I'm Happy When the Internet Goes Down

A huge tension lifts my shoulders the few times during the winter or a bad storm the power goes off and the internet goes down.

I put down my phone and think, "Finally! I can do what I want to do!"

I wasn't sure what was happening until I watched "OUTWORK everyone by being bored" on yt by Ruff (https://youtu.be/IYE8TOnnczM?si=WwNVevdSRs7CvH5-) and it clicked, and I realized how truly soul-sucking phones and the internet can be sometimes.

In the vid, he says what we all know- we want the nearest and easiest source of dopamine there is, but if we structure our environment so that the only source is the thing we need to do, then we will do it out of boredom.

So, if you need to study, work, create, produce ect., you need to get rid of your phone, the video games, the whatever that is drawing your attention away. This is usually said as "put your phone away", "change your environment" but it needs to be taken to another step sometimes.

Give your phone or tablet to someone else.

Put the control in someone else's hands so you don't have a choice.

You just need to break away from the Infinite Scroll Effect, stop wasting hours on consuming and give your eyes a break?

Give your phone to someone.

It releases the tension of battling yourself because it's out of your control.

When trying to eat less sugar- do you still buy ice cream and say "I'll only eat a litter after dinner" and then are sorely disappointed when you eat half the thing right after you get home? (Me). Just don't buy the ice cream in the first place! Make it easier for yourself, don't put yourself in front of temptations.

This works for when you have something you need to do and are being distracted, but it's also nice to be able to just think, and if you don't want to be alone with your thoughts, that's a different post. But like, listening to music and day dreaming, riding in the car, looking out the window and thinking, taking a walk, journaling, meditating ect., are all just great ways to get out of mindless scrolling and back into yourself.

It's just such a relief when you don't have this dopamine-machine right beside you and you aren't sucked into hours of wasteful consuming of media, and you can do the fulfilling things you've been putting off because they seemed boring in comparison.

It seems difficult at first, the dopamine is not instant, but at the end of the day you feel like you've lived a day in your life.