Tech and Wellness
This February, I was part of a panel with Daylesford Farm talking about tech and wellness. What came up a lot for me in the conversation was the idea of boundaries, something that I continue to explore in many other parts of my life and so, of course, it makes sense that we need to practice them with our relationship to technology.
I thought it would be useful to share some fo the ways I’ve been doing this so you can save for later and hopefully feel inspired to do the same.
Emails
When we are monitoring our emails 24/7, we lose so much potential to give out full attention to anything else. I decided to reclaim my time and attention by setting an Out Of Office that automatically resets the expectations around my response time. In a culture of instantaneous expectations, my OOO acts as a boundary that gives me more choise without guilt.
Notifications
I keep my phone on airplane mode 75% of the time. I’ll admit that this was an accident initially, when I kept forgetting to turn it back on after teaching. Now, I do this by choice so that I can use my phone when I want to without getting distracted by notifications.
Whatsapp Groups
One of the things I noticed that was making me feel a lot of pressure was WhatsApp groups. As a yoga teacher, there are studio groups to help manage admin and cover request etc. but they tend to get clouded with general chat and unnecessary notifications. Need some inspiration of how to leave? Be honest…”Hey everyone, I’m choosing to minimise the number of notifications and distractions on my phone so I’m going to leave this group. If you need me, please give me a call or drop me an email! Thank you for understanding!”
Phones in the bedroom
Ok, I’ll be honest - iI’ve taken a massive step back on the one but when I commit it’s probably the biggest switch. Give yourself time without your screen before bed. It’s not just about blue light but about respecting yourself and your sleep. We need to create space for our brains to wind down to facilitate healthy sleep. Invest in an alarm clock (you know I’m a massive Lumie Light fan) and leave your phone outside your bedroom. It’s kinder to the stress levels and helps me to start my day well!
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I’d love to hear some of your tips that you use to help manage the balance between your own wellbeing and modern day technology!