone you have worked with in the past that has made a difference in your life. Someone who did a great job at what they do. Now find them on Linkedin and give them a positive review. Giving reviews on Linkedin is a great way to help you feel good, give back so to speak. It’s a powerful task and I want you to schedule a time this week to make that happen.

Let’s recap:

1. Continue to delete professional aquaintences on mainstream social media sites and find them on linked in

2. Give a professional acquaintance a positive review.

Alright so we’re almost done with the week 2 lectures and now we’re going to talk about what to do specifically social media related. Last week we talked about:

• Take inventory and choose 1

• Delete one social media account

• Stop posting all together

I hope the lectures on friends and family have helped you to look consciously at the reality of social media. How did it go last week not posting? Who noticed? Who didn’t notice? Let’s keep that going.

Now most of us have more than one social media account and this week, I want you to delete another account. Take a quick inventory and make that happen. I want you to continue to not post a status update or any photo and this week I want you to include comments as well. So not comments, no likes, nothing.

Now you might be thinking, my friend is going to be upset that I’m not liking her posts. Here’s how to overcome that feeling. If it’s truly an important thing to like or comment about, try reaching out to them through direct message or text. If it’s not that important, then it’s not important enough to like or comment publicly. Remember, by week 4 you will down to just one main social media account.

Alright so let’s recap:

1. Delete another social media account

2. Stop posting all together

3. No commenting or liking posts

That’s it for week 2.  You’ll want to take the checklist and start scheduling your week. I know it’s a lot and we all have super busy lives but it’s important that you stick to this. Remember, it’s only 4 weeks and you’re almost half way there already.  Let’s do a quick recap of what you’ll need to do this week.

Welcome to week 3! Congratulations as you’re already half way there. I know the task list was big this week but I hope you were able to stick with it.  If not, it’s okay to continue to work on last week’s tasks as you continue on with this week.

Again we’ll talk about the physical, psychological and social tasks as well as some specific things to do to minimize your social media usage.  Let’s get started.

Welcome to week 3 nutrition! By now you should have:

1. Found and started a meal plan

2. Made a full week’s meal plan

3. Grocery shopped for the whole week

This week - we’ll stick to the same plan but I want you to try and take your healthy eating one step further. This is going to be unique to you. Today, you’ll make your week’s meal plan but when doing so, look at it closely. Is there anything in your plan that you can substitute with something just a little healthier? For example, let’s say you have oatmeal with brown sugar in the morning. Can you have oatmeal with stevia this week? Or perhaps you are eating a sandwich for lunch - can you switch your bread to gluten free bread this week? There’s always ways you can improve your nutrition. Give it a try!

Let’s recap:

1. Make your weekly meal plan

2. Make your grocery list

3. Find ways to improve

Welcome to week 3 fitness! How are you feeling physically? I'd imagine since you're incorporating new and healthy foods and getting better sleep, your fitness is improving too. So this week, we're going to step it up just a notch. This is challenge yourself week.In week 1 you picked out a workout plan and in week 2 you started implementing it with some light exercising on your off days. Alright so this week, bring out your fitness schedule and take a look at it closely. What can you do to up your game? Everybody is different so I don't expect you all to be running 10 miles a week or lifting weights for 2 hours per day. That's not the goal here. The goal here is to make sure you are reaching your maximum potential in all areas of your life and to do that, you need to keep on challenging yourself.

So let me give you an example. If last week you were walking a mile on Tuesday, can you aim for 1.5 miles this Tuesday? Or if you swam 5 laps on Thursday, can you swim 6 laps this Thursday? The easiest thing to do is to break it down by day, continue your current schedule but increase whatever activity you have planned but just enough that makes it challenging yet manageable. You'll be surprised how easy this is because it's not a huge change from last week. You might be feeling a bit sore from increasing your workout routine or starting a new one but that will eventually get easier as well. And my challenge to you then, even after this course, is to keep going and keep upping your game.

