A Mindful Perspective
Welcome to my podcast! I'm Nick Levesque, and I'm on a mission to help you navigate life's challenges with a mindful perspective. Join me every week as I dive deep into the realms of mindset, spirituality, and personal growth. Drawing from my own experiences, I want to provide you with tools, strategies, insights, and inspiring stories that will help you go from where you are now, to where you want to be.
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A Mindful Perspective
Digital Detox: Reclaiming Your Life from Your Devices
This week's episode sheds light on the battle for our attention in the digital age. We explore how our love for short-form content and the habitual grab for our phones not only chips away at our ability to enjoy profound experiences but also becomes a coping mechanism to escape life's pressures. Through personal stories, I illustrate the seductive trap of endless scrolling and emphasize why conscious technology use is critical for our mental health. We reflect on the staggering amount of information we consume daily and consider setting tech boundaries as an act of self-care.
Wrapping up with actionable advice, I share strategies to integrate a digital detox into our daily routines. From using a secondary phone to creating tech-free zones, these practical measures can help us regain balance and presence. I encourage you to be as selective with your digital consumption as you are with your meals, nurturing your mind with thoughtful content. If our discussion resonates with you, sharing your insights with a comment or passing the conversation along could extend our circle of mindfulness.
Hello everyone and welcome to A Mindful Perspective. I'm your host, nick Levesque, certified Spiritual Life Coach, and I'm here to share insights into my journey of mindfulness and self-discovery. Each week, we'll explore mindset, spirituality and personal growth to help you navigate life's challenges with practical strategies and inspiring stories. Let's dive in.
Speaker 2:Hey everyone and welcome to another episode of Mindful Perspective. First and foremost, I just want to say thank you to everyone who's been supportive of the show and just supporting me along the journey to everyone's listening and that also includes new listeners, of course but I just wanted to say thank you very much for the support. I highly appreciate it and if you're finding value in the show and you're really enjoying it, please like it, share it, leave a comment or review. It really helps the show grow and also just brings awareness to more people and, again, the mission here is always to help as many people as I can. But in today's episode, I really want us to talk about the importance of doing a digital detox every now and then, and that's just really unplugging from technology, right. So we'll be really diving into this because I think it's a very important topic in this day and age and, as always, I'm going to give you tips and tricks on how to do that efficiently. So, first and foremost, I just want to kind of define what a digital detox is, right. So I know a lot of us know what it is, but essentially it just refers to a set period of time that someone stays away from devices, right, and that includes social media sites. That includes different things, because, again, like, technology in this day and age is something that we can't really live without, right, like we've got smartphones, we've got computers, we've got tablets, tvs, all these things. And when I'm talking about digital technologies in this episode, I'm referring to all these right Like smartphones, computers, tablets, tvs, especially smartphones.
Speaker 2:I'll be completely honest, but honestly, the purpose of doing a digital tea talks is to allow ourselves time to really just experience life without distractions. It's a way to really reconnect with ourselves or you know, our friends, individuals, and just really, again, it's a way to reconnect personally rather than through a screen, and, honestly, it just takes time to de-stress and step away from all our connectedness, right, we're always connected to something where you know a lot of us, for example, we work from home or we work an office job and all these different things, so we're in front of a screen for like eight hours a day. Then we've got our phones, we've got TVs, all these things right. So doing a digital T-talks is really just about giving yourself space away from technology, and the really important thing that I want you to think about here is, rather than thinking of it as a complete break from technology, okay, because, again, this is very hard to do in this day and age, right, we're so connected and, you know, technology is not a bad thing in and of itself. It just, sometimes I think that we don't really set limits on technology. Right, it can be very addicting and sometimes we're not even really aware of how much we're using it. So, rather than thinking of this, like I'm saying, as a complete break from technology, instead think about this as taking small steps to create boundaries between yourself and your devices. So you don't need to cut off your technology entirely, but sometimes it's just being mindful of how you use it and being intentional with it, and it goes as such.
Speaker 2:When the phone was tied with a wire, humans were free, and that resonated with me so deeply, and I actually found a comment about this quote that I found resonated even more, which I want to share as well. And this person, whoever they are, said here's a reason why they're called cell phones You're a prisoner of them, you can't escape. And, even worse, you're a prisoner of them, you can't escape. And, even worse, you don't want to escape. And that really, you know, hit me very deeply because it resonated with me personally I'll share more about my story later but honestly, I think that these things can be very addictive, right, and it's why I'm saying it's so important to learn to set boundaries with these devices.
