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

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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

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The goal of The UnScripted Mind Podcast is to give you fresh perspectives, practical insights and tools you can use to give you more choices, self-awareness and control of your feelings, reactions and behaviors.

Episode Transcript

Jim Cunningham (00:01):
All of humanity's problems stem from
man's inability to sit quietlyalone in a room.
That was written in 1654 byBlaise 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

(00:23):
breakneck pace of life isstealing our happiness, our
focus and our mental wellness,and we're going to discuss some
very simple ways you can getback to the basics of being
still.
And here's the good news itwon't cost you a dime.
Welcome to the Unscripted Mindpodcast, where our goal is to

(00:48):
give you fresh perspectives,practical insights and tools you
can use to give you morechoices, increase your awareness
and have better control of yourfeelings, reactions and
behaviors.
My name is Jim Cunningham, alicensed professional counselor,
and today we're going todiscuss the art and benefits of
just being still.
But first we have to discussall of the negative side effects

(01:13):
of not being still.
You know, everywhere we lookthere's another distraction.
Often we create our owndiversions.
Every moment is filled withsomething, from texts to email,
to music, to video games, towork you name it.
We carry devices with us toensure that we are never, ever
bored, and we are never withoutour devices.

(01:35):
The news gives us a perpetualstream of crises and work
follows us home on every screen.
We just can't get away from itthese days.
So what does research say aboutthe effects of electronic
devices and social media on usand all these other distractions
?
Here are just some of theimpacts and spoiler alert,
they're probably not going tosurprise anyone.

(01:56):
Mental health impact reviewpublished in Computers and Human
Behavior found a significantassociation between social media
use and increased risks ofdepression, anxiety and sleep
problems, particularly inadolescents and young adults.
Speaking of sleep disturbance,research published in the

(02:18):
Journal of Clinical SleepMedicine indicates that the use
of electronic devices beforebedtime can lead to poor sleep
quality and shortened sleepduration, particularly among
teenagers.
You might be noticing a trendat this point.
Adolescents and teens, and ouryouth, are particularly
susceptible to a lot of thesedistractions.

(02:39):
But that doesn't mean we asadults aren't also impacted.
A study in educationalpsychology highlighted that
heavy use of electronic devicescan negatively impact students'
attention span and cognitivefunctions, which in turn affects
their academic performance.
Findings in the AmericanJournal of Preventive Medicine

(02:59):
suggest that excessive screentime is associated with
increased risks of obesity andother sedentary life-related
health issues.
Research published in Computersand Human Behavior demonstrated
that heavy social media use canlead to poor interpersonal
communication skills and weakenreal-life relationships.

(03:20):
And finally, a longitudinalstudy in psychology science
found that frequent use ofdigital media is linked to ADHD
among adolescents.
I've included the citations inthe 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 theKey, ryan Holiday says it this

(03:44):
way we are overfed andundernourished.
In his book Stillness is theKey, ryan Holiday says it this
way no-transcript.
What's the point?
Well, the point is that thethings that we're doing aren't
helping.
In fact, in a lot of ways,they're making things worse.
We have more mental healthservices available now than ever
before, with more people takingadvantage of those services

(04:06):
than ever before, and yetanxiety and depression trends
and a lot of other negativesymptoms those trends over the
past 50 years continue to show asignificant rise in prevalence
across all age groups, withnotable increases you guessed it
with adolescents and youngadults.
Now, there's a number of socialand economic and technological

(04:27):
factors that have contributed tothese trends, but the problem
exists and we have toacknowledge that.
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 yourtime to be with friends and
family, when you were not in ahurry, you didn't have a list a

(04:51):
mile long of things you neededto take care of, when you were
actually off the clock andunreachable by the boss.
When was the last time you gaveyour brain a break just to be
still, to sit quietly, to think,to wonder, to relax.
No music, no distractions, nonagging notifications, just

(05:13):
solitude?
We often forget the tremendousbenefits of stillness.
According to Holliday, it'sstillness that aims the archer's
arrow.
It inspires new ideas.
It sharpens perspective andilluminates connections.
It slows the ball down so thatwe might hit it.
It generates a vision, helps usresist the passions of the mob,

(05:36):
makes space for gratitude andwonder.
Stillness allows us topersevere, to succeed.
It is the key that unlocks theinsights of genius.
This is one of those true caseswhere less is actually more.
Downtime might seem like awaste of time these days because

(05:56):
we always have something to do,but it's anything but that.
In fact, it can be our mostproductive and creative time.
Why do you think so many greatideas have happened in the
shower, when people are beingstill and relaxed.
I'll give you a few examples.
Archimedes discovered theprinciple of buoyancy while

(06:17):
taking a bath.
Einstein often mentioned thathis insights into physics,
including those that led to thetheory of relativity, came
during moments of daydreamingand relaxation.
Jk Rowling conceived the ideafor her Harry Potter series of
books during a delayed traintrip her Harry Potter series of

(06:39):
books during a delayed traintrip.
James Watson had a suddeninsight into the double helix
structure of DNA while he wasrelaxing.
Jonas Salk came up with theidea for the polio vaccine while
taking a break at a monastery.
And Paul McCartney of theBeatles famously woke up with
the melody for Yesterday in hishead after dreaming it.
If it works for, why wouldn'tit work for us also?

