28/11/22
5 Ways To Reduce Your Digital Distractions
Let’s face it, we all spend too much time on our phones. They beg for attention with notifications and pop-ups. All it takes is for your hand to drift towards your phone, and then minutes (or even hours!) later. you find that you’ve been doom scrolling through Tik Tok or, Instagram.
Research shows that excessive mobile phone use can have negative effects on our mental health. It can affect your sleeping habits, your social life, and lower your self-esteem. It’s time we all set boundaries!
Our phones are constantly taking us away from the real world. It means we often miss out on precious moments of life in favour of looking at a screen. So, how can you use your phone less and spend more time experiencing the little things?
Structured screen time
A bit of screen time now and then isn’t a bad thing. In fact, our phones and tablets are great for keeping in touch with friends and family, using guided meditation apps, doing your banking, reading the news, etc. By setting times where you allow yourself screen time can regulate your usage. This will make the time you do spend on your phones more meaningful, and stop you giving in to instant gratification.
Do not disturb
If you’re not taking full advantage of the do not disturb setting on your phone, you definitely should be! It’s the perfect way to keep your phone quiet while you spend time on your wellbeing. For example, if you’re meditating but find your phone’s buzzing takes you out of the moment, you can set do not disturb mode up so you can have complete focus. Your phone may even be able to have scheduled do not disturb times if you want to build a structure. Try it out to help keep your focus on you.
The five more rule
Whenever you find yourself losing focus, try using the rule of five. Five more minutes, five more pages, five more exercises. This can help give you a focus and a target to stay on task. You may even find you end up doing more than that! Giving yourself small, simple tasks is much easier and less daunting than a big, long task!
Meditate
Meditation is a great tool to help keep you focused. It’s not always external factors that distract us, it can also be the mind trying to distract itself. Meditation can help you allow those thoughts to pass like a cloud, allowing you to stay on track with what you’re doing. Practice meditation everyday to help make the act of allowing thoughts to pass easier. As a bonus, this is a great tool to help with mental health.
Put on some music
If you find your mind keeps wandering to your phone, certain sounds and music can help keep you focused! There’s a reason we play music when we practice yoga on retreat. Classical and lo-fi music, or sounds from nature, are great soothing background noises that allow your brain to focus, or keep you calm, and more importantly, less likely to pick up your phone.
Our retreats are the perfect way to detox from everything digital and reconnect with yourself and your surroundings. Take a look at our 2023 yoga retreat calendar.