Okay so let's recap:

1. Challenge yourself and increase your fitness a little each day. You got this!

Welcome to week 3 sleep! How's your sleep been going now that you've created a ritual? Let's recap from last week. Last week you should have:

1. Pushed up your bedtime by 15 minutes.

2. Kept your wake up time the same

3. Limited your caffeine intake after 2pm

4. Create a new ritual

Okay so this week we have some new goals to work on. First, I know you know where I'm going with this. It's about your bedtime. This week, I want you to push up your bedtime again by 15 minutes. So if your bedtime last week was 10:45, aim for 10:30. Again, Keep your wake up time the same.

Keep limiting your caffeine intake after 2pm and continue with your bedtime ritual. A lot of people struggle with the ritual so if that's you, you're not alone. Give it time and you'll be surprised how well it will work. This combined with your new fitness and nutrition routines. You're going to feel like a new person.

So now let me ask you this? Are you still struggling in the night to get good quality sleep or perhaps suffer from insomnia? For most people, week 3 is where things really start to come together. But if you're still struggling a lot I recommend using an all natural sleep aid such as melatonin. Like with any homeopathic substance, if you're on medication or have concerns, please contact your doctor. There are other things you can try as well such as chamomile tea. But the best thing to do is to be patient and give it time. Don't fall out of the routine and be consistent.

Okay so let's recap for this week:

1. Push up your bedtime again by 15 minutes.

2. Keep your wake up time the same

3. Limit your caffeine intake after 2pm

4. Continue with your bedtime ritual

5. Introduce an all natural sleep aid if you're still struggling

In week 1 I encouraged you to make a doctor’s appointment and last week I talked about living in the now. I am going to assume, if you are like most people, being in the now all the time was likely extremely difficult. It takes a long time to retrain your mind not to wander in the past or think too much about the future. I want you to continue to work on that this week as well.

In addition, I’d like to talk to you about kindness. More specifically, how to be kind to yourself. When you deal with so much in your everyday life, it’s easy to get down on yourself. You are here because you obviously felt like you were spending way too much time on social media. After many wasted hours browsing through or feeling glued to your phone, you probably didn't feel too good after. I have many clients who have felt regret because they chose to browse their phone instead of swinging on the swing with their child at the park or felt like they could have been more productive in their dreams or goals; professional and personal goals had they not been so glued to social media. It’s easy to be hard on yourself and that’s why I started last week about living in the now. By living in the now, it helps take the mind off past regrets.

But no matter how hard you try, you may find yourself still beating yourself up over things that have happened. I’m here to tell you that it’s okay. You wanna know why I think it’s okay? Because you’re here. You showed up. You’re working hard to make a huge change in your life and that is something you should be proud of.

I challenge you this week to be kind. To be kind to yourself. To be kind to others but most importantly to be kind to your own thoughts. You deserve this as you’ve been working very hard to make this change in your life. Kindness is the answer to a lot of problems. It’s all about how you perceive your own self and eventually, it will wear into your every day life. Your actions will be a direct reflection of how you feel on the inside.

Let’s recap for this week:

1. Live in the now: not the past, not the future.

2. Be kind to yourself

Welcome to week 3 on spirituality.So far we talked about meditation and attending a service either online or in-person. And a service could have been a church service or a podcast or anything that aligned with your spirituality, so keep that in mind and don't’ confuse spirituality with religion.

Let’s expand on that this week. This week, and this will tie in with our next lecture as well, but this week, I want you to think about what type of energy you are putting back into the universe. What I mean by that is, so in the past, you’ve wasted a lot of time looking on social media sites, comparing yourself and judging others. That’s not good energy. I’m here to tell you that what you focus on will expand.

That’s the universal law. So if you focus on negative things then you’ll start to see negativity all around you. If you change your mindset and try hard to focus on what you’re grateful for and the positive things you have in your life, you’ll start to get that same energy back.

Okay so keep on meditating and if you enjoyed last week’s service, you may want to consider making it a regular habit. So let’s recap:

This week:

1. Meditate consistently

2. Attend a service if you enjoyed it last week

3. Focus on good energy, good vibes and overall thinking positively.

Alright so welcome to the next lecture on intentional living - week 3. So far we’ve talked about goal setting and keeping a journal. I want you to continue doing that this week as well. To add onto our last discussion on focussing on good energy and overall positive thinking, I want you to determine your own core values. This is a great topic to journal about as well.

