I must admit that my cell phone has become an essential part of my life. I use it to stay in touch with important people, make payments, shop, and even work. In short, it's a tool that really makes my life a little easier and that I use a lot. It's just that it's hard not to go overboard with certain things.
I told you some time ago in one of my posts that I stopped spending so much time watching short videos because, honestly, they're too addictive for me and they were stealing a lot of my time. Of course, this had its benefits, but even without short videos, the phone can be very addictive. It causes something in you that makes you turn on the screen every five seconds, even though you already know exactly what's on your phone, even if it's just to turn it on, check the time, and that's it.
That happened to me. I always had my phone handy, and if there was an uncomfortable situation, I would take it out, turn it on, and start doing something on it. I gave it a lot of power over my stability, and this led me to the point where the first thing I did in the morning when I woke up was to look for my phone to check it, even before getting up to go to the bathroom or brush my teeth. Although I had already made a habit of avoiding videos, I still found myself doing anything on my phone as soon as I opened my eyes.
At first glance, this doesn't seem like a big deal, because it's something that most people have normalized, but I'm going to tell you what I noticed about myself so you can understand me a little better. I am a very sensitive and anxious person, so it is very easy for me to be affected by things. Therefore, if the first thing I did in the morning was to check the tasks I had been assigned, the news, which is always negative, or simply anything that would steal my attention as soon as I woke up, I was overloading myself even before I really started to exist.
What I noticed about myself is that even though I had woken up feeling rested, within a few minutes of checking my phone while brushing my teeth and doing all the other things (many of them necessary, such as payments and scheduling appointments and so on), I was exhausted, so it felt like I hadn't slept at all and was just starting the day. Of course, this made my day more complicated, and I couldn't wait to go to sleep instead of focusing on my activities.
I'm talking about the physical and mental damage I experienced, but if we dig a little deeper, honestly, the first thing we see in our day is an electronic device, which to me is super sad, so I just started to reflect on whether I really wanted to start my day like that, and the truth is, no. Having a simple life is also about loving what is real, what is good for your mind, and obviously what eliminates burdens from your life. So now, every morning, I consciously put my phone as far away as I can to charge.
This forces me to do other things before looking at my phone, like getting ready and putting all my concentration into it, and also being able to do those little things that totally change your mood, like making your bed, getting yourself ready, and doing it with your full attention, without looking at the screen at the same time. And I can say that this new habit has worked for me, because now I wake up with a little more energy, and I don't get as mentally exhausted early on.
Still, I feel like these habits are fragile, because literally the world is made for us not to have them. Or you could say that everything is against us maintaining them, which is why I focus a lot on the benefits I get from keeping them up. Maybe we don't give it as much importance as we should, but the way we start the day is everything, and even though I'm always tempted to reach for my phone to see what happened, if someone wrote to me, or whatever, the truth is that deep down I want to have a good day, I want to have energy and better control over how I'm going to feel.
And you may say that I'm exaggerating or that others don't do badly by looking at their phones when they wake up, but getting rid of this bad habit is one of the best things that has happened to my mind. after all, I don't need my phone to exist and I can do without it for a good while before giving it power over me. My circumstances may change and I may live in a time when I need to be glued to my phone 24/7 to communicate with someone or something, but now that I can, I prefer to have the calm it gives me, to start my daily routine without a screen in between that prevents me from being mindful.
-Content entirely of my authorship and inspiration.
-Original text in Spanish, translated at DeepL.
-Personal photographs, taken with my Huawei p30 Lite Phone.
-Banners designed in Canva Pro.
So relatable, I love how you chose mindfulness over screens. 🌿📵
This image belongs to millycf1976 and was manipulated using Canva.