5 Ways to Reclaim Your Life Hours Through Digital Wellness

& Reprogram Your Relationship to Technology

10 months backpacking and living in remote areas of Asia, Africa and Europe taught me a beautiful lesson about my mind: the less access to wifi I seemed to have, the more long term thinking I tapped into.

Within a couple months many of my former day to day concerns had transformed into relational considerations for the world around me. Within 6 months I was moving from 5 year plans to considering what another 500 years of history would look like.

Now, I’ve lived back in “normal” Western, wifi-heavy society for years now. Drained photo batteries piss me off. Billing dates leave me checking my bank account daily in times of stress. And I frequently trade off long term thinking for second guessing what to text a loved one back. But the perspective I gained from travel and wifi-free experiences of life, is not lost on me.

An “information age” without boundaries easily becomes an age of anxiety, a time hyper fixated on the now, empty of the perspective and wisdom that comes from waiting, wondering, and strategy.

As a trained-UX designer turned holistic health and relationship coach, I desire to foster a new standard of wellness inspired and informed by boundaries with technology. To set the boundaries however, we need a vision for what a well relationship with technology could look like.

Reprogramming our relationship with technology means putting our mind at the center and having technology work for us, in support of our deepest desires and truths.

Here are 5 suggestions for how you could begin to live into this vision of digital wellness today:

1. Remember: Your body is your greatest technology — Honor it. If you’re unsure what I mean by that go google images of your bodily systems, your eye, how your muscles work, the nervous system, atoms and any thing else you’ve never thought about that’s working every single second without your appreciation or regard to keep your being alive. The next time you get excited over iPhone X, go look in the mirror and remember your being is a more complex creation than the the most sophisticated technology we’ve developed today.
2. Your technology is either an extension of your mind, or your mind is an extension of your technology — Prioritize your mind. Our minds and technology can often feel inter-mixed. Is that in my head or in my notes? I feel this — I should express it now. I want this — I should sign onto x, y, z platform now. I have to do this — I must be on the platform to get it down. But in moments of action — it is us, not our technology that will make the choice. We not our devices our working via a a pumping heart and expanding and contracting lungs lungs. As we continue to learn about the needs of the mind as much as we learn about the needs of the body, we will be better to honor our limits, until then practice prioritizing mental health over technology use.
3. Technology has a charge —Evaluate the distinct capabilities of different technologies. “Going on your phone less” is like telling someone to recreationally use heroin or carefully use a gun. The impact of the media platform, digital process or device varies based on what it was designed to do. Learn about the purposes of different devices, apps, and programs and choose thoughtfulness around the moments you are picking up the technology at all, rather than what to do once it’s in your grasp. And be especially gracious to yourself during seasons of emotional vulnerability.
4. Technology is not neutral — Be the director of your time and energy by setting an intention when choosing technology. Corporations profit from technology products and services through your attention. Your “eye ball hours” are their revenue. (More on that from Douglas Rushkoff on the Team Human podcast.) Choosing to see value in technology-free moments and experiences and in turn, setting an intention and boundary around technology use while allow your life, rather than a company, to profit. Consider asking: What is it that I want to see, discover, or engage in here? What is the value of doing this without and with technology present?
5. A renewed relationship to technology can fuel your long term goals, and reclaim life hours — Set boundaries seriously and playfully. Like a calculator and math, the former doesn’t make the latter obsolete, but rather expands its capacity. Imagine doing all the above four habits: honoring your body, prioritizing your mind, evaluating the distinctness of various technologies, and setting intentions around your time… Now imagine if your relationship to technology was not just something to manage but to accelerate your process of self-development. What would it look like to put technology to work to help you get what you deeply desire in life? Creating boundaries with different technologies based on your specific goals, dreams and desires is what will truly help you profit back time, and reclaim your life hours. This will erase one size fits all approaches like “just getting off social media” or “no phones in the morning” to channeling technology with its expertise in service to your body and mind and its expertise.

Interested in working on this practically? Remember what you truly desire, reclaim your life hours and join the joyful resistance in a Love & Relationship and/or Digital Wellness Coaching Session.