In a study from Stanford University, a 90-minute walk in a natural area was shown to lower the risk of depression, and one survey found that 65 percent of people who put away digital devices while on vacation enjoyed their time away more (not surprising, right?). The longer you spend outside, the more you benefit, but even a 30-minute hike can be beneficial.” “Once you let that happen, that decision-making, problem-solving frontal cortex can be replenished. “In nature, your mind can wander or meditate,” Strayer says. Being away from your devices and out in nature - even for a short time - can offer a fix, a remedy that gets us back to thinking freely. Strayer says extensive time on a screen can cause people to feel mentally drained and produce higher levels of stress and anxiety. That produces long-term build up and depletes the resources that are important for thinking creatively.” “You’re going along, your phone rings, something pops up on your screen - you’re bouncing back and forth. “This digital overload challenges the prefrontal cortex - the part of the brain that handles decision making, problem solving, planning,” says David Strayer, a professor of cognition and neural science at the University of Utah. To find creativity and stillness, we have to silence the noise - the tweets, the buzzing, the notifications. Putting away the distractions of our phones may be necessary for humanity to recover. Now more than ever, figuring out how to disconnect from our devices while we reconnect with each other will be an integral part of our healing process. Kids haven’t been spared either: They’ve gone to school via a computer, attended Zoom birthday parties, and played who-knows-how-many-hours of online games. Reports showed a spike in screen-time usage during the health crisis, with adults spending an average of 10 hours per day on screens, up from 8 hours a day in years prior to the pandemic. We’ve bounced between scrolling news headlines, social media, and email inboxes to attending Zoom meetings and electronic happy hours. I wasn’t missing a thing on my screen because everything I needed was right in front of me.ĭuring these many months at home during the COVID-19 outbreak, we’ve all been physically disconnected from each other but perhaps endlessly connected to our devices. A week without email and social media felt liberating, like I was the kite flying through the wind. Long days spent wandering trails and peaceful evenings roasting marshmallows around the campfire were just the antidote we needed to hit refresh on our lives. Disconnecting was perhaps the most beautiful part of the whole trip.Īfter six nights of sleeping under the most stunning starry night sky, we all felt restored. I took photos with my real camera instead. I even forgot my phone charger, so that quickly stopped working, too. Not on the list? Tablets, laptops, anything requiring a plug. So, my husband and I packed up our van with all the essentials for week of camping near Moab, Utah: bikes for us and our two young children, camp kitchen, sleeping bags, a hammock to string between trees, a stack of books, a kite to fly in the wind. We all needed a break and the desert was just the place to find it. The weeks seemed to pass in fast-forward, a warped medley of emails, interviews, deadlines, and bedtime stories. I’d been operating in overdrive for months-juggling work, kids, the daily hustle. I could feel my shoulders relax as soon as the red-rock landscape of southern Utah sprawled out in front of my car’s windshield.
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