How to Do a Phone Detox
Phone addiction is becoming more and more serious and is not something to be taken lightly. Phone addiction is very real and can make you anxious or cause you to lose focus on things that are so much more important than that Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp update that you checked five seconds ago. Your phone addiction can harm your mental health, personal health, and social relationships, even potentially causing you to fall prey to depression or anxiety.
If you are reading this article, you may have already experienced some anxiety or bad days due to your phone addiction. Do not fear; here are some tips to do a quick, easy phone detox to help curb your phone addiction.
- Phone Free Mornings
Resist the urge to check your phone the second you wake up. Get an actual alarm clock to wake you up in the mornings so you have no excuse to touch your phone at all. If you still find it hard to resist the urge to use your phone the first thing in the morning then there are three things that you can do.
- Take a few moments after you wake up for some conscious breathing or meditation. Experience the sensations of your body and mind waking up instead of the urge to see what you may have missed.
- Immediately start your routine. Get out of bed and keep the momentum going—get dressed, brush your teeth, make breakfast. Starting your day off checking your phone will inevitably set you back from the get-go. Instead, get up, get going, and see what you can accomplish before you ever pick up that phone.
- Do not keep your phone at your bedside. Keep it in a closet or drawer that is not within your hand’s reach when you are in your bed.
- No phones with family
Make a rule that whenever you are with your family, the phones stay away. So if you go out with your family to dinner, to the mall, or another special activity, do not take your phone with you. Keep use limited during vacations and road trips. Focus on spending quality, uninterrupted time with your family. Plan activities like games or movies that keep everyone occupied and avoiding the “boredom slide” that leads to phone overuse.
- Download apps
There are phone detox apps like “Cheeky” or “Forrest” designed to help wean you off that phone with a specific challenge. “Forrest” lets you set a timer for up to 110 minutes during which you select a little tree. The tree starts to grow from a little seed and in order to successfully grow your tree, you have to leave your phone alone. If you leave that app then your tree dies.
- No more notifications
You might be doing well with your phone detox when a notification pops up and you are quickly sucked back in to aimlessly wasting time or checking your phone. Put your phone in airplane mode and turn off or disable pop up notifications for all your apps. Instead, set deliberate times for checking any messages. You control your phone; do not let it control you.
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Yours in health and wellness,
Trish Tucker May