Podcast Ep 314 - How our Phones are Killing our Creativity

In this episode of the Flourish Academy podcast, Heather Lahtinen talks about the paradox of modern existence: our constant quest for happiness amidst the very distractions that make us miserable. Drawing from the insights of Dr. Anna Lembke's book "Dopamine: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence," Heather discusses the detrimental effects of digital overindulgence and the importance of reclaiming our mental space from the clutches of technology. 

Heather challenges listeners to break free from the cycle of constant stimulation and embrace moments of boredom as opportunities for self-discovery and creativity. Tune it for practical tips, from removing social media apps to embracing grayscale screens, to foster a healthier relationship with technology and cultivate a more intentional, fulfilling life.

Show Notes:

• Addressing sources of discontent.
• Detrimental effects of digital overindulgence.
• Emphasizes reclaiming mental space and embracing boredom for creativity.
• Practical tips for tech balance.
• Mindful disconnection and reconnection.

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TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to the Flourish Academy podcast, and today I'm talking about creating a happier life by acknowledging what is making you miserable. My name is Heather Lawton,
and I'm a photographer, educator, and entrepreneur, and I founded the Flourish Academy as a resource for photographers of all levels. We want to help you pursue your passion on your own terms because we believe there is room for everyone.
In this podcast, we focus on creating breakthroughs with your mindset to discover the things that are really holding you back in business and life. In order to come up with solutions to the problems in our lives,
we have to think creatively. Certainly we have to think differently, but we don't have time to think about those possible solutions to our challenges because we're so busy trying not to think about our own misery.
Essentially, the reason we're also miserable may be because we're working so hard to avoid being miserable. We want to be happier, but we aren't willing to look at why we aren't happy,
which is obviously very ironic. And the way we get around all of this is by distracting ourselves, typically with our phones or some type of technology. And I mean,
you know, these devices are killing us, right? I recently picked up a book by Dr. Anna Lembeke called Dopamine, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.
And it was fascinating. I devoured this book. I highly recommend it. I'm thinking I might do a few podcast episodes around this whole idea of the pleasure pain cycle.
But I just wanna share with you something From the book, I think she's a psychologist and she has patience so she shares a lot of these stories and she said she was talking to a young woman named Sophie,
who I'm sure that's not her real name, and Sophie was telling her that she has a lot of depression and anxiety and she told the doctor that she spends most of her waking hours plugged into some kind of device,
Instagramming, YouTube being, listening to podcasts and playlists, whatever. So in the session, this is now directly from the book, the doctor saying, I suggested she try walking to class without listening to anything and just letting her own thoughts bubble to the surface.
She looked at me both incredulous and afraid. Why would I do that? She asked open mouthed. Well, I've entered it's a way of becoming familiar with yourself of letting your experience unfold without trying to control it or run away from it.
All that distracting yourself with devices may be contributing to your depression and anxiety. It's pretty exhausting avoiding yourself all the time. I wonder if experiencing yourself in a different way might give you access to new thoughts and feelings and help you feel more connected to yourself,
to others, and to the world. She thought about that for a minute, she said, but it's so boring. Yes, that's true, I remarked. Boredom is not just boring.
It can also be terrifying. It forces us to come face to face with bigger questions of meaning and purpose, but boredom is also an opportunity for discovery and invention.
It creates the space necessary for a new thought to form without which we're endlessly reacting to stimuli around us rather than allowing ourselves to be within our lived experience.
And that is a perfect summary of some thing I created a few years ago. This is so crazy. I created this class for elevate called the two W's of success.
And of course, this author put it together more succinctly, but my two W's of success were that you need to wonder and wonder.
So wonder W O N D E R is the desire to be curious to know something, which what we're talking about here is being curious to know about yourself. And then to wonder W -A -N -D -E -R is to walk or move in a leisurely,
casual, or aimless way. Warren Buffett suggested that everyone spend at least one hour per day thinking, and I would argue that that would be easier to do,
or maybe you could do it like more but spread out through the day if you just put down your phone, like if you didn't have your phone. I know that there are some of you who are listening that remember what it was like before we had phones.
If you're anything like me, oh my gosh, you romanticize that past. You long for that time when we didn't have things to do like related to our phones. It's just so crazy to imagine and it makes me so sad for my children in this current generation who are never going to know what it's like to just sit with your boredom or forget to know yourself.