To do this; take some time to think about what kind of person you want to be. How do you want to live your life? Everyone will have their own ideas on this and you don’t have to make a giant list. I have a friend who believes her sole purpose in life is to be kind and that’s it. So every thing she does every single day comes from kindness. Some people want to live their life being empathetic or compassionate or your core value might be love, respect, honesty, loyalty, etc. Whatever it is, write about in your journal and start to intentionally live by those values every day.

Nobody’s perfect, so don’t get down on yourself if you find yourself making choices that don’t align with those values. You can fix it once you recognize it.

For example, I had a client who did this activity and one of his core values was dependability and he chose this because he felt that for most of his life he had let people down by not following through with commitments. During the week he had made a plan to see a friend but had forgotten about it and essentially blew him off. When his friend called he realized what he had done and decided to ignore the phone call because he felt so bad. His friend was worried because he was ignoring the phone call that his friend went over to his house. He was so embarrassed at that point that he decided to not answer the door. His truck was in the driveway so his friend was even more worried at that point, His friend called the police to do a welfare check. The police arrived at the house and at that point he started freaking out and was hiding in his bedroom. Since the police had reason to believe he was in danger they entered his home. When they found him, hiding in his bedroom they did what most police officers would do and started to search him for weapons. At that point, he was angry and upset and wanted everyone to leave but the cops got heavy handed and eventually arrested him for resisting arrest. I’m telling you this story not to start a debate about the whole police situation because I could get side tracked and go on for hours about that but to help you realize that the sooner you take responsibility for your own set backs the better things will turn out. Thinking back to my client. Why didn’t he answer the phone and just say oh man I’m so sorry I forgot- I’ll be there in 15 minutes. Or I’m so sorry I forgot - can we reschedule for next week? Instead, all of those actions lead to him getting arrested - what a disaster.

My point is this - if you set intentions and live by your own core values, don’t expect it to be easy or perfect but recognize when things aren’t aligning and get back on track as soon as possible.

Okay so let’s recap:

1. Set a goal

2. Keep a journal

3. List your own personal core values

See you in the next lecture

Bye now you should be in the habit of not using social media with your family, and last week I challenged you to meet up with a family member in person and not post anything about it on social media. Were you able to do that? If not, try for this week. I know most of you have a busy schedule with work and obligations so just keep trying if you weren’t able to make that meeting. If you were able to do that - how did it feel not posting about it on social media? I want you to keep this momentum going. From here on out I want you to commit to not posting about your meetups with your family or friends on social media. Don’t check-in, don’t take a photo of your food, don’t post selfies. Nothing. You need to be conscious of this and how it affects you. If you are struggling with this. You’re not alone. You’ve been so used to posting and posting that it’s going to take time to be able to change your behaviour. Now that we’re over half way there, I want you to think about your immediate family this week. Everyone’s immediate family is different but think about those closest to you. If you are a parent, think about your kids. If you live with your parents, think about them. If you live alone - who do you talk to the most? Your parents? Your siblings?

Now I want you to think about how you can be better: mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, niece, nephew, etc. How is not using social media helping you be better for them? By taking this course, we’ve talked about being present and being the moment. So that’s your task this week for the family. Perhaps you can journal it or whatever but think of those who are close to you and how you can be better. You’re already better by committing to less social media usage but in what way? Did you go down the slide at the park with your kid today? Did you actively listen to your mom when she complained about how dirty her baseboards were? Perhaps you had a real conversation with your uncle and didn’t realize how un present you once were.

Alright so let’s recap:

1. No more posting on social media for both friends and family meetups

2. Have real in-person interactions with your family if you have time

3. Think about who you can be better with re: your immediate family

So far we talked about not posting on social media, being more conscious about the posts you’re seeing and last week your task was to voice or video call a friend. How did that go? It’s interesting how our brains work with social media. When you post something on social media and get a comment or a like it satisfies the brain for a short while so you don’t have the social desire to reach out as you’re getting validation through your likes and comments. Now that you’re not getting likes or comments it’s going to feel a bit lonely at first but you need to take steps to make sure you’re staying connected with your friends. Send a text, email, video call, whatever - just do it away from social media.

