How To Forget Your Phone and Be Happy About It
I was outside doing some yard work a few days ago and needed more supplies including gasoline for the lawnmower. I grabbed my keys, poked my head inside the house, and announced my brief departure to the store. I did my necessary shopping and quickly returned home. It was a beautiful day outside. The radio was turned up, the windows down, the sun was out, and the warm breeze against my face screamed summer was on its way.
I was lost in the beauty of the day and in the moment. So lost, in fact, that I never realized I forgot something most of us deem critical. I returned home to my wife waving my phone at me on the driveway. Apparently, I forgot it. I hadn’t noticed. She was visibly upset and, in some ways, understandably. Our modern world has become so accustomed to on-demand contact with anyone we choose that forgetting our phone is a severe transgression.
But I reminded her that we are both old enough to remember our younger days when we called home using a payphone and a quarter or borrowed a stranger’s phone in an emergency. Simply put, we were just okay with being out of touch.
What have our devices done to us?
We have forgotten life before instant connection, unlimited information, and friendships with a filter. Yet, despite the perpetual need to post, scroll, text, and search, multiple studies have reported that people generally feel less happy the more time they spend staring at a screen.
Just in case you need some proof:
The Office For National Statistics reported that Children who spent more than three hours using social networking websites on a school day were twice as likely to report greater difficulties in managing their mental health.
Another study conducted by ExpressVPN found that 86% of teens said social media directly impacts their happiness.
Even if difficult, most people express an improvement in mood and happiness when disconnected from their devices for an extended period. But I don’t think it's a big surprise to most people that our devices are harming our mental health. The problem is that we really don’t remember how to live without them.
This month is Mental health Awareness Month, so it seemed like a great time to help ourselves remember. And for those of you born into the modern digital age, it's time you get introduced to a simpler and healthier pace of life.
So here is how you can forget your phone and be happy about it. This isn’t ten steps or five things you need to do. This is one thing. It’s simple, and it’s easy. But it will also set you on a path leading to a healthier mind.
Click Here to Learn More About the Effects of Social Media on Teens
Find a different way to relax.
You wake up in the morning, grab a cup of coffee, find your favorite spot to sit, and as you settle in, you reach for your phone. You’re out shopping, standing in what appears to be a never-ending line—you’re bored, so you reach for your phone. It’s a beautiful day outside, so you decide to head out and read a book in the sunshine. Just a few pages in, your phone buzzes in your pocket, and you pause reading to just check the notification. But before you even realize what happened, you’re lost in the endless sea of scrolling.
Do any of these scenarios sound like you? If I pay attention, I am often surprised and a little terrified by how much time I waste on my phone under the ruse of relaxing. Pay attention for just a few days and I would bet you would feel the same way. The bottom line is that trying to relax while aimlessly scrolling is not relaxing. It’s actually inhibiting your ability to relax—because being able to relax means enjoying the moment and your surroundings, not getting lost in a screen. It would be like trying to relax in a room filled with thirty screaming preschool children.
So when it’s time to sit down with that perfect cup of coffee, hide your phone. When you're headed into a store for some therapeutic “me time” shopping, forget your phone in the car. Or get lost in a book instead of social media by turning off notifications and stuffing your phone in a couch cushion.
I think we can all agree that finding a real means of relaxing will pay huge dividends. So do your best to forget your phone.