Speaker 2:And when we really think about it, most of our days are spent in front of some sort of device. Okay, a lot of us work an office job where we're working on a computer screen all of the time, right, we're also connected to our tablets, our phones and all these different things and, like I said, technology itself isn't bad, but sometimes it's just, you know, being very aware of how you are using it. Like I was saying earlier, right, because we are constantly bombarded with information. Okay, and there was a study that I was actually reading about this and basically was saying that scientists have measured the amount of data that enter a brain and found that the average person living today processes as much as 74 gigabytes of information in a day. And, coming from an IT background, that is quite a bit of information to be processing right.
Speaker 2:Now. I just want to kind of highlight here it's not information that we're storing, right, because our brain has a mechanism to kind of not store everything. Right, it keeps the important stuff and kind of puts everything else away, but it's still something that goes through us and that our brain has to process, right, and that is actually as much as watching 16 movies in your day, and that's through TV, through computers, through cell phones, through tablets and even billboards, as an example. Okay, like, if you think of a place like New York. Okay, like walking in New York, not only do we have our phones, but we're bombarded with information across all sorts of billboards. Right, we've got commercials, we've got ads, all these different things and many other gadgets. It could be our Kindles, it could be every other thing, right?
Speaker 2:And it's estimated as well that every year, the amount of data consumed is about 5% more than the previous year because we've got all these other different things, right? So, in my personal opinion, in 2024, as I'm recording this it's probably more than 74 gigabytes of information. Right, those studies, I believe, were a few years back, but again, it's just to help paint a picture of how much data we're processing. Okay, and if you compare this to only 500 years ago, 74 gigabytes of information would be what a highly educated person consumed in a lifetime through books and stories, because obviously they did not have the technology that we have today, and I just really want to emphasize this, right, technology is not a bad thing at all.
Speaker 2:Okay, like, I've worked in IT for, you know, almost 10 years, and I can say that technology is not a bad thing. I've seen from my own personal eyes how it can benefit the world, especially with things like artificial intelligence and all these different things. Now, you know there's a conversation to be had about that, but at the same time, it technology is great, right, it's. It helps us stay connected. It helps us, you know, grow our businesses. It helps us meet new people that we never would have been able to meet before.
Speaker 2:Okay, but again, like I said earlier, it's just most of us don't set a proper limit on how we use it, and oftentimes what can happen is, if we're really not setting a limit on how connected we are and we're not aware of this, it can actually lead to something called digital overload, okay, and basically, this is when you're using your tech devices, right, like smartphones, computers, tvs, et cetera, and it's exposing you to so much information that you can't process all this information, like we were just talking about, right, so basically, this can lead to irritability, like we were just talking about, right? So basically, this can lead to irritability, anxiety, vision problems for some people, right, difficulty sleeping, okay, and this, I think, is one I've talked to many people that have this problem. Right, it's like before bed we're constantly on our phones scrolling right. It could also lead to mood swings and all different other things. So if you find yourself to be a bit more distracted lately or having trouble sleeping or all these different things, just pause for a moment and ask yourself am I too connected to these devices?
Speaker 2:I've noticed for me personally, as I've been on social media more as I'm trying to grow the podcast and the coaching business and I've been using social media more as a tool to connect to network, to post content, all these different things but what I noticed is that I found myself to be quite anxious, or more anxious than usual, and this was going on for a few days. And then I was like, okay, stop for a second, really take a deep breath, audit yourself. And just, I noticed the anxiety in my body. I noticed I was very anxious and kind of nervous and I was like, okay, what is going on here? And for me, I just stopped in my tracks and it was an indicator for me. I knew that I was on my phone way too much more than usual. Right, you know I'm not perfect.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I do scroll myself, sometimes I mindlessly scroll no one's perfect but I do try to have a good relationship with technology and I do try to have boundaries with technology and social media, because I know that it can drain me, I know that it can make me anxious, I know that it can make me overwhelmed, because you know I'm trying to do so many different things. Okay, so that's what I'm saying. Sometimes it's so important to really kind of audit how your devices are impacting you, right, so you're not getting into that irritability from the digital overload, the anxiety, like I personally had. What I'm trying to say here is that if at a certain point, you're really feeling anxious and you're not sleeping well and all these different things, really take a moment to consider how connected you are to your devices, because I can guarantee you that sometimes the stress, the anxiety, all these different things comes from just being too connected to your phone. And that's the thing about our phones and social media and video games. Okay, they're designed to grab our attention, they are designed to make us come back and want more, and everything in moderation is fine, but the thing is, every notification you get, every little ping or you know bell that you hear as an example okay, it pulls your attention away from what you're currently doing.
