I Slept Without My Phone Under My Pillow

Today I feel pretty happy for a number of reasons, to be honest this is a rare occurrence for me upon waking up. I'm happy because my goal setting seems to be working (so far). As I said yesterday, my obsessive thoughts are starting to settle and now I'm thinking of ways to overcome my compulsive internet use. 

Last night I tried switching my Smartphone off and keeping it in my bag for the whole note. This was to prevent me from waking up at random times and checking my emails and social networking websites. I did wake up a few times in the night but accepted my urges and thoughts as normal and went back to sleep no problem. I'm so glad that on a short term basis this actually worked, it's certainly worth trying on a long-term basis as I might start sleeping properly and therefore generally be in a good mood. If I have relapses with the compulsions that wake me up, I'm simply going to turn my Macbook on and log my thoughts using CBT Pad and then go back to bed. As usual it's probably easier said than done, but it's worth a shot if I take a positive attitude right?

As for my daytime social network use, I have not yet thought of a solution to stop the persistence of it. Obviously there's going out without my phone or with my phone but not being able to check it. Another way is not to be allowed online until I'm washed and dressed and chores for the day are done, and another way is going offline an hour before bed. I would like to try all of these, but trying them all at once would result in huge relapses and I'd be in a viscous circle again and I would probably have relapses in goals that I've recently achieved too. So one building block at a time would be the best approach to take here. I'm going to set myself 3 goals for this week (plus the one from last week). So, here are my goals for this week:

1) Accept urges and obsessive thoughts about social network use as normal, do not act on these thoughts and urges at unsuitable times (i.e. bed time, when you're out, first thing when waking up).

2) Do not check social networking websites until you are washed, dressed and chores are done

3) Switch anything that allows you to gain access to the internet off at least an hour before bed time (11pm), use this hour to read or write. 

4) Accept your obsessive thoughts about your lecturer and his female contacts as normal, do not attempt to neutralise these thoughts to make sense of them.

So, there's the lot. I'll let you know how I get on.