"3 days are nothing worth. It tooked me 3 months straight without any mobile phone, to start regulate my nervous system. Don't fool yourself, you know it. After that I was able to look deeper into my soul and start healing trauma, what is a type of amplifier."
So 3 days worked for you as a starter and you have a plan moving forward. I assume you will add things not taking back, even if I feel you with video games. There are some sort of dopamine sources which need to be fully eliminated, a dosis could not be handled. Hope videos does not fall in this category for you, for me they do.
I do like how you phrase the struggle as something which will be in your life forever. Perhaps you cannot find a more positive wording for you.
Thanks, uArtApe. Yeah I am considering it a start, not everything for me. My screentime is down 80% this week compared to a couple of weeks ago. I still have short for video apps (youtube + instagram) uninstalled, and have played no video games.
It's a marathon not a sprint. But so far, so good!
it's something i've experienced time to time, can remember taking a long break from the internet... for the first time i really felt alive and even wrote a book within this time
i've not done something similar lately except in tiny doses such as dedicating my mornings to walking-and-reading-a-book
still not the one fix, i've accepted life will constantly be about maintaining balance between the digital & natural life
Thank you, and yes, I am coming to that same acceptance. The digital life isn't inherently "bad" or "wrong", but it's dangerous and can be extremely harmful in too high a dose.
Trying to do what I can to spend as little time behind screens at the moment, and will then hopefully work out ways to introduce more screentime in a balaned way on my end.
Walking-and-reading-a-book is exactly how I started my day today, incidentally :)
A thought-provoking read again. Interestingly, I'm trying to muster energy to play video games MORE - I love it, but it has fallen into the category of a "chore" for my brain. I think they're great as they're much more involving than passive scrolling but of course, you need to do what works best for you.
Yeah that's really interesting, I think it depends on the game? There are some times that are more passive, the repeatable games where you're basically doing the same thing over-and-over-and-over.
Then there are the more involved or interesting or story driven games where you're having to think, solve puzzles, follow a narrative, explore, etc. Those seem a lot better to me in terms of brain health at least.
Hey Zeneca....It's literally ADHD plus dopamine, for me at least. So my daughter's been working with me to time block and reward completed tasks with breaks. It sounds so simple but it actually works. I would highly suggest keeping going rather than just the 72 hours that you took off, to actually schedule downtime in between work. Reading things like that as a reward for accomplishing your normal work. As you know, kicking a habit takes discipline. -Tonka ;)
This is a great idea, I am unsure if I am able to stick with it though. I have tried timeblocking before and giving myself rewards but... for some reason it never seems to work for me. Maybe it's worth giving it another try though.
I'm definitely extending the 72hrs though and trying to spend a lot less time behind screens, and continuing the elimination of the most nefarious forms of cheap dopamine. I think those changes alone are having an enormous impact, and maybe after a while of my brain "healing" from this, I'll be better positioned to add some structure back in with time blocking etc.
It seems I have to take back part of what I said.
"3 days are nothing worth. It tooked me 3 months straight without any mobile phone, to start regulate my nervous system. Don't fool yourself, you know it. After that I was able to look deeper into my soul and start healing trauma, what is a type of amplifier."
So 3 days worked for you as a starter and you have a plan moving forward. I assume you will add things not taking back, even if I feel you with video games. There are some sort of dopamine sources which need to be fully eliminated, a dosis could not be handled. Hope videos does not fall in this category for you, for me they do.
I do like how you phrase the struggle as something which will be in your life forever. Perhaps you cannot find a more positive wording for you.
Thanks, uArtApe. Yeah I am considering it a start, not everything for me. My screentime is down 80% this week compared to a couple of weeks ago. I still have short for video apps (youtube + instagram) uninstalled, and have played no video games.
It's a marathon not a sprint. But so far, so good!
beautiful read, zeneca
it's something i've experienced time to time, can remember taking a long break from the internet... for the first time i really felt alive and even wrote a book within this time
i've not done something similar lately except in tiny doses such as dedicating my mornings to walking-and-reading-a-book
still not the one fix, i've accepted life will constantly be about maintaining balance between the digital & natural life
Thank you, and yes, I am coming to that same acceptance. The digital life isn't inherently "bad" or "wrong", but it's dangerous and can be extremely harmful in too high a dose.
Trying to do what I can to spend as little time behind screens at the moment, and will then hopefully work out ways to introduce more screentime in a balaned way on my end.
Walking-and-reading-a-book is exactly how I started my day today, incidentally :)
A thought-provoking read again. Interestingly, I'm trying to muster energy to play video games MORE - I love it, but it has fallen into the category of a "chore" for my brain. I think they're great as they're much more involving than passive scrolling but of course, you need to do what works best for you.
Yeah that's really interesting, I think it depends on the game? There are some times that are more passive, the repeatable games where you're basically doing the same thing over-and-over-and-over.
Then there are the more involved or interesting or story driven games where you're having to think, solve puzzles, follow a narrative, explore, etc. Those seem a lot better to me in terms of brain health at least.
Absolutely - some games are poor garbage for your brain, designed like social media. Was thinking about more involved, story-driven games.
Hey Zeneca....It's literally ADHD plus dopamine, for me at least. So my daughter's been working with me to time block and reward completed tasks with breaks. It sounds so simple but it actually works. I would highly suggest keeping going rather than just the 72 hours that you took off, to actually schedule downtime in between work. Reading things like that as a reward for accomplishing your normal work. As you know, kicking a habit takes discipline. -Tonka ;)
This is a great idea, I am unsure if I am able to stick with it though. I have tried timeblocking before and giving myself rewards but... for some reason it never seems to work for me. Maybe it's worth giving it another try though.
I'm definitely extending the 72hrs though and trying to spend a lot less time behind screens, and continuing the elimination of the most nefarious forms of cheap dopamine. I think those changes alone are having an enormous impact, and maybe after a while of my brain "healing" from this, I'll be better positioned to add some structure back in with time blocking etc.
Glad to hear it's been working well for you :)