Speaker 2:So a lot of times you might be at work, you've got your phone next to you Okay, this is just an example. But like, let's say, you're at work, you've got your phone next to you, you're working on something, and then you hear your phone buzz. You reach for the phone, you reply to a text or you check your Instagram notifications or whatever it may be. Then you go back to your task right, but doing this can cause something called attention residue. Okay, and basically what that is is when part of our attention is focused on another task instead of being fully devoted to the current task that you're doing right now. So let's say, as an example, you're at work, you're working on a task, you're fully focused. You get a notification on your phone. Some news article comes up that you're really enticed to read. You go, you open that, you start reading it, and then maybe it's some good news, it's some bad news, whatever it may be okay, but when you're going back to your other task or the main task that you're doing. There's still residue from that other task, from that headline that you read from whatever article it was that you're reading. So now your attention is not fully focused on the task, okay, so I hope that makes sense, but that's really what attention residue is. So it's basically part of your attention is still on that other task and basically, by doing this over and over and kind of fragmenting our intention, if you will, okay, this can significantly decrease productivity.
Speaker 2:And basically, to kind of summarize what I'm saying here is basically this we have trouble focusing. That's pretty much it, right. We have trouble focusing because we are constantly distracted by things, we are constantly distracted by devices that pull our attention away. And not only do we have trouble focusing, but we have much more or much shorter attention spans than we did before. And this is all caused by things like shorter form content, right. So the reels, the TikToks, the YouTube shorts, and, intuitively, I think that we all know that this is not good for us and in a sense, it is kind of causing us to have more trouble focusing and it is in a sense as well kind of ruining our attention spans.
Speaker 2:And I was talking to a few people the other day and they were kind of saying the same thing as well. One was saying, basically, that they had trouble watching a full YouTube video now, because it's like 20 minutes, okay, and it's just hard to go through the entire video because we're so used to that shorter form content the 32, 90 second reels, as an example, okay. One way is even saying that they were having trouble watching a movie because, again, we're so used to being on our phones. We were so used to that shorter form content that watching a movie is, you know, we have trouble focusing on it and think about this. Like, I caught myself doing this the other day. Actually, I was watching a movie and as I was watching the movie, I was actually scrolling on my phone. I wasn't even paying attention to the movie, right, and I know other people have done this before and this has happened to other people that I've talked to as well. This is what I mean.
Speaker 2:Sometimes, and unconsciously, it's like we're addicted to these little devices and we're not paying attention to really what's around us. Okay, we're not even paying attention to the movie that we're watching or the person that we're with or all these different things, right? So this is what I'm saying. I think a lot of us, if we truly admit this to ourselves, we're more addicted to these devices than we actually believe that we are or want to admit it. Right, and I was reading a study that was saying research shows that about 61% of people admit that they're addicted to the internet and their digital screens. Okay, also, another study found that around 25% smartphone owners between ages of 18 and 44 don't remember the last time their phone wasn't right next to them. So again, I hope this is kind of painting a picture of what I'm trying to get at here. But also, it's not only our phones, right, it could be too much TV time, it could be too much video games, it could be, you know, too much online shopping, as an example. Right, it could be so many different things.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we just scroll and scroll and we mindlessly scroll, right. And another thing with these phones that I found personally working with clients and just my own subjective experience as well a lot of us will mindlessly scroll to numb ourselves because we want to escape. It is a form of coping. It is a way for us to not want to deal with anything. Okay, when something happens, we're too stressed. Something's going on at work, whatever it may be. We just go to the phone, right, we start scrolling, we start scrolling, we take our attention away. Sometimes we think we're taking just a break. But are we really right? Are we if we ask ourselves the honest question, you know, am I really taking a break right now or am I avoiding something? And honestly, if you're going from one screen to the other, in my personal opinion you are not taking a break. Is what I'm trying to say as well. Right, but again, the mindless scrolling can be a form of coping. It can be a way to numb yourself. I know, for me that was the thing for years. Right, we don't want to deal with something. Something's coming up. I don't want to feel that, I don't want to be with that. So what do we do? We jump on something. Right.
Speaker 2:For me, again, like I've said many times, weed was my big thing. Also the phone mindlessly scrolling, mindlessly going through social media. And again, that won't make you feel better, because a lot of us compare ourselves on social media, a lot of us do other things on social media. That is actually detrimental to our mental health, and I'll talk about that a bit later, but again, this is what I'm saying. Right, phones are great, technology is great, great, but it's also very so, so important to really be aware of how you're using it and just to share a personal story with everyone. Because for me, this episode or this topic, if you will holds dear to me. Okay, and the reason is a few years back, when I was going through my own dark night of the soul my phone, social media, all these different things, right, technology, if you will, netflix again, same.
