Before phones, what did you do in those in-between moments? Observe things around you? Maybe simply stare off into space and think about nothing.
So much has been written about how phones in our hands at all times is bad for our brains. How our brains get overstimulated. Seeking that next hit of dopamine. Yadda yaddda.
But I thought of it in a different way. Many others have observed this already, it’s not new, but it’s slightly new for me.
We are missing out on casual meditation. Those tiny moments in between everything. Today, we spend those moments pulling out our phones and checking that app to pass a couple minutes. Those moments. Those moments used to be staring off into space. Which seems unproductive. But those moments were meditative. Those tiny moments of nothingness brought balance to our lives. We were able to calm down, empty our minds.
Those moments were moments of micro-meditation. So many of us in the pre-cellphone era were meditating and not even realizing it.
A while ago someone wrote, Starting Your Day on the Internet Is Damaging Your Brain | by Srinivas Rao | Mission.org | Medium When you wake up in the morning, do you check your phone right away? When you use your phone right away in the morning, you are training your brain to be phone-minded. He said instead spend the morning waking up. Clearing your mind. Being in your space. Not being in your phone.
I’ve said before the first 3 hours of your day can dictate how your life turns out. And this often begins with the very first thing that you decide to put in your brain. You can either start you day with ==junk food for the brain (the internet==, distracting apps, etc) or you can start the day with healthy food for the brain (reading, meditation, journaling, exercising, etc). When you start the day with junk food for the brain, you put yourself at a self imposed handicap that inhibits your ability to get into flow and prevents you from doing deep work. When you start the day with health food for your brain, the exact opposite happens.
Anytime I start my day with junk food for the brain, the quality of the day goes down. I’m less happy, focused, and productive. I spend a ton of time on the internet and don’t get any real work done. But if I start my day with health food for the brain, I find that my mood is better, I’m happier, more focused and productive.