Do less, but do it deeply

I'm grateful for being born when I was. I'm young enough that I've been able to take advantage of the benefits of technology for my entire adult life and old enough to remember a time before everyone had computers, much less smartphones. I got to experience my teen years practically free of the digital online world. My brother and I disappeared into video games, but we never sat in the same room, numb to each other's existence, while staring distantly into our phones.

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I was 25 when the first iPhone was released. By then, I'd already been meditating for nearly a decade and studying Eastern wisdom traditions for just as long. As the not-so-gentle swell of digital life began to flood our lives, I spent a good amount of time watching how my mind, and the minds of others, changed in response to our new digital reality. Aside from the obvious, one of the most interesting things I noticed in the first few years of the digital renaissance is how stressed and scattered people became.

Before smartphones and streaming services, we could sit for hours and read, play an instrument, or talk to each other without needing to redirect our attention every thirty seconds. We could sink into an activity, a passion, or simply nothing for an entire evening. But now, that almost feels like a distant dream of the past.

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Moving from one app to another, tapping notifications, checking widgets, and scrolling as a form of mental anesthesia have rewired our nervous systems to crave those small blasts of input and live in a constant state of tension and desire for what's next. And, of course, that forces us to live ten seconds in the present and miss the richness of the full spectrum that our lives have to offer.

Since our digital habits have rewired our minds, they naturally bleed into our physical lives. It's harder for us all to focus on something in the analog world, be present, and feel life in our bodies rather than our minds. We've all been tricked into doing too much and have forgotten how to live deeply.

How to stay grounded by using technology more mindfully

By being mindful to look at the present moment, snap out of the trance of your patterns, and take stock of what you're actually doing. 

1. Check in with yourself

A way to do this is to build little check-ins for yourself throughout the day. Zoom out to notice what you're doing at the moment. Ask yourself if you're spending your time well or have been pulled into mindless digital habits.

For example, do you always scroll on your phone in the morning while eating breakfast? When you notice this happening, watch what you're doing and ask yourself whether it is contributing to your well-being. Clicking one article or social profile to the next might cause more stress and mental tension rather than provide useful information or entertainment.

2. Know went to take a break

After you notice the habit of behavior, try putting your phone away and eating your breakfast with your full attention on the flavors of your food and mental experience while intentionally deepening your breaths.

3. Allow for creativity

You might also find yourself at home in the evening, opening and closing streaming service after streaming service, looking for something to watch but never really engaging with anything. When you notice yourself doing this, zoom out, pause, and ask yourself what you might do instead to help you connect to the present, unclench, and get in touch with yourself.

In this situation, you may decide to turn the streaming service off and do some light yoga, meditate, or read something that gets your creativity flowing.

4. Focus on restorative activities

The point is to pay more attention to what you're doing in the present moment and intervene when digital life patterns are taking over your actual life. Then, give yourself space to do something that feeds, nurtures, and restores you rather than irritates or clouds your mind.

How to fix a dysregulated nervous system

Taking back your attention and building more present and grounded moments into your life will start to rewire your nervous system in a way that will keep you in touch with the present moment more often. Doing so will leave you feeling more peaceful, with greater mental clarity and an ever-decreasing desire to tend to the nudges and noises of the digital world.

When you do this, you don't only start to feel that restful sense of calm in the small moments when you dedicate time to them, you feel that sense in every moment of your life.