Speaker 2:Okay, there were ways of numbing. They were ways for me to cope, because I didn't want to do anything and it was not a good coping mechanism, by the way, right, I just I was in a lot of pain, I just wasn't feeling well and I was numbing myself with these things. I was constantly binging Netflix. I was just on my phone, scrolling social media, constantly distracting myself, because I did not want to feel, I did not want to sit with what was going on. So I was pushing it away, just throwing it, sweeping it under the rug, and I thought that this was going to help me, I thought I was going to get over it, but again, I didn't want to feel, because feeling is hard, right, feeling is painful, and we don't want to feel that pain. So for me personally, I just kind of did that right and I noticed that not only it got to a point for me personally and maybe other people can resonate with this as well but it got to a point for me personally that my habits inside the house kind of went outside the house as well.
Speaker 2:So when I was with friends or at gatherings or whatever, I was still stuck to my phone, okay. So I was still stuck, I was still scrolling, people were talking to me, I wasn't really paying attention and sometimes even like you could be sitting with someone having a one-on-one conversation and your phone is on the table in front of you, okay. And what I've noticed, for me personally, is that because the phone was still visible, because I could still see the phone, even though I wasn't using it, even though I was not touching it, there was still a part of me that was kind of thinking about the phone or thinking like, oh, maybe I missed some notifications, oh, maybe someone messaged me. Oh, should I check my phone to make sure I didn't miss something? Right? It's almost like this fear of missing out as an example. Okay, so this is what I mean. Obviously, this again is just from my subjective experience, but I'm pretty sure other people can relate to that as well.
Speaker 2:Now, after I really started to notice my problems with this my problems with the phone and social media and all these things what I decided to do was I took six months away from social media. Now, you don't need to be that drastic. I didn't plan this out in advance, I just said, okay, I'm going to take a break. At first I was like, okay, I'll take a week off, and then a week turned into two weeks, and then actually two weeks turned into six months, or about six months anyways. But I can tell you right now it was probably one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life, because it made me realize quite a few things. First and foremost, because I deleted social media and deleted those apps. I actually wasn't on my phone all that much, okay, I really wasn't on my phone all that much. So that was a big thing.
Speaker 2:So I was really disconnecting from technology more and allowed me to be more present, and it allowed me to you know, consciously know that, okay, once I do start going back to social media because, again, if you can use it in moderation, it's fine, right, but I was going to establish some clear boundaries between myself and social media, and myself and these devices. So I think that was really the big thing for me. I was like, okay, wow, I'm much more present in my life. But secondly as well, the other big thing is that I noticed how comparing myself to people was such a waste of time, because I realized how much abundance I already had in my life. Okay, and I've said this before, but social media is designed to make you think, you know, I should be somewhere else, I should be doing something else, et cetera. This is a powerful quote by Stephen Bartlett. But, all to say that, I had nothing to compare myself to other than myself. So what ended up happening is like, wow, I have so much abundance in my life. Right, I feel better. I feel better about myself. I wasn't comparing myself to anyone else. Okay, I realized how a good job I had all these different things. So secondly, I was like, wow, okay, this is you know, this is great, this is powerful. I'm kind of getting back into my power.
Speaker 2:And the third thing that I noticed was how people are addicted to these things. Okay, and I generally mean that, and I don't mean that disrespectfully at all, but what I noticed? Because I didn't really use my phone anymore, right, I noticed that I was going places, right, and a lot of times because I didn't use social media anymore, I didn't really use my phone for much other than that, other than calling stuff. So I would just leave my phone in the car, I would leave my phone elsewhere. As an example, sometimes I wouldn't even bring it with me at all. And what I noticed is like no one's looking up, right, everyone's looking down, everyone at the grocery store. We're on our phones Not everyone, of course, but like a majority of people were on our phones. We're checking our texts, we're checking this, we're checking emails, right.
Speaker 2:One thing I noticed as well it was like going to restaurants noticing people on dates with their spouse or maybe just with a friend and this is something other people have told me as well but not being present with that person. We're constantly on our phones. Even being on a date with our spouse, our partner or a family member or a friend, we're still on our devices and not giving them the attention that they deserve. We're not being present and there with them, right. So this was kind of the really big takeaway for me. It was like, wow, I also did this for such a long time and it's a pattern amongst a lot of people, right.
