Use These Tips To Learn How To Disconnect Your Mobile Phone
These 10 tips will teach you how to disconnect from your cell phone, for example, when you plan to go on vacation or simply feel like you can no longer cope with stress. It’s no coincidence that so many people who decide to improve their mental health and restore their emotional balance have decided to begin this task by weaning themselves from today’s vast amount of technology, be it for just a few hours.
The truth is that using a cell phone can be so immersive that it can tear us away from any moment of serenity when so many announcements arrive on our screen from both social media and workplace emails. Even at the end of working hours, our mobile phones continue to send us notifications and thus take time out of our free time and important common moments with people who are important to us.
Based on this, research has highlighted that the use of cell phones and other technological devices will eventually become a neurotic routine that includes the compulsive ritual with which we have to blink the phone or tablet screen every single minute. Let’s next look at what we can do to combat this obsession.
What are the benefits of disconnecting from a mobile phone?
The large amount of information provided by technology poses new challenges to managing it so that this does not pose health risks. Namely, new behaviors resulting from the use of technology are not always healthy.
A field study carried out at Cienfuegos University in Cuba has also shown this worrying phenomenon, as new terms emerge in society as technology improves. For example, nomophobia, or the irrational fear of leaving home without a cell phone, causes nervousness in people who suffer from it.
In addition, another new term that has become established in our colloquial language is called FOMO, which signifies the constant need to know what other contacts are doing. The word FOMO comes from the words “ fear of missing out” meaning it is the fear of being left out of something.
For this reason, and despite the benefits of technological devices, we often need to learn to disconnect from a cell phone. Next, we’re going to share 10 important tips to help you learn how to stay away from your cell phone in a healthy way. We hope you can use these tips to live a more stress-free life, away from the anxiety and restlessness spread by social media and technology.
10 ways to learn how to disconnect from a cell phone
1. Use only the applications that are useful to you
Only use apps that really benefit you, such as a workbook, while removing those that just drop notifications on your screen and take up your energy. In order to decide which applications to remove and which to keep, think carefully about the purpose for which you are properly using that application.
2. Share the challenge with another person
It could be your partner, for example. If you have someone by your side, you may also feel more motivated. Thus, instead of both constantly flashing the screen of your mobile phone, you can plan different activities together, exercise together and go to the movies or eat, for example.
The idea that helps a lot in this task is to apply the rule that when you spend time together outside the home, cell phones remain silent. In this way, you can both enjoy moments together at the same time as you also manage to strengthen the relationship.
In addition, excessive awareness of phone screen notifications in a constant way often causes concern, leaving us unable to enjoy the interesting things that happen in our daily lives.
3. Avoid syncing accounts
Create a schedule. If you sync your work email to your own phone, it’s harder for you to focus on enjoying your free time, as there are always those customers and co-workers who leave you with requests and notifications at the last minute.
Guide yourself according to the set schedule and when you leave the workplace, leave all work-related things to the next day. With this tip, you can also get more out of your free time and rest better.
4. Set the phone aside
It’s not necessary for a cell phone to stay on the table during a meal, and you don’t have to take it with you everywhere and every time you leave the house, be it a store, a bank, or a post office pick up. So leave your phone aside and enjoy your food, read a book, drink a cup of tea, or otherwise just have time for yourself.
If putting your phone aside is bothering you and you think that’s when something important or urgent happens, keep in mind that if something so significant is going to happen, you’re sure to get it informed anyway; many of us forget that in this century we will never be completely isolated from the rest of society. So don’t be afraid to leave your phone aside for a few hours. This is how your own mental health will also thank you.
5. Set a time limit for using the mobile phone
Obviously, we will always have something unresolved or something to check, but nonetheless, it is important that we take a little moment to use the phone and then focus on doing other things. In the same way that we know that we have to sleep so many hours during the day, we can also dedicate a certain moment to using a cell phone and then focus on other activities.
6. Mute the phone
If your phone vibrates or rings all the time, it can also interfere with your other activities and take full control of your time with its presence. Your mind focuses solely and exclusively on the cell phone, without thinking of anything else. So invest in this way at least every now and then, and especially before going to bed.
7. Rely on a traditional watch
Avoid using your mobile phone as an alarm clock. This allows you to wake up and, if you wish, stay in bed for a few minutes in complete relaxation and without feeling the burden of waiting messages on your phone screen when you arrive.
8. Do something different
Learn a new language, write a book, paint, draw or otherwise devote time to yourself doing what you have always dreamed of. To achieve this, you need to detach from the phone screen for a moment. Some people can spend hours of their lives sharing social media jokes or news, and this in turn is an important time they could just as well spend on activities that arouse passion in them.
9. Put your phone in flight mode
This is a good option, for example, when you exercise or do some other task that requires concentration. When you’re done, you can clear the flight mode and then check what new events have happened to your contacts and the world during that time.
10. Switch off the phone completely
If, despite all the above tips, you have a hard time disconnecting from your mobile phone, turn off your phone completely and stop for a moment to think about what using this device really means to you.
Finally
If you’ve already tried to implement the above tips and still feel like you simply can’t disconnect from your cell phone, it may be time to turn to a knowledgeable psychologist as you may suffer from an addiction that requires professional help.
However, the most important thing in this situation is to stay calm. At first, disconnecting from the phone may seem really difficult, but you will gradually find that it is possible for you to live without it.
If you find that using a cell phone causes you restlessness and anxiety, you can calm your mind and pause for a moment with mindfulness or yoga. Remember, the most important thing, after all, is to live in inner peace with yourself.
