I think we can all agree that 2020 sucked. Covid-19, Trump, COVID deniers, a plummeting economy, TP hoarding, Australia burning, U.S. wildfires, police shootings, civil unrest, anti-maskers, a derecho, murder hornets, 5,000 pets killed, and the fly. Now that 2021 is here it is time to detox from 2020. Here are some steps to take the help you welcome 2021.
Write it down – Review the events of 2020 the good, the bad, and the ugly. Write the highlights and the lowlights down on a piece of paper. Identifying the good as well as the bad brings them all to mind.
Let go – Let go of the good and bad with a fire ceremony. If you can, give thanks first. Summarize the challenges and then burn the lists. Or if you live in NYC the Times Square Alliance offers an industrial-strength shredder to detox the unpleasant 2020 reminders are printed and shredded.
Home Cleansing – You may need a little extra help getting the 2020 bad juju out of your home. In Feng Shui, clearing is healing. So, cleansing our spaces is important to replace old or stagnant energy with positive and new energy. Cleansing will impact your physical and mental well-being activating the positive feelings and emotions we are looking for in 2021. Practitioners of Feng Shui believe clearing the energies at home brings peace, and connects you with your home so that together you can achieve your 2021 goals. New energies support and nurture each person who lives and spends time at home.
How to perform a 2020 cleansing
Step 1: Open the windows to allow the energy to move freely.
Step 2: Start the cleansing process from the back of the house to the front. Light a sage bundle and start walking from the back of each room to the front. Walk around the room covering as much of 
it as you can. Using a hand fan, waft the sage smoke into the corners of the room up to the ceiling. Make sure to go into every room as you move from the back of the house to the front. When you’ve reached the front, walk out the door and smudge sage around the door and frame.
Step 3: Sounds also clear up energies. Ring a bell to remove stagnant energy behind furniture, under the bed, and hidden spaces.
Digital detox – Technology dominates the way we live our lives. It is not hard to see how people are unable to go a few hours without using their phone or tablet. On average, a person in the US spends almost 5.4 hours on their smartphone while kids and teenagers spend 5.7 hours. A typical user taps, touches, or swipes their 
phone a staggering 2,617 times per day. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania recently published research linking the use of social media sites such as Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram to decreased well-being. The results revealed that limiting social media use decreased symptoms of depression and loneliness. A digital detox is a way to stop being so dependent on technology, taking steps to cut out how often you check your phone or use it. Here are some key ways to detox yourself from your tech.
Step 1: Turn off push notifications – Turning off push notifications cut-down how frequently people check their phone. You won’t receive notifications from apps. Cutting out some parts of social media at the start of the detox can be crucial later when you only allow yourself certain times to check social media sites.
Step 2: Invest in an alarm clock– Most people use their mobile phone as their morning alarm. They have their phones in the bedroom with them every night. How many times do you check your phone through the night? Scrolling through Instagram at 3 am rather than getting 40 winks, is surely not the best way to spend the early hours of the morning.
Step 3: Delete social media apps – Uninstall the apps that you check most. Only check your favorite site from another device, or in a web browser. Schedule social media time that suits you, and stick to the schedule to cut down on how often you use them.
Step 4: Make your phone screen grayscale – Many phones offer the choice to have a color screen or not. Set it to grayscale. Colors can make you more likely to check apps and look at your phone. Sites purposely use blues in their design because the color communicates trust. Blue light is used to boost attention and moods. At night they can lead to lack of sleep and even bad skin. As simple as it sounds, switching your phone to black and white can stop you from using it so often!
Step 5: Designate phone-free times during the day – Start with one hour a day, at mealtime or before bed. Leave your device somewhere instead of carrying it around. Or turn it off. The more time you spend away from your device, the more likely it is that you will stop depending on it. There are simple ways around not using your phone for tasks like checking the time.
Welcome 2021
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
