Is your phone draining your energy faster than it drains its battery?
In a world where our screens pull at us from the moment we wake up, digital peace isn’t accidental — it’s something we build. In this episode of Healing Is My Hobby, Jessica dives into the art of digital boundaries and why they’re essential for protecting your mental wellness. Through a warm-up, a strength series, and a soothing cool down, she guides you toward a more intentional, grounded relationship with social media. If your nervous system has been whispering enough, this episode is your invitation to listen.
Key Takeaways
Digital boundaries are essential for protecting your peace.
Awareness of emotional responses to social media is crucial.
Setting limits on social media use can enhance self-regulation.
Curating your social media feed is a form of mental hygiene.
Taking breaks from social media can help recover from overstimulation.
Practicing detachment from external validation is important.
Boundaries should feel restorative, not restrictive.
Emotional endurance is built through consistent practice of boundary-setting.
Self-care for your digital life is as important as physical self-care.
Reflection on boundaries can lead to greater emotional insight.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Digital Boundaries
01:50 Strength Training for Emotional Resilience
04:26 Cool Down and Reflection
06:07 Conclusion and Next Steps
07:01 NEWCHAPTER
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digital boundaries, emotional wellness, social media, mental health, self-care, emotional intelligence, intentionality, self-protection, healing, mindfulness
Transcripts
Jessica Colarco (:
Welcome back to Healing is My Hobby and welcome to our Therapy is My Cardio segment, where emotional work becomes the workout and healing becomes the movement. Since we're in our December series exploring social media and mental wellness, today we're focusing on one of the most important skills for protecting your peace, and that's digital boundaries. Because this is Therapy is My Cardio, we're breaking this episode into three parts. Our warmup, where we build awareness,
our workout where we learn and practice the skills, and our cool down where we integrate, soften, and restore. Let's get started. Every good workout starts with warming up your body. And in emotional work, the warmup is awareness. So let's begin by checking in with your emotional muscles. We have a warmup question for you today. How does your body feel before and after you scroll?
What emotions come up when you close an app? Calm, anxious, numb, tense? How often are you checking your phone without thinking? Do you feel overstimulated or depleted after being online? This is your internal cardio monitor. Your nervous system is always giving you data, and awareness is how you tune in.
You're not judging yourself here. You're just noticing. Warming up your emotional intelligence, getting ready for deeper work.
Okay, now that you're warmed up, let's move into the strength training portion of our emotional workout. This is where we build the true cardio of the episode. Today is limit setting, intentionality, self-protection,
system support. We're gonna walk through six boundary exercises, each one strengthening a different emotional muscle.
The morning muscle. This is where I want you to protect your first 30 minutes. Just like you wouldn't start a workout with a max sprint, don't start your day with a dopamine sprint. No social media 30 minutes after waking. This will build the muscle of self-regulation. Second, the pause and check core exercise. Before you open an app,
Pause and ask, what am I needing right now? Connection? Soothing? Distraction? This will strengthen the muscle of intentionality. Third, the curated feed pullback. Pull things out of your feed that drain you. Mute, unfollow, hide. This isn't petty. This is mental hygiene, and we are strengthening the habit of self-protection.
Fourth, the 10 minute treadmill test. If scrolling isn't improving your mood within 10 minutes, step off. This trains the discipline muscle, not punishment, but awareness. And like I talked about in the previous episode, I just set a timer sometimes. You know, I'm just gonna set a timer, so maybe you just set a timer for 10 minutes, which will help you notice where you're at, and if you're not feeling great, step off.
Fifth, the weekly digital rest day. I love this. Try a 24-hour social media Sabbath. This is the emotional equivalent of a rest day in the gym. It helps your nervous system recover from over-simulation. And finally, the post and release flex. Post what you want and then don't check. Don't monitor, don't over-analyze. This strengthens detachment from external validation.
This entire section is about building emotional endurance. And these are the reps and sets that we need to do for our boundary work.
Let's move on to our cool down.
This is where we soften, slow, and bring our heart rate back to baseline. Because boundaries shouldn't feel harsh, they should feel restorative. Take a deep breath with me. Inhale through your nose.
Exhale slowly and let's reflect gently.
Which boundary felt like relief in your body? Which one felt hardest and why? Where can you choose softness instead of shame? How can you give yourself permission to rest from performing online?
I think for me, especially because I use social media a lot for my various businesses, I think posting and letting it go is very difficult to not follow up and look at the likes. So I love that challenge and I wanna continue building up that muscle. Now I want you to place a hand on your heart or your chest. And this is a reminder, you are not a machine.
You are not designed for constant input, constant comparison, constant stimulation. Digital boundaries are not about restriction. They're about restoring your inner quiet. They're your cool down, your return to yourself.
As we wrap up, your therapy is my cardio workout, remember. Your digital life needs the same care, boundaries, and recovery that your physical body does. Next week, join me in the healing lab as I share the honest results of my own social media reset. What surprised me, what challenged me, and what actually helped. Until then, take care of your mind the way you take care of your muscles, with intention, compassion,
and rest, you earn this cool down. And as always, if you'd like to find out more what's going on with Healing is My Hobby, you can check it out at healingismyhobby.com. I'm on YouTube and Instagram at Healing is My Hobby. And if you wanna know more about my clinical practice, I'm at jessicacolarcolcsw.com or on Instagram at jessicacolarcolcsw
