Buried beneath boundless heaps of emails and pings, haunted by the buzzing of “just one more thing before you go”, it’s plain to see why wellness has become so closely associated with digital detoxing. As much of our professional lives shift toward hybrid or even remote models, the association between technology and stress only grows stronger. But the growing tech bubble is only expanding – as it continues to infiltrate increasingly many aspects of our lives, it’s about time we ask ourselves: How can we reestablish our relationships with technology, using it to propel our wellness practices rather than detract from them?
Don’t get me wrong, there lies so much value in being fully “unplugged” from the digital world for a while, and we should all know our own personal boundaries and when it’s appropriate to step offline. But we have so much to gain from tapping into the potential lying dormant within the very technology we often seek to avoid. We all are lucky enough today to have more resources than we could ever seek to leverage at our fingertips at any given moment – we have meditation apps, online yoga classes, Apple health insights, and the list goes on indefinitely. It’s clear then that what many of us desire most – the feeling of health and wellness – is more accessible than ever. We simply need to approach these innovative technologies with open minds.
It is easy to disregard new technologies as unnecessary, suspect, and whatever else you may seek to to call them. That’s entirely understandable – humans are wired to be change-averse by nature itself, and we fear what we don’t understand.
As concerns of AI taking over the world and internet hackers stealing our data run rampant across the internet, the truth is that technology will only ever be as strong as the humans who coded it. So the next time you find yourself feeling trapped by technology, gasping for a breath of digitally-detoxed air, consider the question: can I free myself of the self-imposed feelings of constraint, and instead embrace the potential lying before? Time and tech dance synchronically, moving only forward. Will you join them?
