Currently, many of us are getting tired of quarantine and want to just give up, but we have to realize that the only person who can keep you going is yourself. With that said, I am a firm believer that how you treat your mind and body will greatly affect your day to day life. So as April has been the hardest month for me to stay positive I wanted some change, and my close friend, Trinity, gave me the idea to put my phone away for a week. This sounded like a horrible idea that I wouldn't even be able to do even if I wanted to, but it turned out to be exactly what I needed.

At the very start of putting my phone away, I was skeptical that this would only make me more anxious and deteriorate my mental health, but I was wrong. The first day, my phone was all I could think about and I even looked for it around my house for about 10 minutes before remembering I had put it away. Once I started making myself busy, I began to forget that I didn't have it. Before I even noticed I had begun a new daily routine of working out, doing homework, and painting outside while listening to music. Yes, I know all of this can be done without putting your phone up for a week but there was a sort of beauty about only doing it for yourself, not for your Snapchat story, for your Instagram, or for your friends to see, but for you to enjoy it for yourself. Besides being more productive by doing things that I love and bring me joy, I was able to realize how much the world has to offer that we often turn a blind eye to. For example, I woke up early one day and decided to google some good breakfast recipes and woke my parents up with the table set and ready to go enjoy the morning outside with tasty food. I spent almost every minute of the day outside enjoying the sunshine. Although every now and then I really had the urge to see what my friends were up to or check my Instagram feed, I stopped myself and decided to do something else like read, or work on my puzzle.

While all of the things I did might not have been as exciting as hanging out with my friends, I came to find out that my biggest source of happiness must come from myself. As cheesy as that sounds that is what I got from doing this, because as friends come and go you are stuck with yourself and you are the one who is going to tackle all of the obstacles life will throw at you, and once you are a genuinely happy person, it's easier to surround yourself with people who also radiate the same energy. So next time you hesitate to put your phone down or leave it behind while you go do something, you should reconsider and think about all of the things you might miss out on seeing whether that be in the world, or within yourself.