The Profound Power of Pause: Reclaiming Stillness in a Digital World

Are we losing the battle against the relentless buzz of the modern world? Find out as I, Jim Cunningham, delve into the transformative power of stillness on mental wellness. In this engaging episode of Unscripted Mind, we rekindle the age-old wisdom of Blaise Pascal and examine the heavy toll our omnipresent digital distractions impose on our lives. From the deteriorating mental health of adolescents glued to social media to the eroding attention spans and relationships in adults, we uncover research that reveals today's digital dilemma. But fear not, as we also uncover a cost-free remedy to the stresses of contemporary life that requires no more than a pause.

This episode isn't just a wake-up call; it's an invitation to rediscover tranquility in your daily routine. We offer practical strategies to reclaim moments of peace, which, as Ryan Holiday suggests, help steady the archer's aim in life. We're not just talking theory; we're proposing a lifestyle shift towards balance and mindfulness. Join me in exploring how embracing the profound power of pause can lead to a more balanced existence and the profound benefits that ripple out from the simple act of being still. Whether it's engaging with neighbors or savoring quietude alone, this podcast episode is your guide to stepping back from the cacophony and embracing the profound power of stillness.

Sources:

Exelmans, L., & Van den Bulck, J. (2016). Bedtime mobile phone use and sleep in adults. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 12(4), 447-453. 

Hari, Johann. Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2022.

Harvard Health Publishing. (2021). Journaling: A tool for stress relief. Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu

Holiday, Ryan. Stillness is the Key. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2019.

Keles, B., McCrae, N., & Grealish, A. (2020). A systematic review: The influence of social media on depression, anxiety, and psychological distress in adolescents. Computers in Human Behavior, 91, 234-243.

Lepp, A., Barkley, J. E., & Karpinski, A. C. (2015). The relationship between cell phone use and academic performance in a sample of U.S. college students. Educational Psychology, 35(4), 507-515. Link

Psych Central. (2021). The mental health benefits of journaling. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com

Ra, C. K., Cho, J., Stone, M. D., De La Cerda, J., Goldenson, N. I., Moroney, E., ... & Leventhal, A. M. (2018). Association of digital media use with subsequent symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder among adolescents. JAMA, 320(3), 255-263. Link

Shensa, A., Escobar-Viera, C. G., Sidani, J. E., Bowman, N. D., Marshal, M. P., & Primack, B. A. (2017). Problematic social media use and depressive symptoms among U.S. young adults: A nationally-representative study. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 71-79. Link

Tremblay, M. S., LeBlanc, A. G., Kho, M. E., Saunders, T. J., Larouche, R., Colley, R. C., ... & Duggan, M. (2011). Systematic review of sedentary behavior and health indicators in school-aged children and youth. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 8, 98. 

University of Rochester Medical Center. (n.d.). Benefits of journaling. Retrieved from https://www.urmc.rochester.edu

Transcript

Jim Cunningham: 0:01

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly alone in a room. That was written in 1654 by Blaise Pascal. If it was that hard in 1654, can you imagine how hard it is today just to be still? Today, on the Unscripted Mind, we're discussing how the breakneck pace of life is stealing our happiness, our focus and our mental wellness, and we're going to discuss some very simple ways you can get back to the basics of being still. And here's the good news it won't cost you a dime. Welcome to the Unscripted Mind podcast, where our goal is to give you fresh perspectives, practical insights and tools you can use to give you more choices, increase your awareness and have better control of your feelings, reactions and behaviors. My name is Jim Cunningham, a licensed professional counselor, and today we're going to discuss the art and benefits of just being still. But first we have to discuss all of the negative side effects of not being still.

