Can’t get away from technology scraping for every second of your attention? Today, it seems like everyone is tied to their smartphone, laptop, and almost anything else with a screen. Recent research discovered that in an average week, users check their phone more than 1,500 times to do various tasks from emails and playing games to posting on social media. Technology has invaded every waking second of our lives. It’s too much. How do we remove ourselves from the tech world without going insane? The truth is we don’t need to do anything drastic; we just need a short period of peace and quiet. Is that too much to ask? It can feel that way, especially when we drop all the technology we’re using, and we still can’t get away from it. Our friends are constantly telling us to look at this photo or check out this snap. As a result, we feel more irritable than usual, depressed, annoyed when around people, increasingly fatigued, and hit more creative roadblocks. The first step of taking action to fix a problem is recognizing there is a problem. So if this is you, then a moment of solitude can do wonders to help alleviate these stresses. It’s important to find balance in our lives. Moments of solitude give us just that along with some other benefits. According to a research study in 2006, taking time out even once a day to have a brief period of solitude has significant effects on increasing well-being and relieving stress. We take for granted the benefits of using a short amount of time for only ourselves. Making a little room in our schedules to get away from everything can make an incredible difference in lives. Solitude allows your unconscious to take apart problems and find answers. Moreover, it can give you a substantial boost in energy and creativity. So, where do you start? With only five minutes of silence, you can counteract the invasion of technology in your life. You may be wondering what five minutes can do for you. After all, it’s only five minutes. Even so, the truth is many of us can’t remember the last time we took five minutes of silence to reflect for an extended period. This may be weeks, months, or for some of us workaholics, even years. And all of us can find five minutes of silence in our day. It’s an easy start and an amazing addition to our daily lives. Thomas Merton once said, “Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.” The best way to find a moment of solitude is to make it part of your daily routine. If finding solitude is not a habit, then committing to it will be much harder. It’s easy to put off a five-minute task to the point where you might just forget about it. So, set aside five minutes — preferably the same time every day — to find peace and quiet. Maybe there are already times in your day when you are alone to relax, or times you can easily take more advantage of such as a lunch break. And I’m sure if you think of the amount of things you do in a day; there are one or two of which you can replace with a quick moment of solitude. Some simple steps for finding solitude include getting into a relaxing position. For many of us, that means sitting down. Make sure the area you’re in is far from noise and other distractions. Now, focus on your breathing. Don’t overthink anything, just relax. And with only five minutes of silence, you’ll feel happier, get a creative boost, and have more focus. Ready for a new you?