Speaker 2:So, again, I'm not saying that you have to take a break off social media. I'm not saying that you have to quit everything right away, but maybe do it for a week, maybe do it for a few days and see how you feel. But I know personally that it made me feel so much better and it allowed me to develop a better relationship with social media and set clearer boundaries with technology. Now, again, I slip. I'm not perfect. This happened to me yesterday.
Speaker 2:But the thing is, the difference is now I can catch myself. Okay, after five minutes of doom scrolling, I'm like, oh my goodness, okay, get off it right. Before it was like an hour where I was just caught in this vortex of reels, if you will, and now I can really catch myself and be like okay, I could be doing something else right now. Right, instead of saying I should. Okay, instead of saying I should and shaming myself because you know, shooting ourselves is not good just switch that. I could be doing something else right now. Okay, now let's talk about it a bit more. Right? Is a digital detox right for you? Because I want to be honest, okay, not everyone has this problem. Some people are very, you know, some people have balance, some people are very good with this. Some people have no issues with kind of unplugging and doing these things Right. But I just want to read off a few signs, if you will, that a digital detox may be right for you.
Speaker 2:So maybe you feel that you need to check your phone constantly. You can't concentrate unless you check your device often. Maybe you're feeling that you're missing out on something if you're not checking on your phone for notifications and social posts regularly. Maybe you feel that, after spending time on social media, you feel sad, you feel angry, you feel anxious, or you begin comparing yourself to others on social media, and that's a very, very important one. So think about that. If that's for you, okay. Maybe you feel like you're having trouble sleeping at night that's another big thing as well, okay. Maybe you're feeling that your device is causing work-life balance issues. Okay, so you've got work creeping into your personal time because your device is always on. Now there are many more signs and these are just a few ones, but if these resonate with you, if any of these resonate with you, maybe it is a sign that you know, okay, hmm, maybe I should consider a digital detox.
Speaker 2:Okay, and let's talk a bit about the benefits of digital detoxes as well. Well, first and foremost, okay, you get less stress, right, you get improved focus, which is a big one, like we talked about earlier. Better sleep, enhanced relationships is a big one because, again, you're not constantly glued to your phone. You can really give that person the time and attention they deserve if you are with them. Okay, you can do more of the things you enjoy because you're not constantly glued and stuck to your phone. Also, a very, very important one, it can actually have a significant healthy impact on your mental health, because I think a lot of us don't realize that our phones can actually trigger our fight, flight and freeze responses.
Speaker 2:And just to kind of give a quick recap on this here, basically, these responses, right, the fight, flight or freeze, they're just, they're an evolutionary mechanism, right. They help us respond to threats in our environment. So our ancestors needed that as an example, you know, to detect threats around if there was a saber tooth, tiger or all these different things, right, triggers our body, our alarm, right? Anxiety, if you will, honestly, is our body's alarm system to let us know that something is going on, as an example. But the difference is, nowadays our threats are no longer saber-toothed tigers, right, they are the work, emails or constant notifications or whatever that create a sense of urgency and stress.
Speaker 2:Okay, this perceived quote-unquote threat right, because it's not actually a real threat. It can actually signal our brain that there is a threat going on, right, then that triggers us into a fight or flight response. It could be social media, comparisons, right, all these different things and it affects our sense of self-esteem, and then we get stressed, anxious, etc. It could also be anxiety from feedback, right, so we're waiting for feedback. We did a post on social media and we're waiting for feedback. We're waiting to see how many likes or comments that we're going to get, and then that can actually create anxiety, right. And then we see perhaps, oh, like, we don't have the likes or comments that we want, right, we don't get that validation that we hoped for, and then that's maintaining a state of heightened alertness, okay, almost the same as fight or flight.
Speaker 2:So your body's actually literally going through a fight or flight response because you're waiting for feedback, because you're waiting for likes and comments on a social media post. Okay, it could also be the type of content you consume information overload so many different things, right? So this is what I'm trying to say Our threats nowadays are, you know, not the same that they were back then. Obviously, of course, our body's still attuned to the actual threats around us, right, like if you know a bear jumps out at us, you can very well damn, be sure that you know we're going to get triggered as an example, right, and of course, it's a survival mechanism it's important to have. But also, what I'm trying to give the other perspective on is there are a lot more imagined threats, if you will, than there were in the time of our ancestors, and this is just a perspective that I want to give that phones can actually be a significant impact on our mental health.
Speaker 2:So now the question becomes how do we do this digital detox, okay? So, first and foremost, I want to be honest here. There are many different ways you can do it. There are many different tips and tricks you can do for this. I'm just going to give you some that I've personally found that have helped me. Okay, and then you can choose what you want. You can do this the way you want, but we'll dive into these right now. So, tip number one is to make a plan.