Let’s continue doing what we did last week, If you have time to make another call then aim for that. I’d also like to piggyback off our last lecture and be sure that you know by now you shouldn’t be posting at all on social media, for any reason. There is no good reason to post anything. If you need to get a message out there then you know how to do it - privately through direct message, text, call, email. Etc. It’s been a few weeks now since you started the course so it’s likely that you’ll meet up with a friend while taking this course, if you haven’t already. It’s important to keep this going on not post a status about any of your outings. You’re probably wondering about tags?

First, I want you all to know how important it is, regardless of taking this course for a social media addiction, how important it is to make sure you cannot be tagged in a photo without your approval. If you don’t have that privacy setting set up, then do that now. Here’s why:When you get a notification of a tag, I want you to think about it a different way. First off, what was the point of the photo? What was the point of the tag? Do you really need to let all of your friends know where you were and who you were with on Friday night? The only people that should have mattered on Friday night were the people who were there with you. Why do your other friends need to know about it? Do you think that may cause a bit of jealousy for anyone who wasn’t there? If you lead a pretty drama free life, let’s say, then really, why do the people who weren’t there that night need to know you were at the bar having drinks with so and so. They don’t need to know and they don’t care about your photo. If you have the urge to allow the tag, think before you accept. Will this photo come across as bragging or what you call a humble brag? Probably. So don’t accept. Life is not a popularity contest, trust me on this. You’re here taking this course because you spend too much time on social media whether that’s looking at other people’s fake lives or whether it’s obsessing over your own persona. Either way, it’s time for a mindset change and you’re doing that now. I’m proud of you for making it to week 3.

Let’s recap:

1. Continue to not post, like or comment

2. Be conscious of what you see

3. Set up privacy setting that requires approval for tagging

4. Don’t accept the tag

Alright so welcome to week three on school/work and coworkers. Okay so I’ve talked about moving away from main social sites for your professional relationships to Linkedin and last week I challenged you to give someone a review. I hope you were able to do that. If you couldn’t get to it, make sure you do it this week.

I’m a firm believer that you should keep your social media accounts and activities separate for many different reasons. One, once you put something out there, you never know how it may come back to haunt you professionally. Let me give you an example.

I had a friend who worked in the medical field and was very outgoing on social media. Always posting selfies, there wasn’t a day that went by where she didn’t post something. One day, she posted a selfie of herself at work. In the background, was her computer with confidential client information. One of her co-workers saw it and reported the photo to her boss who then fired her because of HIPPA laws. Let me tell you my thoughts about this.

When you accept a friend request or request a co-worker or classmate, you are letting them in on your whole life. However, if you make a mistake, they won’t be there to back you up because they are not your friend. A true friend would have reached out via dm or texted that person and would have said “hey, take that photo down asap - it has confidential info in the background.” The person who reported the photo to the boss, was not a true friend. They were out to get them or who knows why they didn’t reach out. Which begs the question, why were they friends on social media then? Why would you friend anyone who wasn’t a friend? I mean isn’t that what the point of a social media friend? There’s not an acquaintance button on facebook. There’s not a co-worker button, it’s a friend button. Anyone who is not your friend and especially those you work with, should be de-friended immediately - find them on linkedin so you can stay in contact but there’s no place for them anywhere else. They don’t need to know what you’re eating for dinner or whether or not you dog got groomed or that you went to a concert last night. IF it’s important enough - tell them at work. Tell them at school but not on social media.

With that being said, I want you to continue to scour your professional relationship friends, delete them and find them on linkedin. This week: I have a special challenge for you.

Spark up a casual conversation with someone at work or school and find something out about them that you don’t already know. Does your co-worker have any pets? Does your classmate like thai food? Whatever it is, see how it goes. I think you’ll find it interesting to find something out about a co-worker or classmate that hasn’t been shared online. You may feel like you already know them because of their social media presence but now that you’re defriended - ask them something in person - how did their week go? How did their big presentation go at work? How did they do on their final exam? However and whatever you choose - try it this week.

