Mindfulness v Facebook

[JonW]

Are you a Kindle lover, Babywhale?
J

[Babywhale]

Jon - I don't have a kindle but do have the app on my iPad. I have some books on there, but they date from a few years ago. The books I've gotten recently were from either a bookshop, amazon or from the local library. In fact the library and bookshops are where I should spend more of my time because I always leave them with a good feeling whether I've taken a book or not.

Too few bookshops about these days, especially in smaller towns.

I do prefer a physical paper book rather than the kindle. The downside of course is that I can't carry my physical collection around with me. I might make sure when I go camping next that I've preloaded the kindle

[Babywhale]

Gareth - the forum is great. As a newbie, reading through older threads has been both informative, relaxing and heartening

[Innerchatter]

i have made similar observations, when looking around you do see more and more people engrossed in there devices. It used to be rude to have your phone out at the table, but these days its almost as if its rude not to upload an image of what your about to eat to Facebook for all to see.

My self personally, I am an absolute internet addict. Im not as bad as i was, I used to have get edgy if didn't check something like Facebook or a forum every few minutes, and I'm ashamed to say theres been countless evenings where i have been mindless loop clicking from Facebook to a forum back to Facebook again then back to a forum etc, just waiting for something to happen.

I have been trying to get a grip of this thing of late though, I have noticed that my attention span is really really bad, i used to be able to read novels for days at a time, I get distracted after an hour or so now.

One of the resons for getting into mindfulness was in the hope that it might help get a better attention span again, but I'm finding its also helping me to understand the addiction itself and work at that level rather then just the attention span alone.

in recent weeks through trying to stay mindful i have got rid of a lot of the urges I have to check the internet, I do still have binges, but they don't last nearly as long.

over the last couple of weeks i have been having internet free wednesdays and sundays (although today is a bit of a relapse) , I also keep my phone in m deal draw at work, so I remember not to check it every time I get the urge.

the biggest thing to help has been not taking my phone to bed with me, and starting the day with my formal practice, it seems to set me up for the in away that I don't think about checking the internet.

parts of me wish I could just pull the plug on the internet completely, but there are some really positive things about it that make this impossible. so I'm just trying to reestablish boundaries, its amazing how much easier this process is with a bit mindfulness knowledge to help is though.

in the FPIFW towards the end, it mentions about doing things that nourish you, this section really resonated, with me, having a grouse on the internet can be quite nice, but these soon comes a point where its not dong any good, noticing this and then doing something that I know will nourish is good, it sort helps give you a reason to stop and change what your doing.

[JonW]

'In the FPIFW towards the end, it mentions about doing things that nourish you, this section really resonated, with me, having a grouse on the internet can be quite nice, but these soon comes a point where its not dong any good, noticing this and then doing something that I know will nourish is good, it sort helps give you a reason to stop and change what your doing.'

Exactly this.
Brilliantly put.
Jon

[WideOpenSam]

This is such a great thread - thank you all! I absolutely find myself "checking out" by mindlessly scrolling through facebook or twitter or checking sports scores for a minute or two.

I definitely think phones have made distracting ourselves (as JKZ writes) way more prevalent and easy - more than we are willing to admit, most likely.

Right now I'm actually working on creating simple meditative games that use that inclination to fiddle with your phone as an opportunity to practice mindfulness. So in that moment when you're most likely to check out, right when you unlock your phone, you can remind yourself to tune in instead.

That's the idea anyway And if anyone's interested in helping me out or talking more about it, I'd love to hear from you.