Happiness Hive Podcast Episode 70 - Catherine Bowyer - Digital Detox: Unplugging for Mental Clarity
===
[00:00:00] (Intro) Hi, welcome to the Happiness Hive podcast. I'm Catherine Bowyer, and I am completely fascinated by people and what motivates them. I've spent the past three and a half decades specializing in mindset and human behaviour, and I've helped thousands of people to create happy and amazing lives. And now I am super excited to be chatting with women from around the world who I have secret, and to be honest, not so secret crushes on. They're women who inspire me. I'm intrigued as to how they do life and what makes them tick. I want to find out their magic formula that makes them who they are. And at the end of the episode, I'd love for you to say, I'd like a little bit of what she's having. The conversations are real and raw. They're full of passion, inspiration, and lots of fun and nothing is off limits. So grab yourself a cuppa or pop on your trackie and go for a walk and join us for today's chat. [00:01:00] There may just be that pearl of wisdom you need to hear. So let's shimmy on over and get started.
[00:01:05] Welcome to another episode in the series, which I'm calling Quick Sticks Happiness Tips. So these are just short bite size, practical little episodes that have just got tips insights to not only boost your happiness, but to help you with any of those kind of life. things that are happening and they're the episodes are kind of based on what I'm experiencing or what people in my life are kind of experiencing and just sparking that little bit of inspiration, about sharing some of those things with you.
[00:01:46] And today's episode is about, a digital detox. So unplugging for mental clarity. And this was inspired by a girlfriend of mine who posted the other [00:02:00] day that she's going to, go on a digital detox. She's going off all of socials for the next, I think she said, month to six weeks. She's uninstalling her social apps.
[00:02:15] And if you want to contact her, you can do it through email or phone. It's really about taking that break for that mental clarity. Now, I'm not sure I'm going to go off. social's. Definitely taking summertime here in Australia, my holiday rejuvenation time. It's about, being less active online.
[00:02:45] But here are some things that I'm thinking could be useful in the digital detox. It's about setting clear boundaries. And what my girlfriend did was very clear. She [00:03:00] communicated and said, Hey, community just letting you know, I'm not going to be hanging out here for the next little while. And she was actually very specific with the dates. I just can't recall those off the top of my head.
[00:03:11] So think about the boundaries and the timeframes for your detox. Whether it's going to be, you know, it could just be an hour each day, or it could be a full weekend, or it could be a month. Or six weeks, whatever that means for you.
[00:03:28] I have my own very clear boundaries that I don't, do anything digital, until I've eased into the day. And I also don't do it at the nighttime. So I have nighttime boundaries. I don't have my, I do have my phone next to me for my alarm, but my alarm very, very rarely goes off. I'm awake beforehand, so I could probably turn that off anyway.
[00:03:54] I don't look at my phone, probably in a couple of hours before I go to bed, [00:04:00] I don't look at my computer or anything, even winding down telly. I do watch some TV, but I have a boundaries about when I'm doing that as well. So set clear boundaries.
[00:04:16] Can you create a technology free zone? So, can you designate certain areas in your home or specific activities as technology free zones?
[00:04:25] Keep your bedroom free from screens. We, we have a TV in our bedroom, and I watch it sometimes, and I know there's lots of people out there saying, no, no, no, no, no. I say to them, that's fine for you. We have it in our bedroom and we watch it occasionally. So but could you have technology free zones? I, I don't, I don't. But you could, you could.
[00:04:55] Mindful notifications. This is something I've done for a long, long time. [00:05:00] I'm whenever I get a new app on my phone or computer, I think about the notifications and I have them set to either nil or silent. My email, I never have pop-up notifications. I never, ever, ever have had a sound going, oh, here's a new email on my phone.
[00:05:19] If I want to check my emails. I physically have to go in to my email to see what's new there, and I don't wanna be distracted from what I'm doing. So I adjust my notifications to minimize those interruptions. So think about turning off non essential notifications. Even you can put your phones on silent mode and do not disturb mode.
[00:05:47] I personally don't do that because there's a few, yeah, I personally don't do that, but I know a lot of people do. So, so think about your notifications. Do, I've been doing [00:06:00] this since the Black Friday, well, kind of all the time when I get emails, but very much when those Black Friday sales are on.
[00:06:07] And I seem to be getting emails from everybody that I'd even just had a glimmer of looking at their websites over the whatever period. I just did a unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe. And people do that to my newsletter as well, completely fine with that, because if it's not a value to you, then that's not a value to me having you there, but also it's about having things that are useful for you, that you putting your energy into.
[00:06:36] So a digital declutter, delete. Like unused apps go through when you maybe finish listening to this episode, go through and delete any of your unused apps, organize files, unsubscribe from newsletters, and just to create a more intentional digital environment. So there's the decluttering is the same as your physical decluttering, but you're just doing it [00:07:00] online, even just to clean up of your computer. So it can run at optimum performance.
[00:07:07] Can you plan some analog activities? So replacing digital activities with analog, so choosing a physical book instead of an ebook. I've been doing that. Like I have a, I have eBooks. I have, audio books. I listened to a lot of audio books, but
[00:07:24] there's a couple that I've gone, you know what, I need the physical book for this one. So think about having a a physical book.