Jim Cunningham: 1:15

You know, everywhere we look there's another distraction. Often we create our own diversions. Every moment is filled with something, from texts to email, to music, to video games, to work you name it. We carry devices with us to ensure that we are never, ever bored, and we are never without our devices. The news gives us a perpetual stream of crises and work follows us home on every screen. We just can't get away from it these days. So what does research say about the effects of electronic devices and social media on us and all these other distractions? Here are just some of the impacts and spoiler alert, they're probably not going to surprise anyone. Mental health impact review published in Computers and Human Behavior found a significant association between social media use and increased risks of depression, anxiety and sleep problems, particularly in adolescents and young adults. Speaking of sleep disturbance, research published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine indicates that the use of electronic devices before bedtime can lead to poor sleep quality and shortened sleep duration, particularly among teenagers. You might be noticing a trend at this point. Adolescents and teens, and our youth, are particularly susceptible to a lot of these distractions. But that doesn't mean we as adults aren't also impacted. A study in educational psychology highlighted that heavy use of electronic devices can negatively impact students' attention span and cognitive functions, which in turn affects their academic performance. Findings in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine suggest that excessive screen time is associated with increased risks of obesity and other sedentary life-related health issues. Research published in Computers and Human Behavior demonstrated that heavy social media use can lead to poor interpersonal communication skills and weaken real-life relationships. And finally, a longitudinal study in psychology science found that frequent use of digital media is linked to ADHD among adolescents.

Jim Cunningham: 3:32

I've included the citations in the description below, but these are not surprises for any of us, and neither are any other consequences. We know these things. In his book Stillness is the Key, ryan Holiday says it this way we are overfed and undernourished. In his book Stillness is the Key, ryan Holiday says it this way no-transcript. What's the point? Well, the point is that the things that we're doing aren't helping. In fact, in a lot of ways, they're making things worse. We have more mental health services available now than ever before, with more people taking advantage of those services than ever before, and yet anxiety and depression trends and a lot of other negative symptoms those trends over the past 50 years continue to show a significant rise in prevalence across all age groups, with notable increases you guessed it with adolescents and young adults. Now, there's a number of social and economic and technological factors that have contributed to these trends, but the problem exists and we have to acknowledge that.

Jim Cunningham: 4:33

So how do we get back to basics, back to a time before all the noise, when you could just sit, visit with neighbors, when evenings and weekends were your time to be with friends and family, when you were not in a hurry, you didn't have a list a mile long of things you needed to take care of, when you were actually off the clock and unreachable by the boss. When was the last time you gave your brain a break just to be still, to sit quietly, to think, to wonder, to relax. No music, no distractions, no nagging notifications, just solitude? We often forget the tremendous benefits of stillness. According to Holliday, it's stillness that aims the archer's arrow. It inspires new ideas. It sharpens perspective and illuminates connections. It slows the ball down so that we might hit it. It generates a vision, helps us resist the passions of the mob, makes space for gratitude and wonder. Stillness allows us to persevere, to succeed. It is the key that unlocks the insights of genius. This is one of those true cases where less is actually more. Downtime might seem like a waste of time these days because we always have something to do, but it's anything but that. In fact, it can be our most productive and creative time.

Jim Cunningham: 6:04

Why do you think so many great ideas have happened in the shower, when people are being still and relaxed. I'll give you a few examples. Archimedes discovered the principle of buoyancy while taking a bath. Einstein often mentioned that his insights into physics, including those that led to the theory of relativity, came during moments of daydreaming and relaxation. Jk Rowling conceived the idea for her Harry Potter series of books during a delayed train trip her Harry Potter series of books during a delayed train trip. James Watson had a sudden insight into the double helix structure of DNA while he was relaxing. Jonas Salk came up with the idea for the polio vaccine while taking a break at a monastery. And Paul McCartney of the Beatles famously woke up with the melody for Yesterday in his head after dreaming it. If it works for, why wouldn't it work for us also? So here's some ideas on how to add some stillness back into your life and, again, not going to cost you a cent to do them.

