What are your hands doing now?

The moment I get bored or I face a difficult situation, I’ve observed my left hand going into my pocket to pull out the phone unconciously and open a social media app.

Its become second nature to get your phone and start infinitely scrolling a social media app. We don’t require somebody to shove the phone at us all the time, all we need is a small poke in the form of a “ping” notification for us to lose a couple of hours. I’m sure you’ve had this experience first hand; you pull out our phone to take a 5-minute break, you start scrolling, by the time you realize it you would have atleast spent an hour scrollng through your feed.

Another question to ask is how often are you bored. From the moment I get up, to the time I go to sleep there is a screen involved. Even when I’m walking or travelling, I have my head phones on. I’m in a state of constant input. Once I observed this, I’ve become mindful about being in this state of input. I vivdly remember during my childhood how I gradually used to wake up and roll around in bed, day dream looking at the world outside through my bedroom window. I don’t think any body does this these days. The first think every one does is scroll through their feed!

Getting back the topic of being bored and facing difficult situations. A few things I’ve changed since being mindful about picking my phone up during difficult tasks is that I go for quick walk, grab a glass of water and assure myself that I’ll get a piece of chocolate once I’m done with the difficult task. At first, it seemed to not work, but a couple of days later, I’m able to get into the groove much more easily.

I’ve not yet overcome the urge to consume anything than being bored. But, I’m making steady progress. Rather than picking up my phone, I’m actively picking up a book, or trying to write a blog post. This is where the birth of the site took place. I decided that rather the continously scrolling through my feed and always consuming, I’m actively trying to be in the state of output. Being able to output something valuable after years of consistently consuming feels refreshing.

take a breather! look away from the phone!

One of the books I recently picked up was “101 essays that will change the way you think” by Brianna Wiest. Its a wonderful book. You can just pick up and start reading from any chapter. It too talks about being still and importance of being bored. Let me try finishing this book and will get back to you in another post about it.

Untill then, TA TA!.