Day 16: Practice Pausing
Welcome to Day 16 of the Phone Breakup Challenge!
First things first, I’d like you to take a moment, right now, to Stop, Breathe, and Be.
Great. Now that you’ve centered yourself, we can move on to today’s assignment, which is to practice pausing. It’s simple in theory – but in practice, it’s often quite hard.
Here’s what I’d like you to do: choose a few times today when you might normally reach for your phone (e.g. waiting in line for coffee, sitting on the train or bus, pausing at traffic light, etc) and deliberately do nothing instead.
As you do this, notice how your brain responds.
If you’re like many people I hear from, your brain might fight back at first. In fact, you may feel uncomfortable and jumpy, maybe even a little irritable. (May I gently point out that these are also signs of . . . withdrawal?)
But if you stick with it (perhaps doing a few rounds of Stop, Breathe, and Be along the way), you may end up experiencing something much more pleasant – which is to say, a sense of calm.
And you may begin to realize that there are lots of moments throughout the day (including pretty much any situation where you have to wait for something) where you could choose to pause and give yourself a break. And if you get in the habit of thinking of these moments as gifts, rather than frustrations, you might notice that you end up feeling calmer during the rest of the day as well.
So try doing nothing today. And then tell us what it felt like in the comments.
To scrolling less, living more, and giving ourselves chances to pause,
“I sat in the car and listened—and paid attention to—a story on the radio while I was waiting for a store to open. It felt fine. It felt wonderful, actually, to just sit, do nothing, and listen to a story.” — Jenny
PS:
As always, you can ask me and your fellow participants questions—and share observations and insights with each other— by leaving a comment.
You can also send me questions privately simply by responding to your daily email, but I encourage you to engage with the community; you may be surprised to discover that other people are struggling with the same thing!
If you leave a comment on the blog, please be sure to check back — I read through every comment, and try to respond to each one! (And other people often chime in, too.)
Remember! This weekend, from Friday to Saturday night (2/20-2/21), I’ll be inviting you to take a full 24-hour break from your phone. Please make sure that this is in your calendar – and I also recommend inviting a friend to do it with you. (You may even want to make a plan right now for something fun to do together on Saturday.) I know this idea is probably making you anxious. But trust me: you’ll be grateful you did it.
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Catherine will be popping in once a day to read through and respond to your comments. You may also hear from other members of the team, Maryana and Laura, who are helping with logistics.