Digital Detox

DIGITAL ADDICTION IS HUMAN POLLUTION Do you check your phone every 5 minutes even when you know it didn’t beep? Do you check your phone when you wake up in the middle of the night? Do you check emails when you are on a vacation? Do your friends complain that you are always on your phone? If your answer is yes to even two of the above, you may be digitally addicted. Addiction is a relentless pull to a substance or an activity that becomes so compulsive that it ultimately interferes with everyday life. Well, by that definition each one sitting here is addicted in some measure. According to a recent survey, an individual spends about 6-8 hours on emails, keeping up with social media, browsing, and online shopping. Research says, the average individual checks his mail within 6 seconds of having received it. The brain’s craving for something new, constant stimulation, immediate gratification, creates a vicious loop of compulsion and like addicts we need more of it to give us an even bigger high. This excess information overloads the working memory which is like the desktop of your computer and when multiple windows are open it drains battery and slows your computer. When we reach an overload, our ability to translate and store the information from short term memory to long term memory deteriorates. It’s like if your cup is full of tea and I still pour tea into it, it will pour out. A famous Zen parable quotes, “Empty your cup”. Empty your working memory so that relevant information can be stored in. Human beings do what they do for 3 things- love, security, self-esteem. Ironically, these are also some serious challenges faced by the Millennial. They do what they do for acceptance and their need to be understood is very high. Sometimes social media avatar gets some likes, sense of self-esteem which it mistakes as love. But after that stage performance on social media you have to come back to the real world. Then this world feels painful and not as supportive. Like a fish out of water you jump back in the social media world. Technology is one of the reasons that the millennial are not happy. They have become good at applying filters and showing people how amazing life is even though they know they are sad. The more we are in a zone of focus, the more we are using and optimising our brain productivity cycles, the more we focus on seeking our selves first and liking ourselves more, the more we increase our eye to eye communication, our need for social media connections will reduce. The opposite of addiction is real connection. Today the governments of the world are concerned about Air Pollution and Water Pollution, it’s time we wake up to Human Pollution. Digital Detox clears up space for real human interactions without a screen as a medium enabling us as a tool to deal with human pollution. It’s our whole brain that controls the way we think, the way we feel, the way we act, our businesses and our relationships. A polluted brain will not be very productive and efficient. Digital Detox helps us to recalibrate ourselves, to rewire our lives to what really matters to us. It gives us a chance to focus on what really matters which is our relationships. Because our relationships are like the pivot around which we revolve. 1.Seek yourself every morning. Ask yourself every morning why do I do what I do. Answer your why each day. Every morning. The first thing when you wake up. 1) Give yourself at least 30 minutes every day gadget free. 30 minutes in morning and evening. Notice the quality of your life change. Tell yourself how you want your day to be like. The relationships you want because eventually this is all that it is about. 2) Our brain cycle is a 90 minute cycle of productivity. Post that, it is important to take a break. In the break, it is recommended you move, breathe and perhaps check your mail or whatsapp. Don’t check your screens before the 90 minute cycle. It takes about 20-25 minutes to come back to that point of performance. 3) Take one vacation a year free of electronics. 4) Start with simple steps like taking one meal a day without electronics. 5) Then take one day of the weekend without electronics. 6) Choose one outing with your family every week without electronics. 7) Do activities that would naturally give you excitement and dopamine for example walking or running. 8) Hugging someone you love and getting a massage will release Oxytocin. 9) Serotonin can be released by Smiling, enjoying the Sun even on a rainy day. Your ability to make real time social connections is your ‘earned security’ a midst of a crisis your twitter followers won’t be there. But the ones you have earned security perhaps may come. Each of us here need to be present to reach out to another. The opposite of addiction is real connection. Connect with your friends and family without the phones and without the internet. Have a conversation with them without backspacing your words. Express yourself without the use of emoticons. Tell one person eachday I UNDERSTAND YOU. We have to control our mind like we control our waistlines. Instead of consuming empty calories and consuming food with high calories yet no nutrition, give the brain food for thought versus empty brain calories. Our brain has a network circuitry for ‘seeking’ and a network circuitry for liking which gets triggered when we are using an electronic device. But why not seek our selves first so that we can ‘like’ ourselves more. Move from HUMAN POLLUTION TO HUMAN EVOLUTION.