Let’s recap:

1. Continue to build your Linkedin network

2. Have a real-life conversation with someone professionally

Alright so week three is almost done. I want to talk to you in the lecture just about social media specifically and steps you will need to take this week.

Let’s recap: So far, you should have deleted two social media accounts, you should be two weeks into not posting anything and 1 week of not liking or commenting on anyone else’s account.

Let’s keep that going this week but now what I want you to do is to pick one social media account you want to keep in addition to linkedin. Yep - just one. This is going to be a turning point for you this week because you are going to work on deleting all of your social media accounts. In addition to this: I want you to delete all of your social media accounts from your phone. If you choose to keep facebook, keep messenger but delete the actual app itself. Messenger is like email so you can keep that. If you choose to keep instagram or snapchat it’s going to be harder to access than facebook as they are primarily app based however you can still keep them as an app if you download the app to your computer.

The reason behind this: you want to make it harder on yourself to access social media. When you have it at your fingertips, it’s easy to lose track of time. When you have to get a bigger device out, it’s available but more difficult. It’s understandable to spend a little time browsing social media but after this course, I hope that you will see how spending so much time is not productive or healthy. Sure, we all want to see what other people have been up to and hopefully after a few weeks of working in this plan you’ll be in a place where browsing every so often doesn’t lead to loss of productivity or you feeling down or bad about yourself. But for now, let’s focus on you getting to that point, these first 4 weeks are crucial for your long term success so again let’s recap:

1. No posting

2. No liking, commenting, or sharing

3. Delete all but one social media site

4. Delete all social media sites from your phone

5. Install one single app to your laptop or tablet

That’s it for week 3!  Let’s recap what you should be focusing on this week:

Remember to print the list and check off items as you go.  Also, don’t forget to make your weekly schedule and plug in your tasks each day.

Welcome to the final week!  We’re going to wrap up this course by doing some very specific tasks, making sure you’ve finished everything that’s been assigned in week 1-3 and like always we’ll be focusing on your physical health, psychological health and social health.

Welcome to our final week of nutrition! By now you should be about 2-3 weeks in to following a specific nutrition plan. This combined with everything else, fitness, sleep, your mental and social health - how are you feeling now? I hope the answer is great! I want to encourage you to keep up with healthy eating not just for this course but for your entire life. Meal planning is a must and conscious eating can really be a game changer.

Now that we’re in week 4, and you'll hear me talk about this a lot this week, you should start to feel pretty damn great. However, if you’re not feeling great about your nutrition, there may be something deeper going on that you just don’t know. If you still don’t have more energy or maybe you’re feeling bloated or get stomach pains, it’s important to not ignore this and to check in with your doctor. I’ll talk about this in the next lectures as well but it’s important if something feels off to have a check up and get a full blood panel. You never know - you may have an undiagnosed medical condition and no matter how much you eat clean or consciously, without fixing the underlying problem you won't’ feel any better. Hopefully this isn't the case for you, but I must say it for the few that may be struggling with this still.

Alright so I hope you are feeling at your best right now and feeling encouraged and strong about your nutrition choices. I challenge you each week from here on out, for the rest of your life to take charge of your nutrition and to make small and manageable improvements. You’ll be surprised how far you can get in 6 months or a year. You’re going to feel great, I promise!

We are back and this is the final week! How are you feeling? I've got some things for you to ponder about as we wrap up the course. First, off, think about how you got on last week. Was it easy to challenge yourself a little bit every day? I hope you didn't burn yourself out and stuck to your fitness routine.

This week, let's talk about fitness trackers. Fitness trackers are a great way to measure your success. If you already have a fitness tracker I hope you're seeing improvements in your sleeping and physical activities. I'd like you to take a look at how many steps you're getting every day. Ideally, you should be setting a goal to get 10k steps. To do this, I have a setting on mine that reminds me to move every hour. So on top of your regular workouts you should be getting up for at least 5-10 minutes every hour.

