Distracting yourself

Do you ever find yourself avoiding reality? It could be mindlessly scrolling on your phone, bingeing a Netflix show or simply staring into space.

When things start to overwhelm me or I have important decisions to make, I can easily prevent these uncomfortable feelings by creating perpetual distractions. It’s easy nowadays to hop on social media and remain out of touch from reality for numerous hours.

I’m quite a self-aware person so I realise when I’m in a bad pattern of distracting myself. It’s my mechanism to prevent unwanted emotions surrounding tasks or decisions that are upcoming—akin to procrastinating.

It can be hard to snap out of these phases. Eventually you have to face reality and confront the very thing you have been avoiding. Going through university, I’ve had a fair amount of intentional distractions I’ve maintained to avoid assignments or decisions. And I also know I’m not the only one.

It can be hard casting away distractions and being thrown back into reality. But eventually these unwanted emotions can’t always be pushed down and avoided. Sometimes you have to set aside some time to reflect and make hard decisions. Have you been distracting yourself lately?