[00:07:33] Opt for handwritten notes or engage in hobbies that don't involve screens. Handwritten notes. I'm a, my journaling and journaling generally is a handwritten thing, but even when I'm doing with my clients, I'm a hand writer of that.
[00:07:51] Engage in offline hobbies. Woohoo. Old fashioned. We don't need a screen for everything. So reconnect or [00:08:00] explore, just the, the in person physical stuff. And I know that sounds a little bit like obvious, but sometimes we get so caught up and so reliant on the digital and the technology that think about activities that we could do that don't require our screens or technology at all.
[00:08:24] And I know for some people that they, they say that technology is their way of doing hobbies. That's beautiful. Yep. Get it. But think about other things that you could do that aren't purely technology based.
[00:08:40] Being aware of social media and how much time you're hanging out there. You know, you consumption, what, what did, how much time you're hanging out? How much scrolling are you doing? How useful is that scrolling? Some of the scrolling's really useful about, you know, what [00:09:00] business offerings there are out there, what people are up to, but some, a lot of the scrolling can be quite mind less, not mindful, and I tend to have, I don't have set times. I'm not that rigid, but I'm not scrolling all the time.
[00:09:19] I tend to have points of time where I will check my emails. I have points of time where I will check socials. And some of that is a complete numbing of the mind. I will be honest with that. But I'm not scrolling. I'm not an, I don't scroll for hours on the weekends. I'm not very active on socials at all.
[00:09:46] And I definitely have digital free mornings and evenings. I start and end my day without technology. I mentioned that, I, you know, I don't have a set time. It's not like, Oh, I'm not going to look at it for 30 minutes and then [00:10:00] look at it. I have my morning walk with Bosti, meditation, setting intentions. I come and have brekkie and it's not rushing out the door brekkie. It's about taking time, chatting with John about the day, the just life. Sometimes it's reading.
[00:10:27] Years gone by. My mornings were very bang, bang, bang. Got to get stuff done. Especially when the kids were little. It was like Right! Let's go, let's go, let's go. But it's not that rhythm, that cadence, and it's going to be so much. John and I say to each other each morning going, oh, imagine when we're in our new property down by the coast and we'll be sitting out on the pergola having our brekkie. Imagine that. Oh my gosh. So cool. So cool.
[00:10:53] So digital free mornings and evenings. And that's about helping that mental clarity. [00:11:00] And if you are going to be going off like full on detox, full on, offline, like my girlfriend, she communicated it because what you're wanting to do is just to let, manage those expectations. And if people are saying, Oh, why do you want to do that?
[00:11:16] It's not their business. This is your business. So really communicate about how they can get in contact with you, especially because my girlfriend did this, this was in relation to her business as well. So needing to let people know that they can still get in contact with her, but she's not going to be hanging out online, just there.
[00:11:37] Think about some mindfulness practices that you can include. So breathing, meditation, just really clearing the mind, taking breaks, just physical taking them. I've been at my computer a lot. And here I am saying taking a digital detox because I'm in the process of updating the website and I've been [00:12:00] online a lot for that.
[00:12:01] But my bottom's been hurting because I, the other day I was like, Oh my gosh, my bottom's really hurting. And then I went. Oh, I've been sitting for way, way too long and I've got to stand up desk. And I was just like, Oh yeah, maybe I could stand up for a while. Maybe I could actually move away and do some stretching. Oh yeah. Good idea.
[00:12:21] So that's all this is a little, it's a little tips about things you could do. Do you want to do it? Some of you might go, nah, bugger off. Don't tell me, that I should be offline. This is really just some ideas that maybe you could unplug for some mental clarity. And reflect on the experience.
[00:12:46] If you, I'd love to hear whether you are into digital detoxes or not. So comment, wherever you're listening to this podcast, please comment. I would love you to write and review the podcast as well, [00:13:00] because then we can get it into more hearts, more ears of more listeners. And I really want, and if you've got ideas for, tips you'd like me to cover, I would love to hear that as well.
[00:13:13] So pop your comments. Are you going to do a digital detox? Do you think it's useful worth it? What your experience is with it? How did you go? I'd love for my girlfriend, you know, who you are, to share how her did it. Actually, she won't even be listening to this, but I'll message her. I will email her and ask her to provide comments about how the digital detox went.
[00:13:38] Anyway, hugs, happiness. I will talk to you later. Bye.
[00:13:43] Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed the episode. You can spread the love by sharing it with a friend so she can have a little bit of what we had today. And don't forget to rate and review, so we can get it into as many hearts and ears as possible. You can keep the conversation [00:14:00] going over on my socials at The Happiness Hive. And if you'd like more high vibe happiness in your life, come and join me in our community of inspired and motivated women, where you'll have everything that you need to be truly happy and bounce out of bed every day, living and loving your best and most beautiful life. To find out more, pop over to the Happiness Hive website and click on the link Working with Catherine. Until next time, big hugs and happiness.
