Seems like these days we can not live without electronics. We use it everyday for school, work, and leisure. Everything is on our phone. We don’t even have to remember any phone numbers anymore. It is all stored for us. I still remember the numbers I used to dial in pre-mobile times but not the more recent ones because everything is on my phone now.
We wake up every morning with an urge to straight away reach for our phone to check what happened while we were sleeping, any messages, any news? We do that and our stress levels are most likely rising immediately.
We go to the office or work from home staring the whole day at the computer screen. After work we still need to check our social media, reply to all our new messages and catch up with new posts. Then it is time to rest on the couch and watch tv or maybe read an article or a book (most of the time also digitally). Then we do a final social media check before we try to put ourselves to sleep.
Does it sound familiar?
The whole day we are constantly stimulated. No wonder the teenagers can’t take that pressure and often times have problems with their moods, feeling low and being tired.
Also for adults it is too much fast information to constantly process.
Using our electronics without a break throughout the day makes us more irritable, tired, overstimulated, anxious, impatient, but also stressed and worried with all the news influx.
We need time during the day when we can just truly relax and disconnect to activate the calming side of our nervous system, bring cortisol levels down and then be able to really rest properly at night.
Constantly elevated stress levels keep our body in fight/flight/freeze mode. It is exhausting to be in it for an extended time. It’s as if we were in a constant state of emergency. We can’t function properly that way, let alone lose the excess weight.
In this state it is also hard for us to fall asleep, have a restful night and recharge to be in the best form the following day.
And when you feel tired and not properly rested the chances are you will be relying on caffeine and extra sugar to keep you going throughout the next day and the next day and the next day..…after a while we find ourselves in a vicious cycle of blue screens, anxiety, poor sleep, caffeine/sugar and as a result, at its least weight gain, but also serious mental and physical health struggles.
That is why I have implemented a few small changes in my routines. You can try them out.
1. Try not to reach for your phone the minute you wake up but instead bring more awareness to your usual morning activities: teeth brushing, showering, tea making.
This half an hour in the morning just for you before you let new information in, really makes a difference.
(We can talk another time about more ideas for establishing a full morning routine)
2. The same goes for the evening. Trying to get off your electronics at least an hour before bed time will help you calm down and activate the cooling side of your nervous system, helping you fall asleep and stay asleep.
(You can also join me live for my ‘Mondays with Inner Stillness’ practices at 9 pm CET on IG @boost_by_kasiagendis to help you bring stress levels down)
3. And one day in the week, when you do not have to be around your phone or computer (for me Sunday usually works best, when I take a day off) keep your phone in a different room for most of the time and try not to open up your computer at all.
It is so freeing, relaxing, calming, and recharging!!
We do need a break every so often for our system to function properly.
And even better just get outside without your phone :)))