Unplugging for Mental Wellness: FOMO & Digital Detox Tips | Episode 99

Unplugging for Mental Wellness: FOMO & Digital Detox Tips | Episode 99

We're about to embark upon a journey that ventures beyond the confines of our screens and devices, straight into a refreshing world of digital detox. We unmask the true essence of unplugging and its significant impact on our well-being. Get ready to soak in personal anecdotes and practical insights on how to balance the overwhelming FOMO with the vital need for downtime.

Next, we delve deeper into the necessity of breaking free from the relentless demands of our hyper-connected lives. We contemplate the importance of granting ourselves the gift of pause, without feeling the need to justify our absence. So, plug into our discussion and let's collectively grant ourselves permission to unplug. Tune in, disconnect and rejuvenate with us.

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Transcript

The Importance of Digital Detox

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes 0:01

Hey everyone , the digital detox . We've heard this term probably a lot over the last several years , especially since the pandemic of detoxing or removing us away from our devices , our screens , whether it's our phones , whether it's our iPads , our tablets , computers , tvs , what have you . It is a term meant for health . The term digital detox is taking ourselves away from a situation for a period of time for the benefit of our health . So what do I mean by that ? I remember , like all of us probably has remembered at one time or another , where we think we're so important that the world can't go on if we don't have our phone , if we don't have our device right in our hand , that we can not only feel it vibrate or see the screen light up when a new notification comes through , and these notifications over the course of the day can be upwards of a few hundred different times . So just think of how many times we may be in the middle of homework or a conversation and we get startled to look down that we have a new notification on Instagram or Snapchat , we have a new email that's come in or our phone is ringing . I have had probably one of the biggest problems with having a reliance on my phone , and this goes all the way back to before my mental health crash several years ago . And once I truly hit rock bottom , I reverted from using an Apple iPhone to a flip phone , so an old school device that didn't make things easier to text or email , but what it did do is it freed my mind a little bit . So I knew that I wasn't going to be able to text very , very long responses or messages , let on emails or looking at my banking app or a social media app , and that was probably a very eye-opening experience for me to do that , to really take a step back from the machines and just operate as a simple human being of the kind of being , a human being that isn't completely reliant 24 seven on a device or screen and go from one screen to the next , and with the pandemic and working from home , we have two or three screens at the house . Then we have our phones and things just really became an easy way to overwork ourselves , overwork our brains , if you ever talk about your sense of the industrial revolution . We've evolved as humanity from a hunter and gather , so a physical human being , where he physically hunt and gather the food , to now everything , many things inside our head , our brain , the mental side of things . And that brings me to the digital detox .

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes 4:17

We all , from time to time , need to charge our phones and that's the device that a lot of us myself included , the top of the list of relying on this device , and usually every night I go ahead and plug in my phone to make sure it's fully charged for the day ahead . And the thought Crossed my mind at some point why don't I recharge my own mind , my own brain , my own body ? That could be Taking a rest , taking a nap for a period of time so our body can heal from ? You know the stresses the undoubtedly rule or lies , from Deadlines to last-minute deadlines where I may have had a deadline for three days from now , but I go to work and now my deadline for this particular project from three days from now is actually by lunchtime and I had to finish this particular project , so you can throw everything else really out the window to work on this work , on this pro Project , to get that done . And then , when that project is done , things don't really slow down . We move from one thing to the next thing . We try to be as efficient as possible , like the machines .

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes 5:44

Talking about the industrial revolution , we as a humanity are trying to grade ourselves , compare ourselves to machines that have little to no downtime . You and I I know , at least for myself , I'm a human being , so I'm not gonna be able to compete with a , with a machine that's able to work in 24 hours a day , seven days a week , with very little downtime . I'm gonna need some downtime . I'm gonna need some downtime to rejuvenate , to rest my mind , my body , my spirit , and so the digital detox is something that we need to . We need to do not just talk about , not just you'll have this negative connotation like , oh , I don't need to do that , like I , I Don't have any problems , this doesn't affect me , it does . I don't care who you are , where you're from .

