I’ve tried to go without my phone more often and get out of the habit of having something constantly on in the background but I find myself just getting into this state where nothing is even vaguely pleasant, where I can’t find motivation to move, or where I pick up my phone without even realizing what I’m doing.
Is the answer meditation and exercise? It’s meditation and exercise isn’t it?
Not the most helpful suggestion, but literally touch grass. Being outside in natural spaces (preferably with lots of vegetation and calming sounds) is remarkably good for mental health. Studies have shown that just 30 mins of a walk in a park or similar has significant benefits to mental state.
If you can spend longer periods of time in such a setting regularly, that's even better. Exercise is also really helpful.
My go-to is riding my bike on some trails to a quiet spot and chilling for a bit. Just being aware of the natural world for a bit really decenters the ego, which is pretty useful.
This hasn't worked for me haha
I touch grass most days of the week and can easily not use my phone once during the entire 10 hour hangout but I'm still glued to it constantly whenever I'm at home alone or during work
I think it's more our brains desperately need some kind of stimulus
Allow yourself to be bored for increasing lengths of time until you have a desire to do stuff. Walks (no podcasts or music allowed) are easy mode instead of staring at a wall.
To expand on your point a bit:
Boredom is good, actually. Like everything, it should be indulged in moderation, but boredom leads towards new ideas.
If you start walking in nature, you will find that after a few hours you are sort of "done" thinking and speculating
Nothing like that dread of going back to society after a 3 day walk in the woods. That first asshole in traffic makes me want to turn around and go back to the woods forever.
I've been trying to work on that myself this past year. Been working with a few doctors, and started the process of getting a full psych screening;(focus on adhd tho).
I don't know that exercise has really helped me, aside from my mood. I'm not allowed yet to be prescribed anything like adderall, but tried Wellbutrin and it didn't do a WHOLE lot for me, except trigger a bipolar episode after a bit.
I dint have any advice, sorry for rambling, but good luck comrade!
This is what helped me, but it's still a work in progress:
-
reading everyday. I don't hold myself to X chapters/day, but I read everyday without fail. Try to find a book or series that lights your fire. Mine was Red Rising. I devoured it so damn fast!
-
no doom scrolling. Nothing wrong with phone use, but pointless time wasting scrolling can be harmful and I found it negatively affecting my mental health
-
find a course or training that interests you. I took some Markdown courses that were interesting and quick.
-
let yourself be bored sometimes. It's ok. Just sit and think about things or nothing at all.
-
It's not fun but that "bleh" state might be your brain adjusting to the lack of instant stimulation. It might be part of a good process that works itself out over the next month or so. Kind of like detoxing but less horrible.
Your ideas of meditation and exercise are great. Both would be a healthier and sustainable way to gey your brain feeling better.
Before cell phones i had books and video games. Video games might seem like it could hurt your attention span, but if youre playing for hours then youre focused for hours.
Keep you cell phone physically away from you. That's what im doing with weed now. I needed a break, so Im just not going to go to the dispensary again. I found that having it really added to the compulsion.
Uninstall apps, or look into some way of limiting time on the phone. i think iPhone has something like that.
You know I think a good way would be to - wait. What are we talking about?
The answer isn't meditation and exercise alone, but both of those might help. This book really helped me wrap my head around some aspects of meditation https://archive.org/details/mindfulness-in-plain-english-bhante-gunaratana
Take a backpacking trip, don't bring your phone (if you're worried about dying, bring a radio or beacon or something)
It'll help you purge the dopamine and calm yourself down
