5 Benefits Of A New Year Digital Detox
It’s a new year but there’s no ‘new you’ about it. Make 2025 about embracing ‘you-ness’ in all your beautiful human realness. You without the reliance on technology; without the filtered photos and best snapshots only. A calmer and more relaxed you, away from the buzz of work, life, stress.
There’s an endless list of benefits attached to detoxing from all things digital, but all you need are these 5 reasons this January, and perhaps a weekend retreat in the New Forest.
1. Regain clarity
Today, life can be a barrage of input, of both positive and negative influences. When you can step back from the buzz of everyday life, and escape the immediate access to news, emails, social media, you can regain a little perspective. A digital detox can help to remove you from the wider world and help you to refocus.
A relaxing detox retreat in the New Forest is a great time to shut your phone away in a box for a weekend, step away from distraction and step toward nurturing a healthier relationship with your tech – and re-establishing your priorities. Realigning you with your 2025 goals. What do you wish to gain from the year ahead? Figure it out without the noise of the outside world invading your every thought.
On the Digital Detox break, we even provide the box!
2. Focus on feeling
We’re ditching FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) for 2025. This year is all about going at your own pace, and FOMO doesn’t serve a stress-free life.
But, it can creep in when you least expect it. WhatsApp, despite being a helpful, seemingly innocuous communicative tool, can act as another form of social media. Groups can be motivating and boost you, whilst sometimes the sharing of the good times can lead to feelings of FOMO, comparison, and then low self-esteem.
It’s ok to feel these things and want to step back from being constantly available. Perhaps it’s time to mute a few groups, leave ones that are no longer serving you and spend a few days without them completely.
Consider getting away; in February we have a wonderful 2-night Wellness Retreat with nutritional therapy and yoga experts, Annie Winter and Millie Proud. The retreat has been designed for anyone looking to nurture their body, calm their mind, and reconnect with themselves. To restore energy, refocus and consider meaningful intentions and take important time out for you.
3. Get Real
Phone in hand or very close by is the way most of us spend our days; they are fantastic tools of connection, productivity and motivation. But they also have a habit of distancing us from those who are important. A digital detox in the new year can set the tone for the months ahead. Inviting you to put technology aside and prioritise your relationships.
Whether it’s for a day or a short weekend away, plan to spend time with someone, friend or partner, without digital distraction. Look up, reconnect, make eye contact, listen more effectively and show them they mean more.
Rekindle and reminisce over a romantic dinner in Cambium, sip tea and indulge on an Afternoon Tea before a forest walk or spend the day in the spa together. Don’t underestimate the power of time together without distraction.
4. Mental Health Care
Letting go can be an important part of maintaining and nurturing good mental health. We don’t always have the capacity to deal with everything, all at once. Spending a few days with your phone set to, ‘do not disturb,’ or on ‘flight mode’ can be a liberating experience.
Detaching you from that immediate dopamine hit you get when a message comes in and bringing you into the present moment. This gives you the choice of when you will look at your phone, and you can regain control over when you will reply, or not.
5. Get Back to Nature
Interestingly the pace of life can seem to match the pace of the digital world; fast and ever-changing, unpredictable and stressful. This can leave little time for those daily rituals that keep you grounded, and that get pushed to the bottom of the priorities list the more others push their way in.
Maybe you would like to start the day with a stretch, a gentle walk or simply to sit and enjoy your morning coffee in peace, but from before you’ve even woken up the emails, texts and requests have started and they win your attention.
Those messages will be there later. The more we respond and interact with the digital the more we get caught up in it. Perhaps it’s time to take back control and recalibrate to a more natural state; a slower pace that changes with the season, not simply on a whim, and one that priorities reconnection with nature.
When you’re here in the New Forest it can be easy to let go and look up. Habits take time to form, just knowing that will give you a head start, so why not plan a digital detox escape to kick start your new habits for 2025. The New Forest National Park is a truly special place to getaway to, offering you nature on your doorstep for walks, cycles or runs, and our spa, a sanctuary of relaxation when it’s time to stop.
It may be time to plan your detox from the digital; relinquish control and take small and manageable steps towards a healthier relationship with your tech. Disconnecting from these distractions will help you to reconnect with the things and people who matter. So, switch those groups to mute, turn off work notifications, calendar requests and stay in control of who and how people reach you. Step outside, even for just 10 minutes, for a moment of mindfulness. Fill your lungs with fresh air, listen for birds, feel the breeze on your face, pay attention to what you can taste. Plan a detox retreat in the New Forest and set the tone for your 2025 this January.