Jim Cunningham: 7:12

I might suggest starting with the question why do I avoid the quiet and the stillness? I see many clients who spend a great deal of time trying not to hear that inner voice. I've had some tell me I just don't want to be alone with my own thoughts too long Trying to avoid uncomfortable thoughts. Fears and regrets are other reasons people tend to avoid it, but I think being aware of why may be a great place to start to investigate this for yourself. The second thing I would say is to be intentional. Stillness is not going to happen on its own or by accident. You have to schedule it, put it on your calendar. You'll need to be ruthlessly deliberate on this. Too many other things are vying to get your attention and your time incredibly restorative, and this doesn't mean just sitting and scrolling on TikTok or watching television. It means turning off all the noises and just being still.

Jim Cunningham: 8:13

One other thing I might recommend and this kind of ties in with the idea of figuring out why you're trying to avoid the quiet is journaling. I know you've probably heard this a million times, but I don't think there's any right or wrong way to journal. I don't journal daily, but I tend to do it when I need to, when I need to process some thoughts and try to get some stuff out of my head. I tend to start writing just free flow or thoughts to declutter the mind, and the simple act of getting all those thoughts out of my head forces me to organize them in some sort of way and to see them more objectively. When all those thoughts are still just rolling around in my head, it feels very chaotic, and so getting them out of your head is a great way to kind of address that. I think it's kind of like when you have a nightmare where you tell somebody about the nightmare. That seemed really scary in the moment, but as soon as you tell somebody about it it sounds kind of ridiculous and demystifies it in a lot of ways. But as soon as you tell somebody about it, it sounds kind of ridiculous and demystifies it in a lot of ways. I found that journaling during times of stress tends to reduce the emotions, provides better contact and clarity to the issue. So something to try out. But I would say this if you're gonna journal, do it with like pen and paper old school. I know there's a lot of apps and stuff that are good for journaling, but for the purposes of this exercise I think pen and paper works the best, and there's a lot of reasons for that we can go into another time.

Jim Cunningham: 9:32

Another thing I would suggest is just letting go. Being still necessarily means relaxing our control of things, unplugging and just being left in the present. It can also be very helpful to let go of the tension. We carry that around and a lot of times we don't notice it. So I would suggest, as you're sitting there and trying to control, just notice which muscles are still tense and then consciously relax them. In short, start caring less. If you don't know how to do that, I recommend you check out my previous podcast on you guessed it Caring Less. And the last thing this is like mind-numbingly simple, but take a walk.

Jim Cunningham: 10:13

Walking provides calming bilateral movement. If you're familiar with the therapy EMDR eye movement, desensitization and reprocessing it's a trauma-based therapy that I do, but it is based largely on bilateral movement. Bilateral movement tends to calm us down and really facilitates our ability to process things. So in a lot of ways, the tools that we use for EMDR mimic walking. So walking without music or distraction gives us time to think, to process the day effectively, to assimilate and make sense of all the random thoughts and all the ideas and emotions.

Jim Cunningham: 10:51

So a lot of people ask well, how long do I walk? And the answer is as long as it takes. Some days a half mile walk would do the trick. Some days it's a six mile walk. Sometimes I need an hour or so just to process through all the stuff, depending on how much stuff I've got to deal with. I think that by turning off the noise and using some of these techniques, even 30 minutes a day, I believe you will see a tremendous difference in how you feel and your productivity.

Jim Cunningham: 11:20

If we can just take a few minutes to be still, we might be able to reduce some of the daily noise that distracts us, that makes us anxious, sad and just completely overwhelms us. But remember, that takes intentionality. It's not going to happen on its own. But here's the great news there's nothing between you and standing still from where you are now to doing nothing. In fact, you don't need a therapist, you don't need new devices. You don't need new devices. You don't need another app or money. All you have to do is stop and be still. Simple, but not easy. Thanks for tuning in to the Unscripted Mind. If you found this episode helpful, please subscribe, leave us a review and if you have any questions or topics you'd like us to cover, please us a review. And if you have any questions or topics you'd like us to cover, please include that also. Until next time, remember, life does not come with a script. So embrace the unexpected, cherish the unplanned, always stay curious and have an amazing, amazing day. We'll see you next time on the Unscripted Mind.