Why You Have to Adopt the Practice of Shutting Your Phone Off At Least One Day a Week
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Yesterday I found myself crying. I don’t think it was any one specific thing that put me over the edge. Instead, it was a combination of things. I had a general sense of fear and hopelessness. Maybe I read one too many news stories that frantically screamed the world was ending.
So I cried.
They were those big salty tears that start in the pit of your heart, take a detour through your stomach, and erupt through your eyes and mouth. I stopped fighting it and succumbed. The tears didn’t last long, maybe 30 seconds, and then I felt better.
The next day I resolved not to look at the internet. I shut off my phone. I shut off my computer. I didn’t bother to charge any electronic devices. I was committed to spending a happy day with my kids. I’ve come to realize that these are the moments on which my life depends.
You need to detox
I try to give myself one day a week away from screens. I have to remind myself that the world will go on if I don’t check my stats and if I don’t check my emails. There’s nothing so urgent that I have to sit all day with my face bathed in toxic light and my cramped fingers hanging in expectation over the keyboard.
Answering the messages can wait.
Reading the latest unfounded conspiracy theory of the mainstream media can wait.
I need a break.
The sad part is that I’m on vacation right now. I’m in Peru with my family. When you go to another country, it takes a while to detox. I no longer get culture shock, but there’s still a period where your mind adapts to your new reality. It’s a process. You can’t rush it.
Our minds are like a computer chip
When my daughter was five, my mom picked us up at the airport after we’d returned from Peru. We’d been away for two months, and we hadn’t spoken a word of English the whole time.
My daughter was really excited to see grandma. She grabbed her hand and started explaining all the wonderful adventures we’d had. The problem was that she explained it all in perfect Spanish.
“Dear,” grandma said, “you have to speak in English, I can’t understand you.”
“Okay,” my daughter said. She paused to think, but her language center didn’t obey and when she spoke again the Spanish rolled out of her like a river. It was the cutest thing you can imagine. She looked so powerful marching through the airport talking urgently and completely indifferent to the fact that grandma couldn’t understand a word.
It took about two weeks for the chip in her brain to flip. Two weeks of watching television and listening quietly to her friends. Then the English came out again. It’s amazing how our minds work.
The healing benefits of a long drive
My wife’s parents are about to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Imagine that. They’ve been married as long as I’ve been alive.
Without cell phones, without computers, without any digital devices, we climbed into the van and headed out to the restaurant with the stone tables. It was a long drive that meanders through the heavy traffic of Lima.
That was fine. At least we weren’t scrolling through pages and pages of repetitive and inaccurate digital news.
We were together in the car making jokes and laughing and enjoying life as human beings are meant to. What’s the point of being alive if all you do is worry?
Playing soccer with Pikachu
We got to the restaurant and even then it took a moment to detox. We had to detox from the chaos of the drive to the peace and comfort of the outdoor setting. We were also detoxing from digital media. My family was detoxing from our transition to a distant country.
We have to be more mindful about our body’s efforts to purge the poison. All we need is a little bit of peace and enough time to get the job done.
After the food, we went out to the green area to play soccer. A couple kids asked to play with us. One of them was wearing a t-shirt that said Pikachu. Every time he kicked the ball, his shoe went flying off his foot.
Every single time.
It became hilarious. He was a 7 year old fury. When he scored you’d have thought he’d won the World Cup. The kid refused to pass. I started calling him Messi.
I started to feel better
On the drive home, I realized that more of the sadness had gone away. I was surprised to recognize that the crying hadn’t done it. That wasn’t a “fix,” that was a pressure release. It was still up to me to turn down the heat.
Going to a peaceful place had helped. Spending time with my family had helped. Playing soccer and laughing with them and dodging the errant flight of Pikachu/Messi’s flying shoe had done the trick.
I felt better.
So what did I do? I turned on my computer like a fool and instantly I was back in the pit with the rabid wolves howling about the end of the world.
Just one day, give yourself one day
The reminder was all I needed. I slammed the computer closed and read a story to my girls. We drew together. We laughed and went to sleep.
For the last year, I’ve been giving myself Saturday. Give yourself a gift. That gift is a day. Give your body a fighting chance to purge the poison once a week.
It’s easy because there’s so much to do on Saturday. My daughter usually has a soccer tournament so we’re on the road all day. There’s the frenzy of getting everyone in the car and getting on the road on time. We rush, rush, rush, but there are no screens and it’s a joy. Then we get home and we’re too tired to fret about whatever happened in the world.
But soccer season ended, and I’ve slipped into the habit of constant work that can only end in disaster. Friends, it’s the difference between joy and sadness. You can give yourself one day a week to forget about the things you can’t control and simply enjoy the things you have. Do it. Make it a habit to detox from digital devices one day a week.
Our bodies can heal themselves, they just need peace and time. Once you get into the habit of giving yourself one day, you might start to consider the benefits of giving yourself two.
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