The Modern Hiatus
Fresh from another week-long digital break, this post is coming to you with a refined sense of clarity and purpose.
However you found this, I’m grateful that you’ve made your way here. I hope you find this read insightful and even more so, I hope it drives you to reclaim your time and re-write the narrative of your life.
If a digital pause is something you’ve been seeking, I think you’ll find this post a gentle nudge in the right direction.
In many ways, our modern world has never been so connected. And yet, we’re more disconnected than ever before.
It’s a wild paradox of sorts. One that we’re innately aware of but still disillusioned by.
How we’ve become so accustomed to being ‘switched on’ all the time that we have to schedule time to ‘switch off’ is a baffling thought. It’s a seemingly harmless saying we all throw around but this in itself is so unnatural in that it goes against our very own biological design. We are not machines that are constantly ‘on’ and we’re definitely not meant to be ‘plugged in’ all the time. We are, however, living in a modern world that is steering that narrative and we need to change course — it’s time to remember how to live.
The more you detach from technology, the internet, any form of digital media,
the more you’ll notice how much it distracts from actually experiencing a fulfilled life.
When you intentionally, and consistently, choose to live with authority over your time,
you’ll find untapped creative potential and space to think your own thoughts.
A Monthly Tradition
A practice I adopted at the start of this year was to take the last week of the month offline to set up the next month intentionally. One week free from any form of online presence to create mental space and clarity. A blank canvas if you will.
Initially I thought it would be nice to simply focus my attention more sharply. Quickly turning into something more meaningful, it’s now become a monthly tradition of mine that I continue to look forward to as each new month rolls around.
One week is all it takes.
Seven consecutive days logged out of social media and any other platform that robs your time and grips your attention with a barrage of cleverly crafted dings and haptics.
One week to log off and live.
There are many ways you too can go about this. You can sign out of your social accounts, disable notifications, move your apps to a new screen on your phone so they aren’t easily visible, swap to a cellphone, switch your phone off or simply avoid digital media entirely.
There are no rules as to how you do it.
If a week is too long, shorten it. If it’s not enough? Stay switched off for as long as your heart desires.
Maybe you’re reading this mid-month and want to try it right now — go ahead, don’t wait. Make it work for you, however that may be.
I guarantee that any form of digital space will have you feeling refreshed and mentally clearer.
Not only is this an opportunity to clear the mind, it’s time gained.
A digital hiatus opens up a window of time for
you to dedicate to living and experiencing what is real, here and now.
A week-long commitment like this, or any period of time for that matter, creates invaluable space. Think of it as a spring clean for the mind, clearing out useless mental clutter and paving the way for creative, intentional thinking to take the stage.
Cue more ideas, inspiration and learnings.
The extra time and life-force a digital pause opens up encourages you to think expansively and pursue creative endeavours that, more often than not, slip by in the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives. Projects, skill acquisition and hobbies come back into focus, distraction free and often with an unparalleled sense of motivation and discipline.
To make the good news better, working on creative pursuits like this helps to retrain the brain by restoring and rebalancing burnt-out reward systems, while neural pathways are strengthened and new connections are formed.
The allure of social media is something we are all facing to some degree. It’s precisely designed to keep us hooked and coming back for more, only to leave us feeling more depleted and less connected than ever. In conversation with close friends and family this unrelenting lure of digital media seems to be a common experience for many.
Thankfully, there is no shortage of ways that you can help to minimise your screen time, aka time separated from the real world.
It very simply involves going back to the way things used to be. Where life was lived. Not captured in photos or messages or status updates.
Digital Boundaries
First things first, set yourself some digital boundaries to keep your mornings and evenings tech-free. There’s no surprises here, we’ve heard it time and time again. It is vital to refrain from immediately checking our devices first thing in the morning or right before sleeping, not only does it spike our cortisol levels but it interferes with our natural circadian rhythm and allows external factors to influence pivotal moments.
These factors greatly sway the way we feel over the course of the day. From emotional dis-regulation and drained energy to tendencies to compare and criticise, checking our phones at such times inevitably leads downhill.
A minimum of 1 hour tech-free morning and night is a simple way to ensure you’re carving out time to prioritise yourself by optimising your time. This is where your morning routine can set the tone for the day and your evening wind-down can wrap it up nicely. Social media updates, emails and notifications can wait — the quality of your day is paramount.
This extends to every activity within your daily life. It is irrational to expect the body and mind to respond well when simple tasks are half-heartedly done whilst distracted by streaming music, podcasts, videos, advertisements and absent-minded scrolling. There is no need to be consumed by content that hijacks your emotions and thought patterns whilst cooking, eating, brushing your teeth, exercising or spending time with loved ones. These moments are meant to be intentional and you owe it to yourself to prioritise that.
