Unplug & Reconnect: Time with Yourself

By Olivia grossklaus, amft

In a world that never stops buzzing, notifications pinging and news cycling, it’s easy to forget what silence feels like. We fill every spare moment with stimulation: music on our commutes, podcasts during workouts, scrolling before sleep. Spending time alone with yourself and your thoughts isn’t just a luxury but a necessity for your mental, emotional, and even creative well-being.

When you're constantly consuming, whether it's news, entertainment, or social media, your brain never really gets a chance to digest. Unplugging allows your mind to settle. In that quiet space, patterns emerge. Problems that felt overwhelming start to make sense. You gain perspective. It's hard to know what you think or feel when you're constantly absorbing the voices of others. Alone time gives you a chance to hear your own. What do you believe? What do you want? What brings you joy, discomfort, or meaning?

This self-awareness isn’t just philosophical. It affects the way you make decisions, how you set boundaries, and what you prioritize. If you’re always tuned into the world, you might not realize when you’ve lost touch with yourself.

We often confuse rest with sleep, but your brain also needs waking rest, or time when it’s not reacting to input. Time when it's just... being. These moments are when creativity often strikes. When seemingly random thoughts connect. When ideas bubble up from deep within. Unplugging gives your brain space to wander, and that's where some of your best insights will come from.

When you spend time alone, you learn to sit with discomfort, boredom, sadness, anxiety, and you realize those feelings don’t have to be escaped immediately. You don’t need to scroll them away or binge-watch them into silence. You begin to trust that you can handle your own emotions, which is the root of real resilience.

Being alone doesn’t have to mean being lonely. In fact, solitude can be deeply nourishing when it's intentional.

Digital life is often reactive: You answer emails, respond to messages, jump from one app to the next. Alone time lets you respond, not just react. It allows you to choose how to move forward instead of getting swept along.

This shift, however small, can make a big difference in how you show up in relationships, work, and life.

Simple Ways to Reconnect with Yourself

● Take a walk without your phone. Listen to the world around you.

● Journal for 10 minutes. No prompts, just let your mind wander.

● Have a tech-free morning or evening once a week. Notice how you feel.

● Practice mindfulness or meditation. Even 5 minutes can ground you.

● Do something analog. Read a book, paint, cook, garden. anything screen-free.

The world will keep spinning. Your inbox will keep filling. Your feeds will never end. But if you want to feel grounded, whole, and in touch with what matters to you, you have to pause and listen inward.

Unplugging isn't about rejecting technology. It's about reclaiming your attention. It's about remembering that you are more than what you consume. And that within you, there’s a quiet, steady presence waiting to be heard.

Spend time with yourself.

Reflecting After Therapy

By Jessy Weston, amft

Therapy is a space for exploration, healing, and personal growth. While the time spent in a session can be transformative, much of the real work happens in the days between appointments. Reflection is a powerful tool to maximize the benefits of therapy and can help you deepen your self-awareness and understanding.

If you’re wondering how to make the most of your time between sessions, consider these ways to reflect and observe your experiences.

After Your Session: Pausing to Process

Take some time after your session to sit with what came up. What moments from the session stood out the most? Perhaps it was a moment of clarity, a difficult emotion, or even something that left you with more questions than answers.

Notice how you’re feeling, both emotionally and physically. Are you leaving the session feeling lighter, hopeful, or energized? Or are you feeling unsettled, exhausted, or reflective? There’s no right or wrong way to feel, but identifying your emotions and bodily sensations can help you connect more fully with your experience.

You might also reflect on whether you had any “aha” moments. Did something your therapist said click into place? Did you notice a new way of looking at a familiar pattern? These small epiphanies are worth holding onto as they can often guide you in your journey forward.

Observing Your Week Between Sessions

Therapy doesn’t stop when the session ends. The week between sessions is an opportunity to notice how the work you’re doing in therapy shows up in your daily life. As you move through your week, notice how you’re applying insights from therapy. Maybe you’re trying out a new coping strategy or challenging a negative thought pattern. Reflect on how these actions feel—are they helpful, awkward, or even challenging? It’s okay if things don’t click immediately; progress often happens in small steps. Or maybe you’re noticing moments when you feel particularly activated or calm. You can ask yourself what triggered these feelings as understanding these shifts can help you see connections between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Preparing for Your Next Session

Reflection also sets the stage for a more focused and productive therapy session. As your next session approaches, think about what you want to bring into the conversation. Is there something from the previous session that you’d like to revisit or clarify?

You might also reflect on what you’d like to prioritize going forward. Are there specific goals or themes that feel especially important right now? Therapy is a collaborative process, and your reflections can help shape its path.