Digital is Drowning Us – It’s Time to Unplug

The wonders of technology are immeasurable. You’re stuck in a burglary, buzz an alarm and life savors will be at your location. Your car isn’t available, order an Uber and you’ll get a safe ride in minutes. Be it career development, attending international webinars or studying online, tech is always on the forefront to help you.

But behind all the favors of technology, we can’t deny the fact that it has made us addicted to screens. After every 5 mins, we scroll our news feed to know the latest happenings.

How pathetic you feel when you want to talk to someone and that person seems busy looking down on the screen?

Humans are not robots. They have emotions, values and they want their presence to be noticed. But tech has digitized us to an extent that we feel full with our online activities.

Above all the biggest wonder of tech is Social Networking.

You came to know a good news, you’d rush to share it online. Your children score exceptional grades you’d love keeping it as your status. Know that you visited an exquisite beach on vacations, you can’t resist the excitement to update your Instagram.

Spare a moment and think.

Aren’t we drowning our lives just to increase our digital followings?

Absolutely! We are so drowned in the ‘Digital’ that we have stopped living the present moment and start pleasing our digital space.

But are we happy?

I’m also a victim of tech addiction and I always look for ways to unplug. And then one fine day I came across this digital detox recipe summarized in Unplugged.

Unplugged – How to Live Mindfully in a Digital World

I’m glad that it’s not only me who’s frustrated by the tech ripples but also the writer Orianna Fielding. Like me she also wanted people to escape from the digital world and give your complete focus to the ‘NOW’.

Tech is everywhere; be it our workplaces, relationships, play or vacations. We cannot completely neglect it because we depend on it for our routine life. For example, online shopping, billing, money transfer, networking and job seeking.

But do you know it kills our inside when we start racing for perfection? We want to look perfect and happy with every photo we post online. But if humans become perfect then the meaning of our lives will change and somehow the world will become boring. The chase for perfection eventually disconnect us from our souls and turn us into robots.

The Must Needed Nature Therapy

When was the last time you took a nature walk and let your creative thoughts flow?

When we unplugged our devices and plug into nature, we start focusing on ourselves. That’s the best time to sneak inside our souls and listen to its callings. But we are too busy looking down that we cut down the opportunities coming our way. This short video clip is a beautiful demonstration of loneliness.

Unplugging is important. It’s only through unplugging you can learn the power of yourself and the power of human connections. Your mind starts innovating when you’re lonely.

Perform this short activity to know the power of unplugging.

Choose a space that is close to nature, close your eyes and start meditating. Remember, this activity doesn’t require your smartphones with you. Make sure you go without it. For a moment, sideline all your worries and focus on nature. The lush green view, the touch of the wind and lose yourself in the moment. Inhale and exhale deeply. You’ll see the winds taking away the depression from you slowly. Your mind will start feeling the positive vibes and you’ll start healing.

Do it once and come back with the results. I guarantee you’ll feel better.

Or watch Innovation of loneliness to know how your mind works when you give yourself space.

Anyhow, without dragging the blog long, let me summarize the solutions I extracted from the book.

• Focus on the ‘NOW’ only. There was a school principal, when students come to visit him, he takes 10 minutes to wrap his work before he starts talking. After wrapping up, he says, “I’m all yours how can I help you?” This statement evokes the feeling in students that they are being heard. Half of the pain vanished when we know someone is listening to us.

• Perform an unplugging activity for 60 mins a day. Spend this time in a nature walk, workout or reading a book but do this and notice the creativity sparking your mind.
• Don’t check your phone as soon as you wake up if you read a depressing news, your whole day can be ruined. Give yourself 5 mins after you wake up and do a gratitude exercise. Thanks to the creator that for a new day, thanks to him that your loved ones are with you and thank him that you got one more day to do something great.

• Morning is beautiful. Loosen yourself at the moment and see how nature reverts you with love.
• Replace your mobile alarm with alarm clocks. It won’t give you the reason to check your phone before going to bed and after getting up.

• Don’t watch TV or your smartphones when you’re eating. Try to talk with your family while eating and make memories together.

• Spend your weekends with yourself and your family. Devote it to the things you cherish and again make beautiful memories.

The reason why I’m emphasizing on making memories is that they help us to live. They made us smile and evokes the emotion we felt at that moment.

Your life is valuable, learn to balance it otherwise tech will take over it smoothly.