Are you anxiety-free even with all of your technology?
It is possible, and you can be anxiety-free and still work efficiently.
Here is how.
Knowing what you want to accomplish is a starting point.
Defining the purpose of a device or technology is the second level of awareness.
The third we will discuss toward the end. The end goal in mind is to take back your time.
After all, isn’t the point of technology for us to do more while spending less time. Now artificial intelligence is mainstream, and the results are becoming faster. So where is all the time going?
People will not stop using technology anytime soon, so how do we navigate an addiction process marinating caused by electronics?
I joke with our fifteen-year-old about having a girlfriend he does not have because he cannot do much without his phone in his hand, literally.
Most people do this when they are not aware. The phone is not a child needing care. In the absence of activity and interest, the path of least resistance will rule.
Mind vs Technology and Anxiety
The mind is a terrible thing to waste; we have all heard it, and yet it is donated to something distracting us from our environment only feet away.
Forgetting to self-care because of the entertainment or education abilities of the computer convenience in hand is the start of a decline. Unfortunately, this decline is the biggest problem I see in the youth today. The youth are riddled with anxiety.
Apps regulate self-care when to drink, exercise, and even sleep quality now. So finally, the industry met a need.
The industry created the problem and then painted over the issue with more of the same problem. So there is a pattern here that also exists in other areas of healthcare. And things are not yet improving.
Electronic anxiety emerges from the desire to fit in online and the hormone uptake from the feedback loop. We are our habits and created from a need to connect in a seemingly more effortless way; electronic use as a habit is here to stay.
Have you heard about the yawning effect? One person yawns, and then those around who are sympathetic will follow by yawning as well. When one person picks up their phone, you see others do it as well, as if the new yawn is a cell phone action.
The pressure to measure up is making humans anxious.
We hunched over our cell phones, demonstrating a red light posture with a closed body and shoulders rounded forward, creating less blood circulation to the brain.
We look more like apes, except we are not swinging from trees, gaining any strength, and losing physical function. Instead, the body becomes tight, and a lack of stretching causes these body areas to calcify and become stiff.
All for the quick connection that leaves our insides empty with no money deposited in the internal bank. A new social media “like” or friend request that in a flash spikes excitement but does not satisfy what we desire deep down inside.
People have to check their phones. As if sending or receiving a text makes us feel better. The eyes, which are the window to the soul, are being damaged in the process. It is not as if there is a reflection of human life from the screen.
Overuse
Instead, the overuse of phones and electronics is causing anxiety. Seeing the soul of another is replaced with blue light. Blue light makes it harder to fall asleep at night.
The screen can be a black hole that is not restoring life, resulting in a lack of sleep affecting your mental condition and causing anxiety. It has become a severe problem.
A digital Vegas, internet consumption, and entertainment replace even the night. It is a theme that fractures the human connection. From this theme, anxiety is born.
The problem starts to deepen when the idea of internet recognition replaces essential human contact from family and friends. In every household where parents do not regulate or provide alternatives for children, the addiction sets in for kids. But wait, parents have to work to pay for these devices and use them, so what is the compromise?
The public school’s program has blocks of time dedicated to learning certain subjects. The house and time for kids away from electronics is the same solution for offering them alternative time use.
They will complain, they will go to sleep earlier, and they will struggle at first. However, the alternative is far worse.
A client of mine is growing an additional spinal process in the back of his skull. Not by choice, by overuse of electronics, and poor posture. He is twenty-one years old.
I had heard of this problem and thought it strange. Then I felt and saw it and thought, oh my gosh, this is real.
Evolution is the body’s response to the needs of the environmental stresses to be solved. For example, standing erect, the spine is designed to stack on top of itself and support body weight. However, when the body is leaning forward, the spine wants to correct and gain support. So, over time, a new spinal process is grown, like a bone spur, to fix the issues.
The long-term problem with this growth is any hard surface the back of the skull lays on will hurt. Good thing we have soft beds, ha ha ha.
People are getting too soft in general; the immune system is getting weaker with the focus away from health and anxiety in its place.
How do fast-evolving citizens of the world navigate electronic anxiety?
Our ancestors knew well that we desire connection. The old ways are the grounding of earth, connection by fire, and intimately knowing by the eyes.
Connection
A picture tells a thousand words. The eyes speak volumes that words can never say. Cataract surgery is more prevalent in this generation than in the past, and the screens play a severe role.
We are giving up face-to-face human connection for going blind.
Individuals embrace the thought that one person could be an island on the internet, connected to others only by a screen thought to be a stage. Well, okay, it is a stage. However, which fans are going to bring you food when you are sick?
Getting caught in a haze as they chase the desire for connection in the endless electronic maze of so many online games. The internet has become a tool to save time or do more, yes. More of what is the question?
The adult version of the dog ate my homework is “I am too busy.” So instead of being busy, be present. Create a life of connecting to others, taking positive action, and increasing your health, an essential commodity.
From anxious to present.
The third solution, is being present. When you walk in the room, if your loved ones have not acknowledged you in some way within a minute or so, the electronic demons have won them away.
If you cannot survey a room, find a place to settle, or connect without first bringing electronics with you or picking one up, you lose the connection from your own company. You are finding a distraction to seek satisfaction. And it will serve for a while, no doubt—however, an empty feeling over time will take hold.
The greatest gift given to another is time and uninterrupted looking into their eyes. The soul opens again and again as it is recognized.
Technology is great. Use technology for what it can do yet not at the expense of losing you.
When you take the time to get off the electronics and connect with people, watch your anxiety decrease. Set a limit or time a day to get what needs accomplishing online. Leave the rest to you and nature.
Anxiety is of the future, and your time is now.
If you have to be on a screen for work every day, take a five-minute break every thirty minutes and stretch, walk around, drink some water and say hello to someone. Have a routine to balance and keep yourself healthy by taking a break.
Take your time; after all, it is yours. The sweet nectar of life is in the moments shared. So allow yourself time to stop and reconnect. The future is now. There will always be more to do.
When your healthy, you just do it. Do, being the operative word, replacing watch or type.
Now breathe.