Thanks to everyone who came to our Community Conversation around screen time yesterday! We had a great conversation and really appreciated the insight provided by Kathryn and Cady from @islandclinicalcounselling.
Kathryn and Cady emphasized that, as with many habits in life, awareness is always the first step toward any kind of change. Do we actually have an accurate understanding of how much we're on our screens? If we were to write down all our phone use (or check our screen time settings more regularly), what would we learn?
We can also start to pay attention to what we're feeling or noticing in our bodies when we use our phones or when our phones are not accessible.
Based on what we discover about ourselves and our habits we can make more informed decisions about the ways we want to use our phones. If we're looking to reduce our scrolling, starting with bite-sized changes can help us get there.
A comment I really appreciated from our participants, was the reminder that you're not alone! Even though its almost impossible to function in our society without a screen, you're not alone in thinking through your habits and wanting to make healthy choices! There's no one-size-fits-all approach to screen time, so don't hesitate to make the choices that work best for you and your family, even if it looks like no one else is making them.
And this is where compassion becomes critical. Compassion for ourselves and for others. Let's work hard to be gentle with ourselves as we seek to make changes and gentle with our assumptions about others and their choices.
If you're concerned about your phone use or need help getting started with building new habits, working with a compassionate and skilled therapist can help! Reach out to @islandclinicalcounselling.
