Digital Detox: Pause & Reflect

I am powerless over digital media, and my life is unmanageable. 📱 I’m an addict. It’s not my fault, though; digital technologies - apps, devices, services, media - are designed to be addictive. That’s right, they are purposefully designed to hook right into our brain chemistry and keep us coming back for more. 🧠 Since you are reading this, I’m guessing that you might also struggle with digital media addiction and want to take back some control from our algorithmic overlords. 🤖 That’s why I am making my personal practices public – to share successful approaches that have worked for me, my students, and my clients. I’m posting this Reset in Summer 2022, but the plan is for this to be an “evergreen” set of exercises that we can return to again and again as needed. I’ve learned that it is so easy to relapse 🍌 – slipping back into the old habits of unconscious scrolling or immersion.

Our human nervous systems 🩻 aren’t designed for the onslaught of news, information, and media that bombards us. We are still living in the midst of a sickening pandemic. So many people are suffering primary trauma from their experiences and then secondary trauma from the “witnessing” of daily worldwide atrocities. 💔 I don’t know about you, but my nervous system is electrified, and I struggle to function well, advocate, or stand for what I believe. When I see and feel the signs, symptoms, and sensations of overwhelm, I know I have to act quickly. 

The first experiment I decided to run this past week was to unplug from most of the inputs: 

⏹ stopped looking at news sites
⏹ turned off the podcasts 
⏹ stopped listening to books (or anything) while driving or walking or tasking
⏹ stopped consuming course content 
⏹ became super strategic with going online 
⏹ and this is just the beginning of my Reset

Now don’t freak out. These choices are not a permanent solution. I was drinking from a firehose and needed to stop. 🌊 Do you ever feel like that? You have the nozzle in your face, and the content stream just does not let up. I love to learn and take in information, but there is such a thing as too much. This experiment is already teaching me new things about my brain and body. 🧘🏽‍♀️ I’m hoping that you’ll run some experiments of your own. Now, which faucets you choose to turn down or which you turn entirely off are up to you. You can figure it out as we go. We’ll be taking it step by step as the days unfold. 👣

The daily exercises for the Reset will not take long - most days will be about 20 minutes, including the 5-minute self-hypnosis. 🌀 We’ll be learning to dopamine fast, engage in brief somatic and reflective exercises, and learn a quick self-hypnosis technique to help retain attention and focus. On Day 7, I’ll be giving you a slightly longer self-hypnosis tool to boost the lasting change. 🚀 By limiting the use of media and devices, the daily exercises will move energy through our nervous systems so that we can create a simple plan of engagement for moving forward after the Reset. I hope you’ll join me in pressing pause for reflection and recovery.

Today’s exercise: Commit - put it in your calendar now and come back here each day for the next step. ✌🏽🧡

Today’s exercise:
Commit

Today is a great day to think about why you want or need more space, time, and focus. Commit. Follow through. Put it in your calendar and take a minute right now to bullet journal all of your “why’s.”