I talked the other day about stillness.
And then I called my shot, I told you I’d be writing about flip phones on todays writing.
Ryan Holiday’s “Stillness is the Key” is a fairly great read. Talks a lot about how important it is to be still, bored, and let your mind populate itself.
It’s one of those things, that tends to sink in for me over time.
Earlier today I tried to take a nap. But I had my phone, and I found myself sucked into it.
I laid there for nearly thirty minutes, mindlessly scrolling. I hated it.
I’m sure you’ve read about how apps are designed to be addicting, they suck you in, and you keep scrolling. It’s about dopamine, and how much dopamine is released through scrolling.
I know that was a poor explanation, but if you’d like a better one you can check this out.
Moving on, well, not really.
For the most part, I don’t enjoy podcasts. Couldn’t tell you why.
There are a few exceptions, My First Million, is a great business podcast if you’re into that stuff.
Trained by Nike, it covers lots of things in the health and fitness world.
And one that hasn’t even come out yet, but has become an immediate favorite, is Real Ones by Jon Bernthal.
There’s only one episode, actually not even. An 18 minute snippet has been released of the first episode, it’s Bernthal sitting down with his guest, Shia Lebouf.
As a general rule of thumb, I avoid celebrity news. I generally knew that Shia had gotten himself into some sort of trouble.
Hard to believe considering in my head, he’s still the guy from Holes, or Indiana Jones’ son.
But watching this snippet was incredible to hear him speak candidly on his mistakes, and his path to becoming a better human being.
A few of the specific things I really liked were him taking responsibility.
No part of it felt like he was blaming anyone, he essentially said ‘this is who I was, now this is who I am.’
It was refreshing to hear so much vulnerability and transparency come from someone who’s career is to be someone else.
At one point he talked about his experience in rehab, how they took his phone and that was the best thing for him.
“I had no absence in my life, my free moments were filled with boosts to my arrogance and mindless scrolling.”
As soon as I heard that I started going “flip phone! flip phone!”
Unfortunately he didn’t get a flip phone, not to my knowledge at least.
It was incredible though, to hear about how vital it is for anyone to have more absence in their life, or stillness, whatever you’d like to call it.
Being in the fitness world for so long, I have a fairly accurate understanding of diet and nutrition. I am generally very aware of what food goes into my body, and if something feels off I can typically tell you why.
When I eat bad things, I feel bad, my workouts are bad, I’m more tired.
But it’s the same thing with what goes into my brain, when I’m just pumping content into my brain, whether it’s politics, or comedy videos, or anything in between, that’s affecting me.
Making smart mental decisions doesn’t just mean going to therapy, it also means, at least for me, scheduling time away from my phone.
I doubt a flip phone is anywhere near in my future, for lots of reasons.
But I am going to be doing my best to turn my iPhone into something similar.
As September begins tomorrow, I’ve set the goal to average each day with less than 3 hours screen time. Right now I average 6.
Join me if you’d like.
If you enjoyed this, I write a weekly reflection on my path to becoming resilient, you can subscribe to that over here.
I’ve been ending these with a reflective question of sorts, something that ideally would make you think a little more about life, your brain, and maybe other things.
Today, this crossed my mind, and I’ll be putting it on yours.
Every day is good, bad, or meh. What are 3 things that happen on every good day? Every bad day? Every meh day? Can you try and seek out those 3 good day things?
See ya tomorrow.