How to Cherish Your Phone
If you’re like me, your phone can spike your anxiety. Every notification can feel like an emergency. Every post and email feels like it needs your attention immediately.
There is a way to get out of that mindset.
I was camping last fall and I was running out of phone battery. I was worried I wouldn’t have any battery in case there was an emergency, so I had to ration my phone use. I had external chargers and a car battery port, but they were very slow to charge, so I couldn’t drain my battery and hope for a quick recovery. I had to evaluate every moment of my phone use.
Am I playing a song? Am I texting someone? Am I scrolling Instagram deciding what to post? Am I watching a video?
What is worth my phone battery dying? I decided:
1. Texting my family where I was and that I was okay.
2. Listening to Bruce Springsteen’s Western Stars album on repeat.
I seriously would have taken my phone dying to continue listening to that album while laying on the top of my van, watching the stars.
It was worth it because it heightened my connection to my real life and the natural world around me. I wasn’t staring at my phone, but it was providing a soundtrack for my experience. I could have had a good time without it, but when I put that album on, I felt way more connected to the Earth and myself.
Those couple days of camping made me really evaluate what I was doing and live in the moment.
I had to be outside with myself.
I couldn’t scroll or just check that one thing or just send one text (which always leads to wasting 15 minutes on your phone.)
I had to evaluate – do I need to send a text right now?
Do I need to watch a video when I have 30% battery? No. I can watch it later. Or it’s not something I really wanted to watch anyway.
You have to ration your phone use when you are running out of battery.
It can be tense or anxiety-producing to have a dying battery and have to put your phone down.
But then it can be so freeing.
When you let go of that need for your phone and the need to be connected, you can be fully present with yourself. You’re not worried about anyone else because they can’t get in touch with you. It doesn’t matter anymore. All that matters is you and keeping yourself alive and happy.
We go on vacations such as camping to get a break from our daily lives. To be able to come back and appreciate what we have. And it also helps us evaluate what we don’t need.
When you get space from your phone, you can truly see when you actually need it and when you are just telling yourself you do need it when you don’t.
You can tell when you are using it as a tool and when you are using it as a distraction from making the hard decisions in your life.
So how can you cherish your phone today (not necessarily while camping)?
1. Pretend as if you don’t have access to a charger. What would you do if you only had 30% battery for the rest of the day? Would you scroll on social media? Would you watch a suggested video or go online shopping? Would you play music or a podcast? Would you set your phone down and focus on something else?
2. Notice when you are reaching for your phone and before you open it decide what you’re doing. Are you going to ‘just check Facebook’ or ‘just check your email’? Do you need to correspond with someone or make a phone call? If you really need to check your email, check it, but don’t do it out of boredom for the 30th time of the day. That can be a waste of your time when you could be enjoying your life.
3. Embrace the uncomfortable feeling of not having your phone around you. Once you get used to that feeling, it will start to fade. It will free you up to spend your time the way you want. You may think you want to shop or scroll or watch videos, but you won’t even think about it when you’re away from it. The FOMO goes away too.