Speaker 2:Okay, I think this is honestly very important because you need to really figure out, okay, like, what is going on with my you know consumption, all these different things, right? So where are you spending most of your time on and what, right, so are you, you know, constantly? Do you find yourself to be constantly glued to YouTube? Or do you find yourself to be constantly glued to Facebook or Instagram or TikTok, right? Where is it that you're spending most of your time and on what Is it? Reels, is it you know? Just, you want to bring that to your awareness because you want to know what's going on, because, again, like I keep saying, you cannot change what you're not aware of. Okay, so are you always on social media?
Speaker 2:Do you find that you spend more time on your tablet than on your phone, right? Like? What's distracting you more? What device is distracting you more? Is it constantly watching Netflix that you're constantly stuck on? Is it? You're constantly on your phone or your tablet, like what's you know? What is it?
Speaker 2:Okay, do you find that you're having trouble focusing lately and you're really trying to figure out why that is? So, again, there are many different questions that you can ask yourself here, but honestly, it's have an honest conversation with yourself and really audit your life, like really audit your digital environment, if you will, and really try to figure out what the problem is and just where you're spending most of your time and what you're doing, and also, why do you want to change this, what is it that you really want to change about this and how do you think it's going to impact your life in a positive way? I think another important thing to also mention here and something that you should really take note of when you're doing this audit okay, it's not only about figuring out what is going on like what are you spending most of your time on, and such but it's also why, okay, Like why are you mindlessly scrolling or distracted all the time? Are you actually avoiding something like I used to do? Are you bored and you can't feel bored, or you don't like feeling bored, or you feel restless and you don't like feeling restless. So you constantly try to engage yourself with some sort of distraction. Okay, most of us don't know how to be bored and I've talked about this in other episodes as well but really tune into the emotion of that as well. Right, like the feeling, the sensation that's going with this. Okay, are you constantly comparing yourself to others, right, feeling like you're behind in life, as an example?
Speaker 2:Another great one as well is what type of content are you consuming? Okay, not only do we need to be wary of what we're putting into our bodies, but we also need to be wary of what we're putting into our bodies, but we also need to be very understanding and kind of careful of our mental diet as well, as what I would call it. To be quite honest, right, what type of content are you consuming? Are you consuming stuff that's making you feel bad, sad, anxious? Are you comparing yourself to other people? Or are you consuming things that you know are very good, for you are very happy, like positive, all these different things, right? I think that we just want to make sure that we're consuming the type of content that is going to help us achieve whatever it is that we want to achieve, okay, and that can help us instead of bringing us down. Okay, so that's really step number one make a plan.
Speaker 2:Tip number two is to set limits. Okay, and you can do this by using apps to track usage and apps to block what you are most on. So I'm going to talk about this and I'm going to share a personal experience here. But again, I think a lot of our phones now, like I know, like my phone personally sends me a weekly report, and sometimes it's quite discouraging to see, uh, you know, the weekly report of how much time I've spent on my phone, but it's also a very good reminder. It's like okay, this week I spent a bit more time on my phone. Okay, like, and then you can start just investigating that, right, like, why did I spend more, more time on my phone? What caused me to spend more time on my phone? Maybe I was, you know, building, you know, a network of connections, all these different things, right. But you know, you can also ask yourself the honest question like was I doom scrolling too much and all these different things, right?
Speaker 2:I think a lot of our phones now have this kind of built-in functionality that allows us to really set limits and check on our usage on a weekly basis and all these different things. But there are also specific apps that you can use as well. There are different apps you can use for that, so you can download an app to help you track that. And once you've kind of got an understanding of how much time you've been spending on such, now you can really start deciding how much time you want to spend on your phone. Okay, so maybe you want to spend less time on your phone, maybe you only want to use your time, your phone, sorry a specific time of day. You can really start getting granular about how you want to do this. Okay, and you can divide this in many ways. You can just start taking more breaks in your day. You can just start taking more breaks in your day. You can do different things, okay, and another thing you can do as well and this is something I did for a little while, to be quite honest is download an app blocker, and essentially, you can use an app blocker for any app, for any website, for anything you want to, but basically you can set times in your day where you want to block the app.
Speaker 2:So, like for me personally, I had made sure that I was blocking my app at I think it was like 8.30 PM, right, so I was blocking a bunch of apps so that I wasn't using social media or anything right. So if I would grab my phone unconsciously, go on social media, it would block the app. So I did this for Instagram, I did this for Facebook for a little while. Okay, so this is just something, because sometimes you know you're messaging someone, you're, you know you have something you have to do on your phone, but you don't want to be sidetracked by going on an app. You can do a variety of things here, but an app blocker is good for two reasons, I find One is, and what I've noticed personally is this One is obviously you're not going to be able to access the app.