Now if you don't have a fitness tracker, I highly recommend getting one at this point. It makes fitness more exciting when you can see progress. If getting one now is not in the cards, then take a look at simple pedometers or even a fitness app - some are free and can track your steps.

One last thing that I can't stress enough and you'll hear me talk about this in all of my courses. This plan works, but if something seems off to you it's important that you seek the help of a professional. If fitness seems really difficult for you , you may want to make an appointment with your doctor to get a physical or a check up. I once had a client who had the hardest time with fitness. He couldn't keep up, was feeling worse and tired every time he worked out and it turned out he had an undiagnosed lung infection. You don't want to ignore this portion. Fitness is an incredible way to keep your body healthy but please, talk to your doctor if something feels. off.

Let's recap:

1. Stick to your fitness schedule and always challenge yourself

2. Purchase a fitness tracker if possible - aim for 10k steps per day

3. Call your doctor is something seems off

Alright so that's it for week 4 - I hope you keep your fitness plan going - it's an on-going life changing peice of the pie.

Alright so welcome to your last week of talking about sleep. Last week you should have started to feel a significant difference. Maybe you feel more refreshed? This week, if you're doing well, there's not much to change.

However, if you're still struggling with falling asleep or staying asleep, it's time to have a professional opinion. It's important that you don't sweep this under the rug or think that it's going to magically get better. AFter 3 weeks of making solid changes, you should be feeling great about your sleep.

So let's recap for this week

1. Push your bedtime up again by 15 minutes ( so now you should be going to bed a full 45 minutes earlier than your week 1 bedtime)

2. Keep your wake up time the same

3. Limit your caffeine intake after 2pm.

4. Continue with your bedtime ritual

5. Use an natural sleep aid if necessary

6. Make a doctor's appointment if you're still struggling

That's it for our portion of sleep! I hope you've learned a lot about yourself and how much using a screen before bed or hours throughout the day may have been affecting you. I'm proud of you for sticking with it and I'll see in the next lecture.

Welcome to mental health week 4. So far we’ve talked about making an appointment with a mental health professional, living in the now and being kind to yourself. How did it go last week?

Since your mental health plays such a critical role in the recovery process, I want to talk to your this week about self-care. I know that may sound cheesy for some of you but hear me out.

Self-care is so important because without it, you would run ragged and what happens when you are stressed, tired or overworked? You make bad decisions. You fall into the trap of spending hours on social media, losing productivity, engaging in bad behaviors and so on.

When you take care of yourself you are taking your life, your vision, and your dreams seriously.

This is the last week we are talking about mental health so let’s keep on what we’ve been talking about and that’s living in the now and being kind to yourself. Now I want you to add in self-care.

Here’s what I mean. What helps you relax? What do you enjoy doing for yourself only? Whether it’s soaking in a hot bath, watching funny movies, reading a good book, scheduling that in every week or every day even. To be fair, this course has a lot of self-care tasks already laid out for you but once this course is over it’s going to be up to you to continue to do those things every single day or week.

If you’ve made it this far, you’re amazing. You’re dedicated and I want you to know that you deserve as much self-care as you can get.

Let’s recap
1. Keep your appointment with your mental health professional

2. Live in the now

3. Be kind to yourself.

4. Self care

Welcome to our last week of spirituality. So far in this course we talked about meditation, attending church or an alternative option, and positive energy and vibes. Again, let’s keep all this going. HOpefully you’re starting to feel the benefits of the routines you've set up for meditation and are feeling more confident now that you’re trying hard to think more positively.

So for this final week I want you to practice gratitude. This can tie into your journaling so think of this as bringing everything together and seeing how it can all be connected. Gratitude is something we all forget to practice at times. And if you’ve had a tough time in life, sometimes it can be difficult to come up with things to be grateful for. I want you to take some time this week to really focus on what you are grateful for; whether that’s your family , friends, your job, or even something simple like having enough food to eat or having access to clean water. Practicing gratitude is something that can open your heart, your mind and your soul. The more gratitude you practice, the more open your heart will be for positivity and strength. You’ll need this especially for the upcoming weeks as you fight hard to break your addiction and turn towards a better future.

