At the beginning of quarantine, I completely got on board with the popular notion of, “Okay no problem, we will just do it over Zoom.”
We Zoomed through birthdays, Passover seders, and funerals. My partner and I shared the news about getting engaged on a Zoom call. Heck, I was even featured in a New York Times article about how screens won.
I quickly offered virtual forest baths and then a whole 8-week course of Zoom (it was really great btw and more on that soon). And then August hit and I was burned out like never before.
I told myself I would take off the month and then be ready to engage with screen life again. But now it's late September (okay how did that happen so fast?) and my eyes still glaze over every time I try to read an article on the computer.
I was even suckered into buying blue light glasses (which looks really cute on Zoom calls but jury's out if they actually help my eyes). I can't tell you how many FREE summits I've signed up for and then ghosted on because I couldn't bring myself to sit in front of my computer.
When I found myself leading a virtual forest bath indoors because the air quality was too bad from wildfires, I bemused at how far I have strayed from leading groups of people outside. And then I watched the Social Dilemma and immediately deleted Instagram from my phone.
Screens aren’t going anywhere for as long as coronavirus is a thing, so there’s no getting rid of screen life. But we can be proactive and make sure we’re the ones in charge (not the screens). Here’s how:
1. Remember to breathe
Some 80% of us have “screen apnea” — which means we don’t take full breaths when we are looking at screens. When we don’t breathe fully, it can trigger a fight or flight reaction which, if prolonged, has negative effects on our health. And none of us need that right now.
So take full belly breaths as you answer your emails and sit on Zoom. Also, try shaking your body and making any animal noises. We need to keep coming back into our bodies because screen time is such an out of the body experience.
2. Take a social media cleanse
Take a moment to examine your relationship to certain social media apps. When do you use them? How do you use them? How do they make you feel? What do you give and what do you get from these apps? These apps are not benign — they are literally designed to be highly addictive — so have compassion with yourself. If you need this for work or like some aspects of it, you can get back on after a week or a month. I recommend stopping cold turkey without doing the whole “goodbye, I’m taking a break, etc.” But do what feels best for you.
3. Create your own workout/exercise/stretch/meditation routine
Don’t get me wrong, it’s so great that there are so many apps and websites for online workouts and such. Tools like Headspace and Calm can be a life saver. I personally love to do yoga, pilates, and HIIT classes with Glo. But I do notice that I don’t feel totally in my body because a lot of attention is still being connected with the screen. So I try to do a few workouts a week where it’s just mean tuning into my body and going with my own flow without any screens (okay maaaybe I do still use Spotify for some groovy tunes).
4. Make something!
Do you notice that a lot of what you’re doing with screen time is consuming content? Balance it out by creating something with your own hands. Pick up a pen and draw. Sing a new song. Create an altar in Nature. Cook a healthy treat for your family. Learn to knit or weave or anything else you’ve been wanting to do. Bonus points if it uses materials from Nature and is zero-waste.
Did you know that the same places that offer forest bathing in Japan also offer soba noodle making and other crafts to restore attention? We need to come back to a simple, handcrafted way of life because it’s better for the Planet and better for us, too.
5. Go outside.
This may seem like a no brainer, but especially as it starts to get cold outside, we need to remember to spend at least 20 minutes outside every day. Leave your phone at home or put it on airplane mode. Practice tuning into your senses. Breathe. Greet the four directions. Give offerings. Feel the physical world around you that is not the virtual realm.
