Our Presence Over Screens
Returning home to screens and their impact
I just got back from two days of camping underneath the giant redwoods. To say I felt calm and still for the first time in a long time is an understatement.
As soon as I returned to my house, the TVs were back on, the texts came in, technology returned, and I felt lifeless. Some of it was the lack of sleep from hearing a baby cry all night at the campground and from being woken up by birds at 5 a.m. Part of it was the return of the emails, the news, and the politics. My chest felt tight, heavy, and I just wanted to sleep.
Today I am trying to stay away from my phone. It’s been two hours, and I’ve already been on it for at least 15 minutes. These phones are addictive. They have all the answers to my endless questions. They have endless books, podcasts, and shows for my interests and entertainment.
In the woods, I felt grounded, still, and present.
I came home and found this note on my desk.
If you are watching the news and feeling flooded with fear, depression, isolation, anger, and it all feels too much, it’s because it is, and protecting your mental well-being is crucial to remain grounded, still, and present over the next 4 years.
I am using all of this as an opportunity to learn as much about the government, state, and federal laws, and how it all works. The more I understand how it works, the more I can do to be a part of the solution.
I am one person, with two young children, and this fight is an endless fight.
Getting stuck in fight, flight, or freeze is unsustainable.
So if you’re like me and you feel your insides screaming, crying, feeling heavy, frantic, and overwhelmed, get to some trees or one tree, or somewhere you can hear birds and nature and watch human beings walking around being human beings, and you’ll feel more grounded, still, and present.
Stop using your phone and devices to check out and find more ways to check in.
Here are ways I am checking in:
Less screen time
Writing and reading more
Bearing witness to the giggles, the play, the screaming, the creativity, and the daily changes happening in my children. It’s exhausting and it makes my days feel full.
Ask yourself if this is it, if your time is limited, and it is, all of our time is limited. Do you want to be spending it checked out or in? This helps me when I’m falling into check out land.
Getting into nature
Foam rolling to be kind to my body and to feel what’s happening with it
Working out
Feeding myself and my family
Taking deep breaths in the day and sitting down when I’m tired—sometimes this is a work in progress
Here’s how I am accomplishing a little less screen time.
No social media or Gmail first thing in the a.m.
No Gmail until I have the time to sit down and do what I need to do.
My phone goes into airplane mode at 9 p.m. and stays there until I’m ready to turn it on.
Leaving my phone inside when I go into the backyard with my kids.
Leaving my earbuds home or putting them high up and away from me so I can’t play endless podcasts and audiobooks.
Making dinner with my children which feels rewarding and 100 times harder to do. Today the simple act of making rice turned into dried rice spilled everywhere and a battle over who got to start the rice. Other days I sit them in front of the tv put on my entertainment of choice and get to work being the cook and dish cleaner. Anyone who thinks doing this daily is easy is obviously not doing this.
I’m not sure there is a balance to this, it’s all a lot.
Lately I am wondering:
Is there is a benefit to hearing all of these podcasts and audiobooks?
Do they just create more overthinking?
Do they help?
What’s the “right” amount to listen?
How else do I get through the endless dishes and meals to be made?
I’m not sure I have an answer, but it’s something I’m contemplating.
Love always,
Danielle Mallett