Speaker 2:But secondly, if I'm being completely honest, it's kind of a slap in the face, because what I noticed was that by downloading this app, I started realizing unconsciously how many times I was trying to open Instagram. Okay, and I remember it was, like you know, in a, in a day, I think it was like something like 23 times. I don't remember specifically at that time and honestly, it was like a slap in the face, like, oh my goodness, am I really trying to open this app that many times? And unconsciously, like I was not even aware of it, because it's a habit, it's addictive and all these things right. So, again, I think an ad blocker sometimes is a very powerful tool that you can use, especially if you feel like you need it, like I did at that specific point in time.
Speaker 2:So step number two really set limits and you can use some apps that are at your disposal. There are many, many apps that you can download. You just need to kind of do your own research on this one and find what works for you. Tip number three is to delete the apps entirely from your phone. Okay, so you can ask yourself the honest question Do you actually need these apps on your phone, yes or no? If you actually do need them, what is the reason? Okay, well, maybe you're a business owner and you're doing your social media and all these different things. Okay, so that's perfectly fine.
Speaker 2:Maybe you want to keep the apps on your phone, but again, you use an app blocker, like we talked about in step two, to limit some time in your day where you don't need it, as an example, okay, but if social media for you is just really a way to kind of escape and it's causing problems and you're just constantly scrolling away reel after reel and just losing productivity, all these different things, and it's taking over your life. Well, delete the apps off your phone, right? Like actually delete the social media apps or whatever app is causing you to escape or scroll, or all these different things. Delete them from your phone and only access them through a web browser on your computer. Okay, so you can check Facebook, you can check Instagram or YouTube or whatever, but only do it from your computer and not from your phone. So this can also help kind of set that healthy boundary Right. And then you're at first you're going to be tempted to check it and check it, but you're going to realize that there's nothing on your phone. And then you're like, well, you know, I don't really feel like going to my computer and checking that right now, I'll do it later. And then what ends up happening is that you forget, okay, and then you're kind of, you know, forgetting about it more and more as the days go on and you kind of create again the boundary and that distance from your apps on your phone. So that's just another way you can do it as well.
Speaker 2:Another thing you can do is you can put your apps on a burner phone. Okay, so you've got your first phone. You keep your main phone clean from any social media apps, any apps that are kind of you know again disturbing your, your peace and your presence, as an example but the social media apps and such can be on a secondary phone. So maybe you've got an old phone lying around that you're not using anymore, but you're just keeping that one to check your stuff. Okay, you're just keeping that one to check your social media and such and you put that in a. Then, whenever you need to go check it for something or you want to post something, use that phone, but your main phone is always clean. So that's another way you can do it. So there's quite a few things you can do. Just find what works best for you.
Speaker 2:Tip number four is no technology, first thing in the morning and right before bed. So I think this one is very self-explanatory, but I think this one is something that a lot of us struggle with. Right Like right before bed, we'll be mindlessly scrolling, and then we wonder why our sleep cycle is impacted or no. We end up sleeping up later than we wanted to, or even we wake up and the first thing we do is reach for the phone. We check notifications that maybe we didn't want to see first thing in the morning, that we're stressed, we're anxious, you know. You maybe get a work email right as you wake up and you're like, oh my goodness, what's going on? Fight or flight first thing as you wake up, right, that's not a way to wake up. So you know.
Speaker 2:Again, something I always advise is to have an actual alarm and not sleep next to your phone. That's a big thing as well. And again, what I did personally for me is I noticed this was a problem for me for a while. So what I ended up doing, because I work out in the mornings I decided to get my burner phone, like I was talking about in step three. I deleted everything off it other than Spotify and that would be my alarm and it would be my, my, my wake up phone, right. So my alarm and my gym phone. So I would wake up, I would just grab that phone, not my actual phone. Grab that phone, go to the gym, come back. I had no distractions, no notifications, no, nothing, and I would wake up, um up and just not reach for my other phone, right? So basically, for the hour, an hour and a half that I was at the gym, I did not have my actual phone on me, and it's a great way to start your morning, to be quite honest, right. So honestly, just no technology first thing in the morning and right before bed. It's a very important one.
