Turning Notifications Off & Turning Mindfulness On

Mindfulness and calm have been big business in hashtag trends and a buzzword for those who like to take photos of their ‘peaceful’ yoga time. The problem there is, mindfulness and calm are more about disconnecting and relaxing – without the need for social validation. Now, sharing with your followers and friends that you are in that frame of mind, actually encourages others to do the same – after all, we are social creatures, and we like to try the things we see. How do you think the highlighting trend came about? But, it also means that while you should have given your full and conscious attention to being in the moment, you were actually somewhere else. Defeating the whole purpose.

Photo by Lesly Juarez on Unsplash

So the next time you head out into the garden to relax and start to Instagram your beautiful wine glass filled with a crisp white, with your rosy red toenails, light tan and fencing panels in the background – stop. Put the mobile phone down, in fact just put it back in the house.

The world we live in, (even more so if you are a blogger or work from home and social media is a means of getting paid), is very visual. The problem here is that the pressure to continually show people what we are doing, when we are doing it is enormous.

To some (many) being without a mobile phone in hand can seem like it is one of the most challenging things in life, in fact in May goals you’ll see this: “I’m far, far too addicted to my phone” so it is something that takes work and time.

If that is true of you too, there are some things you can do to help defeat the need to hop between apps for hours.

Turn off your notifications – for anything other than calls or text messages. Without the tweets, Facebook tags, emails and WhatsApp notifications you are free to select two or three times a day where you check in. You won’t miss out on anything, but you will give yourself some breathing room.

If you want to go one step further, remove two or three social apps from your phone. Pick the ones that you spend the most unnecessary time on. Waking up and scrolling through Facebook might seem like a good idea, but you’re not only feeding an addiction – you’re also ensuring the first things you see are about other people. The focus should be on waking up, taking a breath and starting your day.

Make time to read. Reading properly forces you to stop multitasking because you need to pay attention to understand what is going on. If you don’t see yourself picking up a book, then try a movie with subtitles. If you miss a sentence or two because you were too eager to pick up your phone, you might miss something vital – full focus is required.

Mindfulness is about being conscious in that moment. Whether you are working, reading or relaxing – you focus solely and intensely on that activity.

So perhaps it’s time to remove some apps and regain some calm.

This is a collaborative post.