Drops of Oneness

Are you addicted to your digital life and you can’t seem to come out of it? Or Are you addicted and don’t even know it? Do you wish to regain a normal life of peace and quiet?

The Digital Downfall of Consciousness

Healthline reports that 33% of teens aged 13 are smartphone-addicted and they never turn off their phones. Other digital addiction such as video game addiction shows that 12% of boys and 7% of girls are addicted to video games. 

7% of individuals state that excessive cell phone use caused them to lose a relationship or job.

Here are seven signs or symptoms of digital addiction:

1. Recreational activities becoming more important than social and occupational responsibilities
2. Withdrawing from human interaction required for emotional growth
3. Extreme mood changes – happy, sad, excited, anxious, etc
4. Volatile health conditions ranging from fatigue to hyperactivity
5. Difficulty paying attention, remembering
6. Changes in energy – unexpectedly and extremely tired or energetic
7. Weight loss or weight gain

These are just some of the symptoms of addiction and even someone really close may not see them as those who are addicted try hard not to show it and keep it a closely guarded secret. The secretive lifestyle adds anxiety and eventually causes a breakdown in every relationship including within themselves.  

An article on Internet Addiction Statistics by the publisher, Internet Advisor, also sites anxiety and depression as common causes of or co-occurring conditions with Internet addiction.

What Causes Addiction?

Generally, there are 2 categories of addiction: behavioral addiction and substance addiction. Digital addiction fails into the former. Some other behavioral addictions include:

• Smartphones and computers (internet, video games, social networking sites, cybersex, or online gambling)
• Entertainment (binge-watching)
• Eating (overeating, binging, or purging)
• Exercise 
• Gambling (video lottery terminals, casinos, or slot machines)
• Gaming (computer games)
• Sex (porn, cybersex, or multiple partners)
• e-Shopping 
• Reading news articles and followings on social media
• Work

We will cover substance addiction in another article in the future.

Smartphone Addiction

A recent scientific study conducted at the University of Korea has found that smartphone addiction causes a serious disorder in the brain. The study also found that Smartphone addiction harms the work of the brain, causing chemical disturbances that can cause a state of severe anxiety and fatigue. 

We touch our phones 2,617 times a day (source: Bright Side). With our lives so intimately connected to this device, some can’t walk away from it.

If you can’t resist not touching your phone and it develops into depression, anger, anxiety, or stress, then you have a problem. The psychological condition that occurs when people are afraid to disconnect from their smartphones is called nomophobia. 

Debugging Your Addiction

Most addiction starts with a simple act of recreational fulfillment. Whether that’s a game on your smartphone or reading a news article. Social media invented the concept of “infinite scrolling” to keep you infinitely stuck with random news. 

Your Mind

Each feed in social media is a short-term “enjoyable” moment. At that moment, a part of you connects with the media and assesses your risk/reward. After a while, the risk component is overruled by your mind, which only wants the reward component. 

“What will show up next?”

 “This is interesting and I want more”. 

There is no end to these borrowed desires in the digital world. 

Similarly, in game addiction, the gamer is constantly put in situations where they have to take action or their game ends. This creates an artificial survival instinct that can never be fulfilled.

It all stems from a single problem: YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE WITH THE SPACE BETWEEN YOUR THOUGHTS. You then fill it with junk.

Your Body 

Now let’s see what happens to your body. When you are in the “infinite scrolling” mode, you are typically focused on instant gratification and your body goes into anticipation and constant dopamine release.  For gamers, it is the adrenaline rush followed by a dopamine release. There is never enough time or energy for the body to reach emotional homeostasis. 

Solution – The 5 Easy Decisions to Kick Your Digital Addiction 

What you need to know is that in both cases, you are addicted to your thoughts and mind. The gap that existed between your thoughts in your mind have become so close they have pretty much disappeared. The solution is to do everything to increase the distance between the thoughts. Let’s look at some of the decisions you can make to naturally increase that distance.

Decision 1: Out of Sight – Out of Mind

Hide or uninstall apps/games that clutter your mind and suck up your valuable time. Keep apps you want to encourage yourself to use, such as reading or learning a new language, front and center and move all the addictive apps to the second page, where it’s harder to open them spontaneously. Pick the apps that make you and at least 1 other person more fulfilled and achieve your immediate and higher purpose. If it doesn’t support that purpose, trash the app.

If you want to go further, consider uninstalling as many apps as possible and restoring your phone to its basic state.

Decision 2: Turn off Notifications

Every app wants your attention. It’s their business reason to exist. Not yours. You may have started it casually and it sucked you right in. You now need to decide what you want to see and when. 

Every app has a notification page that you can easily access. The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is an artificially created fear to keep you trapped in someone else’s business model. Be smart and decide not to be notified. Instead, set a schedule to check on critical apps once every few hours. Take control of your mind without this powerful cognition.

Clearly if you need an app for your business or work and it generates wealth for you, then it’s just common sense to keep it.

Decision 3: Set a Time Limit

Use Screen Time (available on both iPhones and Android) to see how much time you spend on your phone, which apps you use most, and how often you use your device. Decide consciously if they are supporting you in your TrueIntention for this year. At the most basic level, you can turn off your phone completely for a certain amount of time.

Whatever you do, keep your smartphone away from your bedroom. Your bedroom is a place of rest and so do not allow any digital devices in that space. With SmartTVs now invading bedrooms, be sure to follow the same empowering lifestyle to not use it when it is time to sleep.

Decision 4: Find Something Else You Love to Do.

Your mind goes towards absolute digital chatter when it is not given something easy to do. Play with your pet, play a musical instrument, a board game on a real board, something physical that you can get your hands on. Find something you love and fill your mind with it. If this is a struggle, attend one of the TrueInnerMastery workshops to help you focus on your desires and manifest them. There are so many fun and stimulating mind practices that keep you achieving and manifesting your desires instead of digital chatter. 

Decision 5: Be Intensively Active While Being Intensely Calm

When your body is in motion and doing something you love, your mind follows it. If you lack willpower, you need a support system and a spiritual master to help you rewire your brain to achieve a state of fulfillment. Once you are on a journey of self-fulfillment, the smartphone digital experiences will feel too cheap. You will look back after your Nirvanic experience and know that you were a child playing with a toy for way too long without adult supervision. 

Updating Your Inner Software

Compulsive use of the internet and smartphone apps can lead you to neglect other aspects of your life, from real relationships to hobbies and social activities. If you spend more time on social media or gaming than you do with real people, or can’t resist checking messages, email, or apps multiple times, even if it’s having a negative impact on your life, it might be time to reevaluate usage. technologies. 

If you find yourself ignoring your friends to read Social Media updates, or compulsively checking your phone while driving or at school, then it’s time to reevaluate your smartphone use and find a healthier balance in your life. 

A realized master once said, “You can use your conscious mind to overcome your mundane mind.” 

Similarly, you can use certain apps such as Space (Android/iOS), YourHour (Android) to track your phone usage as a feedback mechanism to change your behavior. 

These 5 decisions work on your mind, body, and being.   Do this for just 48 hours and you have a chance to break out of your addiction patterns. 

Be fulfilled!

If you are interested in learning more about TrueIntention and TrueAwareness, the two techniques that help you kick the addiction and achieve the ultimate space of Oneness, contact us to find out about upcoming workshops.