Putting Down the Phone

The availability of all the information in the world and the ability to contact everyone we know just by reaching into our pockets can certainly be a blessing and a curse. If you have read our sections on meditation, then I am sure you have noticed that the theme of meditation tends to be about helping us live more within the moment. This is something that can become very hard to do when we are constantly wanting to take out our phones and check what other people are doing on Instagram or snapchat or any other social media, and then comparing their life highlights to our day to day.

It is important to keep focused on the things that matter most in life which are our relationships and our goals and being glued to our phone screens can certainly come in between those things if we let it. I am not saying that you should delete all of your apps and switch back to a flip phone necessarily but there are a few practices I like to use to keep myself disciplined, focused and happy.

One of the easiest ways to start putting down your phone more lies right within the settings of your phone. If you go to the screen time section you can actually set limits for the time you can spend on an app or even on a group of apps. My biggest time waster has seemed to be short form content with Instagram reels or Tik-Toks so I limited my access to these apps to just 2 hours a day and I try to save those 2 hours a day for when I am winding down in bed. This way it can help me stay off it most of the day and I can get way more stuff done.

Another way to limit your phone use is to use it only as a reward. I have noticed that when I have been the most depressed is when I am accomplishing very little with my days and spending hours and hours on Instagram reels. It opens my eyes to the fact that depression for me can be a helpful reminder to make changes in my life because sitting in bed watching Instagram videos is not a great lifestyle to have and so it makes sense that I would feel depressed right? Because of this I like to spend a bit of time watching short form content only when I have accomplished something in my day. After I hit the gym and I am feeling exhausted I may reward myself with 30 minutes of watching videos and I am okay with that because at least I have done something productive with my day.