Let’s recap:

Continue to meditate

Continue to go to a church or alternative

Think positively

Practice gratitude

Now we’re going to finish up talking about living intentionally. So far we’ve talked about

• Goal Setting

• Journalling

• Determining your core values

This week, as we wrap up with intentional living I want to talk to you about the importance of setting and sticking to routines. By now, you should be taking care of your physical health by setting fitness, sleep and nutrition routines, you should be taking care of your psychological health by taking good care of your mental and spiritual health and you should be settling into making changes with your social surrounding: your friends, family and business colleagues. All of this is only possible if you settle into a routine. Routines are how your brain begins the process of healing or rewiring. It’s how your brain gets back to baseline - think: before social media existed or before social media started to take over your life.

So this week I want you to think about your daily and weekly routines. If it helps, make a schedule, use google calendar, and whatever helps you stay organized and stick with those routines. Take time every week to set goals, to journal, to meditate and so on. Setting routines is a good life skill and shouldn’t stop when your addiction stops. This is something that will help your productivity immensely throughout your entire life. YOu’ll be surprised how many things you’ll be able to accomplish just by sticking with a routine.

Alright so to recap the course when we talk about intentional living:

1. Goal setting

2. Journalling

3. Determining your core values

4. Setting routines

Last week for family. Let’s quickly recap:

By now:

You should not be using social media to communicate with your family as we talked about it’s unnecessary

You should have at least once, if not more, reached out and connected with a family member in real life and not have posted the event on social media

Last week we talked about why you’re taking this course and I had you identify which family members you can and want to be better for. How’s it working so far?

So this week let’s continue with all of that and I want you to make a commitment to keeping this going even after the course ends. Remember, by now you should be down to just one social media account and when it comes to close family, you should have their numbers or alternative ways of reaching them.

When it comes to more distant family members it’s understandable to want to check in on them from time to time. I challenge you to create space around your thoughts when it comes to reaching them. Let me give you an example.

Let’s say in about a month you realize that you want to say hi to an aunt in Florida whom you haven’t spoken to in a while. Now for a lot of you, when that thought popped into your head you may have posted an old family photo and tagged them, maybe you got a notification and wanted to say happy birthday or maybe you just went to their profile and said hi. This time and from here on out, think about things like this. Think very carefully on how to approach the situation. Instead of doing one of those things you may have normally done in the past, maybe you log on and send them a direct message like this:

Hi Aunt Mary, it’s me. I was thinking about you today. I don’t really go on social media anymore but love seeing your garden photos and don’t want to miss out. Can you text me when you get a chance? I’d love to catch up. Here’s my number. Love, Suzie.

By doing this, one by one, you’ll be able to make true connections and I think you’ll find this experience to be very eye opening as well. Does your aunt Mary care if you see her garden photos? Will she take the time to text you or perhaps she’s also looking for the likes and comments because well, it makes her feel good.

Remember, true relationships aren’t selfish. If both parties are putting in mutual effort then you’ll be surprised how many photos you may get via text or how many Facetime calls you’ll get, But also remember, you have to put in the effort too. You can’t expect people to constantly be reaching out to you if you don’t reach out to them.

Personally, I have a 3 contact rule. If I make the effort 3 times and the other person (this can be for family members or friends) doesn’t bother to contact me then I just stop making the effort. It doesn’t mean I won’t be there for them in time of need or during family gatherings it just means, I know when I’m putting myself out there and I don’t want to use that energy if I’m not getting the same back. No big deal. No drama. It is what it is. You might want to consider implementing something similar on your own. What limits will you have?

Let’s recap:

1. No communicating with family via social media

2. Keep your mind open when it comes to later contacts for distant family members

3. Create personal limits.

Alright so here we are in the final week talking about friends. Let's recap:

In the past three weeks you should have:

Been conscious of your friend's social media statuses

Not been communicating with them publicly on social media

Have called or factimed a friend

and by now you shouldn't be posting on a friend's timeline, liking anyone's statuses, commenting or sharing.

Last week we talked about setting up stricter privacy settings and no approving anyone's tags.