(07:03):
So here's some ideas on how toadd some stillness back into
your life and, again, not goingto cost you a cent to do them.
I might suggest starting withthe question why do I avoid the
quiet and the stillness?
I see many clients who spend agreat deal of time trying not to
hear that inner voice.

(07:24):
I've had some tell me I justdon't want to be alone with my
own thoughts too long Trying toavoid uncomfortable thoughts.
Fears and regrets are otherreasons people tend to avoid it,
but I think being aware of whymay be a great place to start to
investigate this for yourself.
The second thing I would say isto be intentional.

(07:44):
Stillness is not going tohappen on its own or by accident
.
You have to schedule it, put iton your calendar.
You'll need to be ruthlesslydeliberate on this.
Too many other things are vyingto get your attention and your
time incredibly restorative, andthis doesn't mean just sitting

(08:08):
and scrolling on TikTok orwatching television.
It means turning off all thenoises and just being still.
One other thing I mightrecommend and this kind of ties
in with the idea of figuring outwhy you're trying to avoid the
quiet is journaling.
I know you've probably heardthis a million times, but I
don't think there's any right orwrong way to journal.
I don't journal daily, but Itend to do it when I need to,

(08:29):
when I need to process somethoughts and try to get some
stuff out of my head.
I tend to start writing justfree flow or thoughts to
declutter the mind, and thesimple act of getting all those
thoughts out of my head forcesme to organize them in some sort
of way and to see them moreobjectively.
When all those thoughts arestill just rolling around in my
head, it feels very chaotic, andso getting them out of your

(08:52):
head is a great way to kind ofaddress that.
I think it's kind of like whenyou have a nightmare where you
tell somebody about thenightmare.
That seemed really scary in themoment, but as soon as you tell
somebody about it it soundskind of ridiculous and
demystifies it in a lot of ways.
But as soon as you tellsomebody about it, it sounds
kind of ridiculous anddemystifies it in a lot of ways.
I found that journaling duringtimes of stress tends to reduce
the emotions, provides bettercontact and clarity to the issue

(09:13):
.
So something to try out.
But I would say this if you'regonna journal, do it with like
pen and paper old school.
I know there's a lot of appsand stuff that are good for
journaling, but for the purposesof this exercise I think pen
and paper works the best, andthere's a lot of reasons for
that we can go into another time.
Another thing I would suggest isjust letting go.

(09:34):
Being still necessarily meansrelaxing our control of things,
unplugging and just being leftin the present.
It can also be very helpful tolet go of the tension.
We carry that around and a lotof times we don't notice it.
So I would suggest, as you'resitting there and trying to
control, just notice whichmuscles are still tense and then

(09:56):
consciously relax them.
In short, start caring less.
If you don't know how to dothat, I recommend you check out
my previous podcast on youguessed it Caring Less.
And the last thing this is likemind-numbingly simple, but take
a walk.
Walking provides calmingbilateral movement.

(10:16):
If you're familiar with thetherapy EMDR eye movement,
desensitization and reprocessingit's a trauma-based therapy
that I do, but it is basedlargely on bilateral movement.
Bilateral movement tends tocalm us down and really
facilitates our ability toprocess things.
So in a lot of ways, the toolsthat we use for EMDR mimic

(10:37):
walking.
So walking without music ordistraction gives us time to
think, to process the dayeffectively, to assimilate and
make sense of all the randomthoughts and all the ideas and
emotions.
So a lot of people ask well, howlong do I walk?
And the answer is as long as ittakes.
Some days a half mile walkwould do the trick.

(10:59):
Some days it's a six mile walk.
Sometimes I need an hour or sojust to process through all the
stuff, depending on how muchstuff I've got to deal with.
I think that by turning off thenoise and using some of these
techniques, even 30 minutes aday, I believe you will see a
tremendous difference in how youfeel and your productivity.

(11:20):
If we can just take a fewminutes to be still, we might be
able to reduce some of thedaily noise that distracts us,
that makes us anxious, sad andjust completely overwhelms us.
But remember, that takesintentionality.
It's not going to happen on itsown.
But here's the great newsthere's nothing between you and

(11:40):
standing still from where youare now to doing nothing.
In fact, you don't need atherapist, you don't need new
devices.
You don't need new devices.
You don't need another app ormoney.
All you have to do is stop andbe still.
Simple, but not easy.
Thanks for tuning in to theUnscripted Mind.
If you found this episodehelpful, please subscribe, leave

(12:02):
us a review and if you have anyquestions or topics you'd like
us to cover, please us a review.
And if you have any questionsor topics you'd like us to cover
, please include that also.
Until next time, remember, lifedoes 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 theUnscripted Mind.