Years ago, a close friend advised me to make exercise part of my daily routine. At the time, I was already going to the gym 2-3 times per week and felt I was doing the necessary in the fitness department, but they encouraged me to exercise daily. They said I should see doing 20 mins of vigorous exercises as a daily necessity. Like cleaning my teeth in the morning, exercise should be a non-negotiable and something I do first thing in the morning, with no excuses acceptable.

I’ll start by being honest. The first time I took a digital detox, it was unplanned. There was something uninteresting and unnecessary about the idea; I’m not as glued to my phone as most, I’m not a TikTok user, I rarely post on Facebook, and I use my phone primarily for work and necessary communication. I’ve seen the kind of people who need a digital detox, obsessed with their phones, glued to the screen from the moment they wake up to the final seconds before they sleep. That isn’t me. It never will be. I don’t need a digital detox – or so I thought.

I had a lot of anxiety and worry in my youth. Perhaps no more than the next person, but part of me looked forward to getting older and mentally stronger. As I reached my late teens, I began to realise that mental strength isn’t something you are necessarily born with, but equally, it isn’t something which naturally comes with age. It’s something you have to work on and develop. From then on, I began to study my flaws and seek ways to become that stronger person I desired to be.

Worry is a universal human experience, and it often seems our brains are wired to fixate on potential problems or sources of stress. However, chronic worrying can harm our mental and emotional well-being, hindering our ability to enjoy life and accomplish our goals. As someone who once struggled with persistent anxiety, I’ve found techniques and ways of thinking, which help manage worry when it comes, and often keep it at bay.