It is simply too much information for the mind to process all at once.
For those struggling with this, something to keep in mind is the fact that our days create our weeks, which turn into our months that form our years and ultimately our lives. It is this compounding effect which we tend to forget in the moment.
Untethered Living
Social connectivity has become so normalised and ingrained into our lifestyles that many don’t even realise how out of touch they are and our phones have become so second nature that we often don’t find ourselves anywhere without them let alone not within arms reach.
This is distracting from the real world around us. One of beauty and wonder and days where the time actually doesn’t just disappear, it stretches out long before us.
Your morning walk, shopping run, coffee catchup or Pilates class will still happen whether or not your phone is with you. Stop treating it like an extra limb and start to live again without it, I promise you’ll notice the sense of freedom you now have. Since we’ve become so accustomed to ‘relying’ on our phones at all times, in all places, this might feel foreign in the beginning. However, you’ll quickly find yourself craving the space and clarity that entails when you detach.
Intentionally setting aside time to exist without checking our phones or mindlessly consuming content is essential. Untether yourself from the clutches of the internet and see how differently you feel.
Remember that sense of ease and simplicity from your childhood years? It still exists, you just need to put your phone down.
The bulk of our lives should be spent internet-free.
You’re missing out on a genuinely worthwhile life by wasting time online.
Methods to Disconnect
Do not disturb, quiet mode and silenced notifications are all well and good until the pull of our devices gets too strong. Here are some methods that really work to rewire our behaviours when it comes to resisting the urge to continually check in.
Set in-app time limits for any platforms that consume excessive amounts of time.
Change your device screens to a greyscale display.
Removing colour allows for an enhanced appreciation for the natural spectrum that exists in real life. You’ll notice the visible light in nature is always perfectly balanced, this is no mistake.Add the screen time widget to the home page on your phone.
Seeing the time you’ve already spent online glaring back at you is a sure way to keep yourself accountable.Turn off notifications for social media platforms and move the apps to a different location on your phone. Remember; out of sight, out of mind. With each notification comes a temporary dopamine boost. Without realising this, we can find ourselves chasing the motivational element of dopamine through social media but it is vital to know that this ultimately leads to a depleted state of being.
Activate a shortcut to block certain apps on opening. Oftentimes opening up certain apps is just a habitual action and not something we actually intend to do — this is where a shortcut comes in incredibly valuable. Setting up a shortcut using an app like ‘one sec’ acts like an interception that forces us to pause, take a breath and mindfully consider whether we genuinely want to access social media.
Our phones are designed to keep us on the hook — clever haptics, sounds, and visual elements paired with enticing notifications and the instant gratification of having access to a world of information at our fingertips makes for an irresistible vice.
If you’re finding your screen time at an all time high, don’t beat yourself up. Be gentle on yourself as you take steps to reclaim your time.
Resisting technology that has been designed to play on your brain’s dopamine receptors and reward system is no easy task. Unless you have unmatched willpower and determination you might need to give yourself some extra grace and patience as you find what works for you.
Things to keep in mind to help you switch off
Time Freedom
Mindless scrolling and time wasted on unnecessary content consumes our time and energy. Thankfully when we reclaim this, we find that there is so much more space available for our lives to fill. Space for what matters. Hobbies, leisurely activities, friends and family come back into focus. Talents, interests and passions re-emerge with originality. Life existed, and rather peacefully, before smartphones and laptops and social media. We had time freedom. The good news is that this still exists. By switching off we can go back to the way life used to feel before technology became ever present.
Mental Clarity & Creativity
An overstimulated, over-consumed mind has no space for creativity. In fact, it becomes drowned out amongst the noise.
By distancing ourselves and creating space we allow creativity and inspiration to spark. Motivation returns and the feeling of generating our own ideas again becomes instinctual. Tune out of the digital world and watch as your mind welcomes the sense of clarity and spaciousness it has access to. If you’re deep in the trenches of social media, I encourage you to ask yourself this “what am I searching for, and will hours lost in scrolling get me any closer to it?”. I’m certain you’ll find your answer.
Balanced Nervous System & Overall Health
Our bodies are nearly constantly at the mercy of our devices, from strained eyes and poor posture to dis-regulated nervous systems and disrupted circadian rhythms — they are desperate for rest. We were not designed to be online at all times, constantly stimulated and readily accessible to respond to messages, emails and notifications while our emotional states are taken advantage of by algorithms and personalised content. Distancing ourselves from all of this creates spaciousness, a place for peace and stillness to settle. The very state of being we inherently long for.
I hope you’ve found insight and value here that nudges you
to reclaim your time and return to living authentically.
May this post inspire you to seek balance between the digital world and what is real, here and now.
Log off and live.
With love,
Brooke.