In the summer of 2014, I participated in the Ground Camp in northern California, for the first time in the Digital Datux Returning.
The name of my camp was mother Zen. Every morning, I guided the mind -making practice to reduce the wishes of the adult campers, guide them in easy breathing tasks so that they could solve their restless minds.
I also joined the “Play Shop” writing a song. I never wrote a song, but how difficult it could be?
Under the Red Woods umbrella, I was a strange front and center on a strange wood stage, my only song “Digital disturbances are not satisfied.” (Yes, influenced by the classic of stones.)
This night, every night, for our closing celebration, everyone gathered under these great old trees. Unexpectedly, the young mob of the Silicon Valley Texas sealed his feet and brutally rejoiced.
I wandered in front of the musicians, “Can you play some slow fun?” In fact, I didn’t know what that was. Fortunately, they did. Then we all cow together, belt the words:
Digital brings disturbance… no satisfaction
Why life often feels empty
When your digital feed never ends?
Why is the night so long and lonely?
When have you got five thousand “friends”?
Isolated inside children; Family went astray
All sorry disconnected
How to forget to play
Selfies, trolling, swinging, scrolling
Hey my friends, listen what i say
Endless digital disturbances
No one brings real satisfaction.
We are alive, breathing humans
Who want to see
Really attached… heartbroken heart
Face to face… not on screen!
Here in Red Woods, just happy to be
Playing like kids again
Screen -free!
That night, we celebrated all these information being liberated, pinging and echoing digital demands. We were easily present. And it was wonderful.
The greed of digital disturbances
You probably felt that too, okay? – The desire to check your phone, the compulsion to scroll overwhelmingly, this crawling fatigue that comes in front of the screen for many hours. The digital overload is real, and it is quietly entering every corner of our lives.
Here is some good news: If you are already meditating, or interested in mind -making, you have a different benefit in finding freedom from take overload.
Dr. Michael is the author of Rich Media Tribune leader And a pediatrician at Harvard University, who directs the Digital Welfare Lab at the Boston Children’s Hospital. It has spent many years studying the effects of digital media on our welfare (and this is an important assistant in my book, Low -screen more green). Throughout all of its strong research, there are two major recommendations.
The digital overload is real, and it is quietly entering every corner of our lives.
Here is some good news: If you are already meditating, or interested in mind -making, you have a different benefit in finding freedom from take overload.
Be friends with boredom
Dr. Rich has advised that most of our waking hours should not be filled with digital media.
“Bring the boredom back! Perhaps the most difficult challenge to find a healthy alternative to the screens is our cultural hatred of our boredom. Locked in our bottom eyes, we no longer see the world around us, or talk to each other. It is easy to absorb the stimulus of stimulation on our phone.”
On the balance screen with more grantime
“For many of us, our focus on the screens has turned us away from the natural world. Albert Einstein said well: ‘Take a deep look at nature, and you will understand everything better.’ Time in nature is often aware of the many benefits of human health through physicians, and freeing from take overload shows that minor steps to spend more time outside can make a difference. Media useAnd in our Health And goodness. “
When we keep these two macables in mind – more anger, more grantime – it is easy to guide our choices as we take steps to bring more balance and seriousness to the use of our tech.
Digital Detrox, fun: 4 steps to use braining tech
Dr. Rich offers four simple reminders for the moments when digital consumption feels severe or great.
Stay in mind. They use our powerful digital tools for them and close them when they are not the best tools for activity.
Be balanced. Deliberately balance your screen and balance non -screen activities.
Be bored Shake the trend of default on a screen and use the space available in your mind to do something to do something and to do new.
Stay here Consciously keep your devices down so that their close contact with strangers do not weaken our deep and maintaining integration with those we like.
4 practical techniques for freedom from tech overload
1. Recognize the initial warning indicators
Just as we recognize hunger or thirst, we can learn to recognize the symptoms of tech fatigue (or very subtle) symptoms:
- Eyes are feeling dry or stressed?
- Is ringing in a headache?
- A vague feeling of helplessness or irritability?
- When you finally find from your screen, is this strange, malicious feeling?
This is your body’s whisper, “Hey, I need a break.” Listen.
2. 20-20-20 Treat Treatment
Is an easy way to protect your eyes and recover your mind 20-20-20 Rules:
Every 20 minutes, see something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
Your eyes will thank you, and so will your nervous system.
3. The taste of nature treatment
If you don’t snatch anything else from this article, take it: Low screen, more green.
Even if you live in the middle of a stirring city, find ways to step out.
- Drink your morning tea on the balcony.
- Walk in a park at your lunch break.
- Sit down under a tree.
There is something about fresh air, the movements of the leaves, the easy task of seeing the sky. It reset us in a way that can never escape the digital escape.
4. Make your tech -free refuge
Choose a place in your home to be a full screen free. Maybe it’s your bedroom. Maybe it’s a dinner table. This is a comfortable corner where you like to read or meditate.
Protecting this place is like a sacred garden, no shelter from an endless digital noise.
Your invitation for healthy tech habits
This is not about crime. It is not about making technology a devil or commitment to make a life like his grandfather. It’s about finding a balance.
Choose one of these steps and try today. Only one
- Set up timers for 20-20-20 principles.
- It took five minutes to step outside.
- Decide, tonight, the phone is out of the bedroom.
And then, notice. Consider how you feel. Note if you breathe a little easier. Note if you see people around you more clearly.
Consider how you feel. Note if you breathe a little easier. Note if you see people around you more clearly.
If you do, I would love to hear about it. Share your experience with us: What is the hardest part of the plugin for you? Has the little changes helped? Let’s start the conversation.
And keep part for the two, where we will find a way to bring your mind -blowing habits to your workplace. Because if there is one thing I definitely know, these are we Can Find freedom from take overload. And it starts with awareness.
Quote from the author’s permission Low -screen more green: Finding freedom with braining tech projects™ Carriet Crafton, PhD. Reviewed and updated second edition (2025).
