Inspiration at your Fingertips: an alternative to mindless scrolling
Scrolling our social media feeds can:
interfere with our sleep (Are you one of the many who wraps up your evening in bed scrolling on your phone?)
increase depression and anxiety
perpetuate loneliness and social disconnection
increase our risk for disordered eating and difficulties with body image, and
is linked to increases in impulsiveness and inattention,
So, if you’d like an alternative, here’s what I’d like you to try:
Create a new e-mail address.
Use it solely to subscribe to newsletters you find inspiring and are in line with your values.
Here are some of my favorites: The Imperfectionist, The Sunday Soother, Gretchen Rubin’s newsletter, and of course, my own Root to Flourish newsletter!
Move your social media apps - or really any apps where you find yourself spending mindless time - into a folder off of your home screen, so you have time to make a decision about whether that’s really what you’re looking for (hint: often it’s not). Label that folder something that makes you pause … for example, mine is labeled ‘hazardous.’
Then, when you feel the urge to scroll, click instead on your shiny new email address full of life, light, inspiration, creativity, and interest.
As Annie Dillard has brilliantly written, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
Consider how much of your life you’ve already spent mindlessly scrolling. How much of that content do you remember? How much of it has made an impact? I’m going to guess very, very little …
Our time is limited, my friends. Our lives are finite. Don’t spend it in ways that are meaningless and not worth remembering.
If this message resonates, and you want more - and are devastated by the idea of missing a newsletter! - subscribe!