Smartphones, the technology we love to hate. It is a classic case of can’t live with them, can’t live without them. On the one hand, our smartphones have made our lives so much easier. On the other hand, they’re supposedly ruining our physical and mental wellbeing. Not many days pass without a new study suggesting a negative impact of our smartphone use: the blue light is damaging our eyes, the constant whir of new information is disrupting our sleep, social media comparison is making us anxious and insecure. As we are all too aware, smartphones are addictive, too.
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Considering all of this, a practical and symbolic step is to instead utilize your phone to be the thing that can also improve your health. Here are some suggestions of how to transform your smartphone into a tool to improve your wellbeing.
Use your smartphone to practice meditation
These days, there is no shortage of mindfulness and meditation apps, promising to help you combat anxiety, sleep better, hone your focus, and more.Headspace was the first app I downloaded when I began to augment my more traditional meditation practice. Their mini-meditations are great for people who are on the go, as many of them are only 2 to 3 minutes long. They are perfect for lunch breaks or to recharge before heading to an event. Headspace also sends you reminders throughout the day to encourage mindfulness. They also offer “SOS” sessions when you’re feeling especially stressed out. You can also track your meditation progress over time and iPhone users can sync the data into Apple Health. There’s a free trial for first-time users. As a therapist, I suggest this app to my clients and have received positive feedback.
Set healthy boundaries with your phone
One way to set a boundary with your phone use is to ban your phone from the bedroom. Invest in an alarm clock and leave your phone on airplane mode or in a different room. This will improve your sleep as you won’t be disrupted by notifications, and will avoid the inevitable mindless scrolling in bed.
Another way to set a boundary is to change your morning routine when it comes to phone use. Wait until you’ve had a shower or eaten your breakfast before tackling your notifications. Doing this will help create some space and will allow a gentler start to the day.
Another suggestion is to do a social media cull. Stop scrolling on social media accounts that make you feel inferior. We’re all guilty of this but marvelling at somebody else’s lifestyle can be damaging to our self-esteem. Remind yourself that social media is a constructed reality and only shows the best parts. Only follow accounts that inspire and help you. If they don’t, let them go.
Use your phone to improve (not hurt) intimacy with your partner
Make it a priority to spend quality time with your partner without your cell phone. Before you make any rules, however, examine your own phone habits and discuss the issue with your partner calmly and respectfully. Here are some guidelines that may help you keep your phone out of the way of your relationships:
- Try to keep time for physical intimacy sacred — no phones in the bedroom.
- Try to protect mealtime — no technology at the dinner table or in the restaurant.
- Try to guard your leisure time with each other — no checking smartphones or receiving calls on dates or special occasions.
- Try to give each other priority during time in the car by placing your phones out of sight.
If in any of these situations you need to check your phone for a legitimate purpose, provide an explanation.
Our cell phones are an integral part of our lives and help us organize our lives and communicate with others. Hopefully, this blog helps you to keep questioning and reassessing your experience with your phone.
What do you feel is the hardest healthy boundary to maintain with your phone?
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5 comments
This is a great post, Rich! Our phones are such an integral part of our lives now, that we don’t always stop think about how they could be impacting our mental health and relationships. You give great tips on how to set boundaries to keep a healthier relationship with your phone. I often find myself checking my phone for messages or emails when I am trying to relax and have to remind myself to stop or even to put physical distance between myself and my phone. Thanks again for these important reminders!
This is a great post and a topic we can probably all relate to! I love how you show both the positives and negatives that phones can bring to our mental health. Using meditation apps and staying connected with loved ones are definitely great benefits to our phones but, of course, there are drawbacks too. I know I often feel the need to respond to work emails immediately, even when I’m trying to relax. It is important to remember that time away from our phones is a necessity!
As someone who is attached to her phone all the time, I really appreciate this blog! I think my hardest boundary to maintain is avoiding the mindless scrolling, which can take up a lot of my time.
I love this blog, Rich! It resonates so deeply! I personally struggle with feeling addicted to my phone and using it in mindless ways that make me less present. I really appreciate your suggestions, especially the ones about setting boundaries. I think the hardest for me is to not look at my phone right when I wake up. Your tips could really help me make better choices with my phone use. I’ll definitely be recommending this blog to clients too.
This blog post really resonated with me. I have found more recently that I have an unhealthy relationship with my phone out of sheer boredom. This was a great reminder as to how important it is to set those healthy boundaries. I also really loved the section about how our phone can hurt intimacy with our partners. These tools are definitely something I will start to implement within my own life.