Let's keep all that going this week but let's run through everything with a fine tooth comb.

This is your last week so I want you to clean up your friend's list. Take some time to delete people you don't know or you no longer associate with, dig deeper into the privacy settings. It's also important to know how your information is being shared and decide how comfortable you are with your information just being out there.

I have a photo file on my computer and one day I cleaned out my photos. I kept a few up there - but mostly took them down after I saved them to my computer. You should think about doing the same. Here some things you can do to really clean this up and make it the best week yet:

1. Continue to not post, like, comment, or share.

2. Do not communicate publicly with your friends (only DM but text is preferred)

3. Make your account private ( so only friends can view your account)

4. Make your friend's list private (so only you can see who your friends are)

5. Delete old photos or go through them and decide if you really want them out there for everyone to see

6. Delete old posts ( did you really need to post what you ate 2 years ago? If not, delete it)

As far as time goes, this will be one of the most time consuming tasks of this course but so eye opening. You might even feel embarrassed when you do this. I know I did when I did this.

People change and there is a huge difference between at 18 year old and a 28 year old or whatever - however old you are - a decade is a long time. Your younger self might have been impulsive, crude, sexual, intoxicated etc. Time to get rid of it all. If it's embarrassing to you it's just embarrassing so delete it. You never have to see it. again. And nobody can go back through your profile and judge you.

So go ahead and get started with these tasks and remember to call a friend this week.

Final week for talking about school/work/co-workers.

So just like your friends list, let's spend some time cleaning up your online image. If you want to beat your social media addiction you need to be mature about doing so. By now you should have your Linkedin set up and you are down to one other social media account. All of your professional contacts should be deleted from your personal social media but added on Linkedin.

This course has been so serious so far so let's have a little fun this week. This week I want you to take a professional photo of yourself. Whether it be a selfie style or having someone take it for you. Imagine your future employer seeing this photo.

Then go ahead and upload that to Linkedin. Make it a good one! Alright so that's it!

Alright so now we’re in our final week.

Let’s recap:

By now you should be down to 1 social media account

You should not be posting, liking, sharing or commenting

You should have deleted all social media (with the exception of messenger if you chose to keep facebook) off your phone.

This week I want you to think of ways you won’t be tempted to like, comment, or share or be tempted to reinstall the app from your phone.

I hope this course has helped you be more conscious. If you want to hit the like button, ask yourself why every single time. If you want to post about yourself - again why? Who can you share your news with and in what other ways can you do that. Do you really need to share it at all?

A lot of people get sucked in when they are bored because, let’s face it, when you are waiting at the doctor’s office or waiting for your kid to get done with gymnastics or you're sitting in your car waiting for your friend to get off work, it’s boring. This week, I want you to think of what things might keep you busy during those boring times. What apps can you install that would be beneficial to you? Maybe a news app or maybe you can start listening to podcasts. Maybe you keep a book with you or a magazine. Think of ways to make those boring times more productive and I don’t mean more productive like getting stuff done because all want to be lazy sometimes and just relax but more productive in the way you are allowing your brain to receive information.

What you don’t want to do is trade one addiction for another. You don’t want to install a game like candy crush and then get addicted to gaming on your phone (we have a course for that.) If you want to perform at your very best, you need to treat your mind with the respect it deserves. Don’t let garbage get in the way.

Okay so let’s recaP

1. One social media account

2. No posting, like, sharing

3. Find other ways to be productive during boring times

Congratulations, we're really proud of you for completing this course. You now have all the tools to fight your social media addiction. We talked about the Success Method and that includes physical, mental and spiritual health. There are specific things you need to do weekly - if you run into anything you need help with please reach out for help. We’re always around ?

This meditation encompasses multiple areas: your physical health, your social health and of course self-love. If you enjoy this meditation then check out my course titled, "Meditation for Addiction and Recovery."

Congratulations we’re really proud of you for completing this course. You now have all the tools to fight your social media addiction. We talked about the Success Method and that includes physical, mental and spiritual health. There are specific things you need to do weekly - if you run into any thing you need help with please reach out for help. 

We’re always around to help.