Finding joy in missing out
In a world constantly buzzing with notifications, updates, and endless distractions, it’s easy to feel trapped in cycles of habits that don’t serve us.
When I sit down and reflect on how I’ve been living over the past few years, I begin to see a pattern — a cycle, really. It feels like my life has been moving in loops, with the same habits, routines, and struggles repeating themselves over and over again. Some of these cycles, I’ve managed to break. It hasn’t been easy at all. In fact, changing old habits can be one of the hardest things we do. There were even times when I introduced new cycles, fresh routines that I thought would stick. But those changes never seemed to last. The new habits stayed around for maybe two or four weeks before I found myself slipping back into the same old loop.
For the past four months, I’ve focused on one main goal: detoxing myself from the everyday toxicity that the world constantly feeds us. This toxicity comes in many forms — social media with its addictive algorithms, the flood of nudity that saturates so much of the internet, playing video games endlessly, and anything that provides that quick dopamine boost we all crave. Breaking free from these distractions has been, without a doubt, one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
Even something as simple as removing certain apps from my phone turned out to be a challenge. Every day, my brain seemed to cry out for those quick hits of entertainment: the never-ending reels, the short clips that flood social media, none of which truly add any value to my life. It was like my mind had been trained to expect, even demand, those thousands of mindless videos, always promising something new but never leaving me feeling fulfilled. It was hard to admit, but I realized that I was addicted to the very things that were distracting me from living a meaningful life.
And then I began to question: What is it that I’ve been feeding my mind? Have you ever noticed how much of our conversations, our time, and our thoughts are centered around things that, in the end, really don’t matter?
There’s this constant pressure to keep up, this fear of missing out — FOMO, as it’s often called.
But honestly, I’d rather embrace the opposite. Instead of FOMO, I’ve come to value something else: JOMO, the Joy of Missing Out. There’s a quiet peace that comes with choosing to miss out on the noise and chaos of the world, especially when so much of it is irrelevant. Why fill your mind with things that don’t matter, things that don’t make you a better person or contribute to your growth?
We live in a time where we’re constantly bombarded with information — news, trends, gossip, updates, and countless other distractions. And I get it, it’s easy to get swept up in it all. It can feel like everyone is always talking about the latest thing, and there’s a subtle pressure to stay “in the loop.” But the truth is, there’s something liberating about stepping out of that loop. When you stop chasing after every new update or trend, you free up space in your life for the things that really matter. You start focusing on what brings you true joy, real purpose.
Detoxing from all the noise has shown me that life is better when I’m not consumed by the constant stream of irrelevant information. It’s not about isolating myself or shutting out the world completely, but about choosing what deserves my attention and what doesn’t. I’ve learned that missing out on some things isn’t a loss at all. It’s a gain — time gained for deeper, more meaningful experiences, for connections that matter, for moments that last longer than the quick dopamine rush of a viral video or a trending tweet.
I’m not perfect, and I still struggle to stay out of the old cycles. But I’ve made progress, and that’s something to celebrate. Each day, I try to be more mindful of what I allow into my life, into my mind. And with each day, I feel a little more in control, a little more present. The old loops may try to pull me back in, but I’m learning to break free — one step, one choice at a time.