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes 6:45

Screens affect our brains . The blue light , the more that that blue light from phones and screens has a has an effect on our brain . It stimulates our brain . You'll read Hastings from Netflix has talked about one of his biggest competitors asleep . So right , there is a solid example of how companies are trying to infiltrate our minds , our lives , all day , every day , for the almighty dollar . So at what point are we going to , as individuals , take a step back and Really think about how all this is affecting us and how we may feel that we're able to accomplish Many different things , so we're able to multitask , because we have the phone , we can look at email , then we can look at our banking app , then we can look at social media and we can just hop around and then Feel like we accomplished four or five things , when maybe we we accomplished those things , but at the quality a much lower quality than if we were to focus on one thing at a time .

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes 8:10

So the digital detox just got back from vacation with my family and for me , a good amount of time was able to set my phone aside and try to plug in my mind and my body into the present , to rejuvenate , to rest , to relax , to spend time with family , to not be so caught up in my devices . And I bring that up today because , like I mentioned , I felt that well , if I digital detox or unplug from the devices for a period of time , I'm going to miss out . So the FOMO , the fear of missing out Well , if I'm charging my phone or I'm not exactly with it , I'm going to miss out on some new story . I want to miss out on getting the notification at the exact moment a particular message or a like or a share has taken place . And when I found , at the end of the day and it seems that I'm tend to be reminded , usually at the end of vacations , because that's one of the few times where I see you do it the life continued to go on . Life continued to go on even when I wasn't with my phone 24 , seven and I wasn't zoned in to have to check things and and feel like I again was just being so efficient that I'm getting ahead , that , oh , if I just do this one thing , I look at this one email , I respond to this one person , this one text that I'm going to have one less thing to do in the next day , and that's not the case . And I found out at the end of vacation .

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes 10:03

Again , life continued to go on and , as important as I thought I was that I wasn't that the amount of things that I missed messages , notifications or whatever the miss calls , the things that I felt that , oh my gosh , I'm going to miss out on this opportunity . And maybe we do miss out on an opportunity or two , but at what cost ? So , again , very surprised at how little transpired over the course of vacation that I was able to , at the end of vacation , be able to just reintegrate myself in with , with my , with my device , with my phone , with my screens . And so let that just be a lesson to you , the I , to anybody we care about and our loved ones , that if they don't respond to a message and milliseconds doesn't mean that they're not wanting to respond to your message , doesn't mean that they don't like you anymore , whatever we get in our head . It just means that that individual isn't right next to the phone at that very moment .

Taking a Step Back

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes 11:24

And so that should be another lesson to us to say , well , if another individual or another company you know , I went for an interview and I didn't hear back , and I'm , I'm just on pins and needles , wait , wait and hear back , and should I follow up with a message ?

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes 11:44

Or when should I ? Or what's what's the point , what's what's the protocol ? The best thing to do is , if you're thinking about it , do it , but then also take a step back for yourself and let that be okay . And you shouldn't have to explain to somebody that you were doing something else , that you weren't by your phone at that very instant for those minutes or seconds .

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes 12:13

So let that be okay for us , as our brains continue to be more and more stimulated , second by second , minute by minute , hour by hour , day by day , and as , as the world turns , because everybody is trying to get in our mind to be able to have us view their product , their service , to click on this link by this ticket , attend this event , and it's okay to take a step back . So let's do that , let's take a step back . Let's refresh our minds , our bodies , take a walk outside , take a breath of fresh air , whatever that may be , the calms your mind , calms your body . That doesn't put you and I at this hyper focus where we feel that we , we have to be at a beck and call of every single person , whether we know them or whether we don't , for a concern about particular business , deal that , what we're interested in , and guess what ? Those companies , those individuals , they're going to take their time getting back to you . So why don't we take our time getting back to them ?