Spend time with your partner
“One of the reasons we’re so overly attached to our smartphones is because we do get a rush of dopamine, serotonin, [when we use them],” says Roberts. “There are so many more ways to get endorphins than from a funny pet video, like pleasurable interaction, or displays of affection.”
So, try to hug your partner as often as possible and spend a lot of time with him or her. You can watch a movie or cook something together. The time spent with your loved ones is much more precious than scrolling through Facebook to see how others live their lives. However, if you still want to use your phone, then use it properly, such as read something useful or call your friends or relatives.
Calm your mind
In order to reduce the time you spend on your phone, you can exercise or do some yoga and meditate. The truth is that we use our phones because we want to get distracted from our daily routine and this way we feel happy and satisfied. But you should find another activity that could make you feel this way and meditation is the solution. The idea is to look for happiness in the right place.
So, before using your phone, try to meditate for at least thirty minutes every day. You will be happier and healthier. Meditation promotes emotional health and well-being and increases your attention.
“You don’t even have to be in a sitting position to meditate,” says David Vago, Ph.D., an instructor at Harvard Medical School and an associate psychologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. “You can be standing in the grocery line. If you’re getting frustrated, just move your awareness to your breath. It’s that simple. It’s amazing how something that subtle can change the experience through your day.”
Take up a hobby
When you live your life with passion and find new hobbies or focus on something that makes you be creative and involved, you will have no time for addictions of any sort. So, in this regard, you have to find an interesting activity that you’d like to do, such as learning a new language or playing an instrument and focus on it. You can dedicate the time you normally spend on your phone to learning a new hobby or even a new skill.
If you do this, the best part is that you will have a lot of experiences and stories to share with other people and you can make new friends that have the same interests as you.
“Left to our own devices, we often opt for passive leisure — TV and web surfing are at the top of most people’s lists. And, sure, we all need to veg out from time to time. But we are so much more invigorated by active leisure, the sort of thing psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls flow activities. If you’ve ever lost yourself in a sport, art project, or other challenging, absorbing activity, you’ve experienced flow,” Jaime Kurtz, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at James Madison University wrote on Psychology Today. “Time flies, self-consciousness disappears, and you are fully immersed in the activity at hand. Hobbies, especially those that stretch our skills, foster this desirable and increasingly elusive state.”
