Be Content With Yourself: Switch Off

The single most difficult thing to do nowadays for most people is to completely switch off, literally and figuratively. The first step here is to understand the importance of disconnecting from everything and anyone. You will also benefit from learning the difference between avoiding and taking breaks. The interesting aspect here is that you will learn how to appreciate people in your life by taking breaks from them.

Transcript

Can you spend an entire weekend without your phone?

How about a day?

Or how about one hour?

You live in the 21st century,

Which means you're checking your smartphone around a hundred times a day.

And you spend up to three hours on it.

You're continuously absorbing content and you're constantly connected to other people via your smartphone.

Being so connected might seem beneficial at first,

But in reality it is not,

Because you're connected in a low-quality way,

Which is exhausting.

You need to switch off.

You need to learn how to disconnect.

So today we will try and raise our awareness around switching off and being able to consciously disconnect from this world that is moving at such a fast pace.

Our goal is to understand why this is necessary and also how you can achieve it in a way that serves specifically you.

Furthermore,

Our goal is to understand the difference between avoiding issues and taking breaks from them.

This understanding will increase your appreciation for what you have,

Especially for the people in your life.

Helen Edwards said,

In this game everyone needs a break to refuel,

Recharge and jump back in full throttle.

Let's look at how switching off can do just that.

Let's start with the biggest reason why you need to switch off.

Human beings,

And thus also you,

Have the inherent need to rest,

Reflect and digest experiences.

And if you don't make time for these,

You will create an imbalance physically and mentally and you will get sick.

Your symptoms could be anything from sleep or concentration issues to heart problems or even depression.

Making time to reflect,

Digest and rest is fundamental to not only your growth,

But also your general well-being.

Now the easiest example for switching off is sleep.

But as amazing as sleeping is,

It is not enough.

Your brain is designed to digest conversations,

Analyze problems and fantasize about events regularly during the day,

Not just at night.

And it is not just big life-changing events that need digesting.

Also smaller everyday experiences need digesting.

For example,

Movies,

Books,

Emails,

Videos and social media need time to be properly digested and made sense of.

You need to consciously make space for reflecting in order to create a harmonious and balanced mind.

Now 20 years ago,

Switching off was a whole lot easier.

By default,

You would make space to reflect at different times during the day.

What do you think people did in the 80s while sitting on the toilet or being on the train to work?

For the most part,

They sat in stillness and reflected.

A lot of these types of moments nowadays are occupied by having a phone in your hand.

Your smartphone is of course a great tool that makes your life a lot easier,

But it is diminishing your time in which you normally switch off for a few minutes.

This is why you,

Like all other humans,

Can benefit from a conscious effort to increase high-quality downtime.

Now when starting to make time to rest and reflect,

You will at first think that you are not experiencing as much joy as you are used to.

This is because you are used to being always entertained.

But not being entertained and switching off is important.

It allows thoughts and emotions to pass through you,

To move on.

By doing so,

You are decluttering and making space.

And by that,

You can be really present and experience high-quality connections in your life.

Now let us talk about your devices.

First of all,

I would like to invite you not to vilify your devices as such.

But I would definitely like to invite you to differentiate.

I would like you to become aware of what purpose each device holds for you.

Also become aware of how each channel or app on your devices serves you or does not serve you.

Becoming conscious of the specific differences is important because only then can you challenge yourself with what to keep and what to get rid of.

Only when you delete certain apps and channels out of your life can you make space to switch off.

Now let us assume you just cleaned up your phone and all apps and installations on that phone now serve you.

Let us go further with this.

Let us look at what apps serve you at what times.

Does it serve you when you see a work email at 10 a.

M.

?

And what about 9 p.

M.

?

Does it serve you to go on social media at 6 a.

M.

?

How about at noon?

What devices and content serve you at what time of the day?

Becoming conscious of when devices actually serve you or don't is needed in order to be able to regularly switch off in your life.

Now I would like to make you aware of how the content you absorb tries to manipulate you to not switch off.

This is called the cliffhanger effect.

An episode from a TV show always keeps a somewhat open ending because they want you to long for the next episode.

They don't want you to be able to completely switch off and forget about the show.

Social media algorithms work similarly.

They choose the exact content that makes you stay on the platform and click on the next picture or video.

So what does this tell you?

Don't ever expect a moment of completion when absorbing content.

Choose your own moments of completion and switch off whenever you want.

Start being in control.

Next,

Let us talk about transition time,

Which is the time spent in a transition period,

For example,

Between work and leisure.

These transitions are extremely important.

They have the power to completely change your energy for your benefit.

Without transitions,

You often stay in a mode that does not serve you anymore.

You neither want to be in work mode when you're with your friends,

Nor do you want to be in chill mode when in an important business meeting.

And that's why your transitions are so crucial.

For example,

Going home from work,

You might have a drive,

A walk,

Sit in a bus,

Ride your bicycle.

All of these you can consciously use to transition your energy.

This is important because you cannot switch energies quickly.

It takes some time and you need to respect that time.

Even when it is tricky,

For example,

When working in a home office,

Try and make time for transition.

Maybe that means walking around the block or taking a bike ride before or after you work.

Transitions and energy shifts are very important and not just between work and home.

Transitioning brings me to my next point,

Which is to differentiate between work and non-work.

Become as strict as possible with what times you open work emails and when to plan for or even think about work.

Also,

If you work from home,

Make sure you only work at one spot in your home.

Make sure you differentiate between work and non-work areas so that your body automatically switches off when leaving your work area.

Create boundaries around when and where you work.

Next,

I would like to mention the difference between disconnecting from something and avoiding something.

Avoiding something can happen when you have an aversion to a certain thing and negative emotions attached to it.

Your mind then forces you not to think about it in order to keep functioning.

This can be healthy temporarily,

But ignoring something over a long period of time is unhealthy because you cannot reflect,

Let go and grow.

So what to do?

If you feel you might be avoiding or ignoring something,

Then stop doing everything that is non-essential.

Immediately you are confronted and forced to reflect.

The solutions will then unfold themselves.

Lastly,

I would like to mention that disconnecting from things and especially people will make you appreciate them more.

When you are disconnecting from someone,

You can let your mind reflect on that person.

You will then become aware of how much you appreciate them before they leave your life in one way or the other.

Taking time off from someone allows you to truly see what beauty a person actually brings into your life.

Now we have arrived at the practical part of today.

The first thing I would like to invite you to do is to differentiate between work,

Transition and leisure.

This can be observations about places,

People,

Time of day,

Days in the week or anything else that comes to mind.

Write down three points each for a.

Work,

B.

Transition and c.

Leisure.

Pause the course now and come back to it when you have written down nine points.

Now I would like to invite you to write down five points about how properly switching off can improve your life.

This could be anything from the smallest ideas to the biggest.

Make it as unique to your persona and lifestyle as possible.

How can your life improve by disconnecting?

Again,

Pause the course now and come back to it when you have written down five ideas.

Now during this week I would like you to switch off everything and stare into nothingness once a day for ten minutes.

Consciously create space for any type of thoughts to move through you and out of you.

You can even set a calendar entry for a specific time each day.

But make sure that you are completely shutting off.

Just staring at a wall,

A field,

Out a window or at the street for ten minutes.

Make sure that absolutely no person or device can bother you during this time.

Don't have any expectations for this time.

Just make the commitment to do absolutely nothing for ten minutes every day this week.