Feeling stuck? It’s probably your phone.
Do you ever have one of those days where your mind is spinning and you can’t seem to put down your phone?
For me, it usually goes like this:
Wake up: grab phone. Check social media, email, texts, and calls. Immediately feel like I’m not enough and that no one cares.
Eat breakfast and pretend to journal: but really I’m grabbing for my phone to answer my lingering questions, add to my to-do list, play with my calendar, reply to a text, and immediately dive into an existential crisis.
Work out: and in the back of my mind wonder if anyone has liked, commented, subscribed, replied to a pitch email.
Meditate: but spend the first five minutes neurotically checking social media, email, texts… you get the idea.
Does this crazy routine sound familiar to you?
If you’re like me, in the moment, you actually know that what you’re doing is, in fact, crazy. That it is probably the reason why you feel like crap about yourself and your life’s direction.
But does it stop us?
Absolutely not.
Not without a monumental effort, at least.
Why?
Because our brains have been absolutely hijacked.
I know this… you know this.
Logically, we are all aware of this dopamine-seeking behavior, though we often feel out of control and unable to stop it.
Those of us who are old enough to remember the “before times,” can at least recall what that felt like to not be constantly distracted. For me, it was the sixteen years of my life prior to getting an email account and instant messaging.
In the “before times,” we’d wait weeks for a letter in the mail… days for a meet up with a friend… hours for a call… (yes… we actually called each other. It was amazing.)
And the dopamine release was still there… but it was more difficult to access… and the benefit lasted a lot longer.
What did we do to find joy and entertainment in the meantime?
We went outside. We created art. We played music. We sat alone and had a deep thought for longer than 2 seconds.
And we. were. okay.
Better than okay, actually.
Even for those of us who were lucky enough to have these experiences - it is so easy for us to forget them.
And, if you came of age after the invention of the smart phone and social media… you may have no memory of them at all.
But, we can help each other remember.
And we must fight to hold on to the things that make us human.
Creativity. Free and independent thought. Immersing ourselves in nature. Connecting to one another. Lasting peace, calm, and joy.
We will never find these things in the quick dopamine hits supplied by the apps.
But if we can break ourselves out of the cycle - even for just a short time - we might start to remember who we are… what we love… and what we want to create.
And the quality of our lives… and the future of humanity.. will most definitely thank us.
I experienced this for myself a few weeks ago:
When I caught myself spiraling into a pit of despair by way of a doom scroll, I decided enough was enough: I filled my water bottle… strapped on my helmet… and I went for a friggin’ bike ride.
The best part about riding a bike? It’s really hard to play on your phone.
After about 15 minutes of pedaling it out on the trail, breathing in the fresh scent of the trees, letting the sunlight flood my eyes, feeling my atrophied muscles working to push the pedals… that panicky feeling was gone.
Thoughts of despair? Gone.
Feelings of worthlessness? Gone. Nowhere to be found.
(And, trust me… I looked for them.)
It was such a low stakes effort to get myself on my bike and out on an easy gravel trail. But the mental health benefit was enormous.
I felt an incredible shift in my mood and my overall outlook on life.
Don’t believe me? Check it out that huge grin on my face.
What is your go-to activity when you catch yourself in a doom scroll?
I’d love to hear about it - leave a quick comment below or shoot me a message.
Thanks so much for being here. I hope you have a peaceful day.