The fact of the matter is that we find ourselves in an increasingly complex, confusing, challenging and chaotic world.
It’s true, a lot of the drudgery and monotonous chores have been replaced by AI and Apps. If you stop for one nanosecond to think about it, the advances are pretty amazing. Take book-keeping, we simply aim the phone camera at a receipt, click and immediately it populates our bank accounts and balances the books.
Turn back the clock 30 years and entries were done mainly by hand, pen on paper, slow, time-consuming and boring. But there is a price. We have lost the buffer of time that our brains need.
We are in constant touch all the time via phones; no excuse for being late, letting anyone down etc but I wonder if people are more reliable because of this? it is too easy to text to change things at short notice and people do.
Our lives are dictated by phones. Businesses push us to use phones more and more. Look around, especially in London, people’s heads are down looking at their phones while they walk, couples in restaurants- each on their own phone, families travelling on the train, mum, dad and two children all looking at screens of some sort. This doesn’t stop when they are at home, it’s never-ending.
The speed of access, results and pressures to respond to the online demands of others puts a never-before mental and emotional stress and pressure on us. This crosses from home to work and work to home and this in turn impacts others. Boundaries are blurred and we are paying the price. Its no coincidence that the increasing reliance on phones is matching the increasing problems of stress and anxiety.
We can’t over-ride our natural reflexes. When any of our five senses is stimulated, we react immediately. Sight and sound are the dominant senses so the lighting up of the screen or buzz, ping, ring and ding of the phone will immediately distract us and demand our attention.
But our brains can’t keep up. They have to perform somersaults and juggling acts simultaneously, they hate it and are objecting.
Best tips to keep your give your brain a rest and keep it happy.
Decide on times to turn off your phone and make sure that others around you do the same. Try it at home on a Sunday and start with just a couple of hours for the entire household. Make a plan to do something recreational together instead, especially going for long walks. Try it once a week on your daily train/tube journey to or from work.
If it leaves you feeling fidgety, restless or bored – how about reading a book (not Kindle) instead? – Why not do something for the community as well – use your local library, borrow instead of buying books to help keep it open for everyone?
Choose to use some of your precious time to reflect on things you like and enjoy, past present or future.
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