These phones are making us miserable because they gave us the outlet to avoid thinking or being with ourselves. I have a goal to take a walk every day out in our woods.
We live on 35 acres and it's beautiful. Previously, I would take my phone and listen to a podcast. I think, oh my gosh, I could get two things done at once and that would be amazing. But within the last,
I don't No, six months or a year, I decided to leave my phone behind just so I could wonder and wonder and be with my own thoughts and come up with ideas.
This is one of the reasons you come up with your best ideas in the shower because you can't do anything else. I want to make this episode really short because I recognize the irony in what I'm saying here and the fact that you're probably listening to this on a phone,
but I have removed all social media from my phone. I haven't had email on my phone in many years. And I recently changed my phone to grayscale so I don't get that dopamine hit from all of the colors.
And the first, I don't know, week or so that I had done that, the amount of times I just went for my phone to look at, say, Instagram was appalling.
And now I've gotten pretty comfortable with the fact that there is really nothing on my phone to look at. There really isn't. So I'm only going to reply to text messages and I use an app called Voxer to chat with Nicole and some of my other friends.
But besides that, I mean, no one really calls me. So why do I need all of those? Why do I even need a phone, honestly? But it is convenient. You would be so much happier and so much better positioned to solve the challenges that you face in your life if you had time to think.
You just need time to process things in your mind so that you can come up with ideas and creative solutions to the challenges that you are facing. It's just that you won't allow yourself or your brain to go there because yeah,
in fact, it is challenging. But what's the alternative? We're all living the alternative, which is to just scroll endlessly and aimlessly through all of this social media to get some sort of dopamine fix so that we can continue to live this very dull existence and I'm done with it.
I'm just so sick of it. I'm not saying I'm never going to have social media on my phone again. Periodically, I will put Instagram back on to just look at some funny chicken memes or Cat memes,
my friend sends me, I love the cat videos, but I just honestly feel like that is not the best use of my brain power. Now I'm not saying we don't need some downtime to rest and recover.
I just think it doesn't have to be with our phone. I think your time would be better spent sitting there doing nothing, honestly, or taking a walk or reading a book. I'm excited.
That's not even the right word. What's like a bigger word than excited? Ecstatic, eager. I'm really hopeful for the growth of my business and what I'm creating for photographers.
Essentially, I just wanna help them all make tons of money. And I just don't think I can do that from a place of, I don't know, being brain dead. I'm not saying we're brain dead,
but pretty close because we can't seem to break free of our phones or technology. It takes real effort to do this. I would recommend you just experiment with taking one social media platform or all of them off of your phone for a few days.
Like just test it out and see if you can in fact survive. And then you just extend that. When I did the email experiment, This has to be three years ago. I told myself,
okay, I'm going to take email off my phone. I can always put it back on. But why not just experiment and see, do I really need it on my phone? And I have never gone back from that. I've actually been conducting an experiment this week on how many emails actually need my attention in like any given day or week.
And so I'm about three days into this experiment and each day it's been zero or one. I just don't think we're as important as we think we are. And I think you also realize what's going on here that these tech companies are fighting for our attention and they're winning.
And it makes me kind of mad. So I just don't want to fall prey to their game. I know I am because I buy things on Amazon at the drop of a hat. What was happening for me with Instagram is I would see something and I'd be like,
Oh, I need that. And I would just go buy it. Do you remember when you had to make a list and think about the things you wanted to purchase and then you would go to the store once a week or maybe not even that often and you would have to look at something,
look at the price and then buy it and make the decision or if you want to go way back, you had to place an order on paper and mail it to the Sears catalog, Sears if you wanted something that you couldn't find in the store,
but there was space between thought and purchase and now there's just no space and we're all just reacting. I want to be more proactive in my life. I want to create a life,
my ideal life by my design. And that means I need to be thinking ahead of time about what I want to create. That's what being proactive means. But I have found myself with technology being very reactive.
And I just don't like it. You know why? Because it feels like I'm not in control and I want to be in control. I want to encourage you to pick up this book about dopamine, but at the very least, try and experiment,
remove some social media from your phone, turn it grayscale and go outside and look at the trees. I hope that you found this useful. I'll see you in the next episode.