The power of Intentional Living: reclaiming our time and connection in a digital world.

Written By Michelle Hammond

I have been reflecting lately on how the use of technology allows us to get more done in a day now than ever before. The pace of technological change will only continue to accelerate, allowing more of this to happen, and I wonder how this is impacting us.

Think about these three tasks: transferring money between your accounts, buying some new shoes, and replying to a friend’s message. For our parents or grandparents, those three tasks may have been all they could do in a day. In 2024, we can do those three things in roughly 5 minutes. This has both advantages and disadvantages. There is a hope that comes with getting more done – that it will give us more time – yet somehow, today people report that time is passing faster than ever. So, what is happening with this newfound time?

What seems to be happening is that our time is being filled with more things to do. The more we can get done, the more we do; the more we can do, the more we want to get done, and the more overwhelmed we feel. Fast forward to 2024, where we are facing a mental health crisis, with reports of anxiety and overwhelm at an all-time high.

We are busier now than we have ever been and our nervous systems are struggling.

As a saucy little side dish to this predicament, technological change has allowed us to have access to information from all parts of the globe that our parents and grandparents did not have access to. This information is often unpleasant (as news usually is), and most of the time, we have no direct influence or control over it, which means there are little to no actions we can take to resolve this unpleasant feeling. It has nowhere to go but to sit in our nervous systems, and our nervous systems have not evolved to process that much negative information at once.

There is absolutely no doubt that the use of technology has catapulted us into a realm in which we are struggling to keep up. Many of us live in a perpetual growth society that is focused on more - for us to be more, do more, get more, make more. Paired with a lovely little device that feeds us with endless possibilities of how to achieve that, it’s no wonder why the atmosphere of society is one of growing existential anxiety and dread.

We can’t keep up.

With a strong undercurrent of “I don’t have enough time” accompanied by societal pressures to do more and be more, we are all slowly cooking ourselves from the inside out.

If any of this resonates with you, there is encouraging news (see image below for humourous resolution)

For the sake of our nervous systems, we need to:

 

Start pulling ourselves out of the technological vortex and choosing real life.

 

 Be more intentional about when and why we are using our phones.

 

Ask ourselves often – can this wait? (hint – everything can unless someone’s life depends on it).

 

To engage more in connections within the community and be in nature to restore our nervous systems.

 

Be more focused on living, rather than showing people we are living.

 

 

This is not an easy task. Our phones are designed to draw us in and keep us entertained, distracted and busy. But don’t get to the end of your life and regret all the time wasted on your phone. Choose real-life interactions and the present moment before we look up and it’s too late.


Resources that inspired this post:


 

 

 

Michelle Hammond
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