Speaker 2:Tip number five is put your phone, your tablet or whatever, in another room, okay, okay. Design no phone areas for yourself, okay. So, if you're at work and you feel like your phone is constantly distracting you, you feel like you're always checking your phone, put the phone in another room. After a while you'll forget about it. You'll just be able to focus on your task. But if you're constantly, you know, having a phone next to you it's like I was talking about earlier. Right, you're going to check your phone. You're going to try to go back to your task. You're going to check your phone again. Try to go back to your task. You're going to text this person. Do that? Go back to your task. You're not going to be productive that way. It's going to take you an hour to do something that may have taken you five minutes if you actually just focused on it. So put it in another room.
Speaker 2:I noticed this because you know, as you guys know, I love reading, and a trouble I had at the beginning of my reading journey, if you will, was that I would. You know, I'd put my phone next to me and, unconsciously, I would just check if I had notifications. Or I wanted to check if I had notifications because again, that FOMO. Right. Am I missing out on something? Did someone message me that I missed? Did I get an Instagram notification? Whatever, it may be, okay, so what I ended up doing was I was putting the phone in another room so I can fully focus on my reading, and it actually helped me to concentrate more and focus.
Speaker 2:And another big one is when we're eating. Sometimes it's very important for us to put the phone away as well, to really just enjoy being with ourselves, being with our meal as well. And this is something I noticed myself doing is, every time I was eating, I was constantly on my phone, scrolling or watching something on TV or whatever. And again, there's nothing wrong with sitting down and watching a movie and having a great meal or whatever it is, but if, at every meal, you're constantly distracted by something, again it's just endless consumption. Put the phone away when you're eating. Just sit with your meal. Just actually sit with your meal. A lot of people, we're constantly consuming something. We might be doing the dishes, we're listening to a podcast, all these different things. Again, there's nothing wrong with that, in moderation. But if you're always, always consuming, always distracted by something, when are you ever really present with yourself? And also, when was the last time that you enjoyed a meal without any distraction whatsoever? Just think about it.
Speaker 2:Tip number six is to turn off notifications. Okay, so if you find yourself constantly checking your phone, every alert, every email, et cetera well, turn off the notification so you don't hear that ding. Or, better yet, put the notifications off and put the phone on silent. So, personally, my phone is always on silent because I, you know, I find it too distracting with every ding, et cetera, all these things, right. But again, maybe you're a parent and you're waiting for your kids to call you and all these different things. I completely understand that. Everyone's got different life circumstances. Maybe you're waiting for your kid to call you to come pick him up from soccer practice and all these different things, right. So I'm very understanding of that. But again, you can have the phone on, like on, but also have your notifications. Officer, you're not distracted by anything else other than your kid calling Okay. So, again, very different for everyone here, but I just found that having my phone on silent for me helped me just concentrate more, not be on my phone as much.
Speaker 2:And also one thing that I think is very important to note as well is just because you have a phone, just because we're connected now, does not mean that someone has access to you 24 seven. Just because you have a phone, okay, you can get to them when you get to them. Like for me personally. You know, for years I had people pleasing tendencies and every time someone texted me I had to get back to them right away because I thought, okay, well, if I don't respond now, they'll think I'm mad or they won't like me anymore or all these different things. Okay, and again, a lot of it was that fear, that sense of validation that they won't like me, because that's what a lot of people pleasing is right. It's not only about making sure that you're there for the other person, but it's also making sure that the other person sees you. Right, it's also making sure that you get that validation from that other person, because you quote unquote help them, but you've got no boundaries and you're just letting everyone walk all over you type of thing. Right, that was the thing for me as well, but again, this is one thing that I've learned about the phone is that you can put your boundaries with people as well. Just because you have a phone does not make you accessible 24 seven.
Speaker 2:Now just to summarize, because I know we talked about a lot in today's episode, but really, what I'm trying to say today is this okay, technology is not a bad thing, it's a great thing, it's a powerful tool. All of the above. However, it's just we need to monitor our relationship with technology and making sure that it's not impacting us negatively right, and it's not impacting our overall well-being, and we just want to make sure that, if it is, then we take a break from it, we set boundaries, we try to disconnect from it as much as we can, to spend time with our friends, our family, our loved ones, to go connect with nature, to not miss out on life because we are mindlessly scrolling or numbing ourselves or distracting ourselves or comparing ourselves on social media. Okay, so it's really again auditing our lives and seeing is technology working for us or against us. So, that being said, that's all I've got for you guys on today's episode.
Speaker 2:If you did like the episode, please feel free to leave a comment or review, share it. It really helps bring awareness to what I'm trying to do, which is really kind of, you know, spread this podcast on a broader scale to really help people just navigate everyday life challenges. So, again, with that being said, I hope you have a good week and I will catch you guys next week. Outro Music.
