You Need to Stop Checking Your Phone | Life in Progress Podcast

Hey everyone! Welcome back to Life in Progress. Thank you so much for always tuning in and always telling me how much you love my podcast. I know it's going to take a lot of time for me to grow because I don't have connections to begin with to make my podcast bigger. I really do it out of love. I put here everything that I feel. So when I watch the past episodes, So I'm so grateful that you're listening, watching, and I'm putting something valuable to the world. Okay, fine. I have businesses. I make money from that. But I'm still here. I'm still reading comments of people. I'm still, you know, watching the videos that you're sending to me, the messages that you're sending to me. It's not a lot, but I am really, really grateful for my community. Or community meetup. I hope I can do that next year when I come back from Madrid because I'll be going home soon. Speaking of messages, my podcast, online community. Philippines. Mentally, emotionally. That's why today, we are diving into something most of us feel, but we don't always talk about it. Digital burnout. That heavy, restless feeling from being constantly online. And why taking a is so important. Even once a week, it can actually help us reset our mind and energy. Everything feels so heavy. So, two hours ago, five hours off, disconnecting from everything. So, that's my favorite. But let's talk about the reasons. First is, when we scroll endlessly, our brains get overstimulated. Notifications, trends, news, endless updates, endless drama. It's like our minds never get a break. I mean, every single day. The more I scroll, the more I get into trouble. The other day, I didn't know that I reposted what I clicked. The more I am on social media, the more careful I need to be. I want to say whatever I'm feeling. I want to say whatever is happening in my life. When I talk to my friends, the more my business is growing, the more careful I need to be. This is a point of view of someone who has a social media presence. Now, I have my business. I'm looking forward to that day. Next is, the tricky part. Social media often makes us compare our lives with others. Even when we know it's curated, it still hits our self-esteem and can fuel anxiety. Reality is, for us normal people, including me, hard work is not enough. We need opportunities as well, partnered with hard work, and access to the right people and resources. We need to stop glamorizing hard work, hard work. She's very hardworking, but she only has one source of income. My mom is the one who pays her. So whatever hard work she does, she's the only resource to make money. For example, I opened a business in Spain. So now, I have a business here and there. I won't be able to do that. Hard work always goes with opportunities, right people, and right resources. All these people on social media, it's so unfair to us that we compare our normal lives. Challenges. We are comparing our struggles. It is so unfair to us. Let's focus on our own journey. But we can change our mindset and our perspective. Digital detox is the key, even once a week. Sometimes, I can't work, I can't focus, my mind is all over the place. So the best way to handle that is, I leave my phone. I just bring my iPad, wherever there's no logging in, on any social media. Because being available to everyone is also not good. Being always online also blurs our boundaries. For example, you're always available for work emails, DMs, and all of these are mixed together until it feels like we never truly rest, right? I know people who reply to emails at 2am, they don't have boundaries anymore because everything is mixed up. So what I'm trying to do is, my iPad, there's no social media logged in there. I work there, I have meetings there. My laptop, everything is there. So I have two separate phones. I try, but it's hard. I admit, it's so hard. But being always online, nothing will happen. The world will not stop. Now, I take my time before I reply. I don't want to reply right away. Sometimes, I reply after three days, after four days. I think about it first, did I reply to this person? Is it like this? Is it like that? And then once in a while, I read hateful comments or bashing comments. I have two options. One is, I stand up for myself because you won't bully me for no reason. But I do it with humor now. It's not like, what is this? Should I help this person? Now, if I will make a battle to stand up for myself or to defend myself, the humor way. It's just funny, you just have to go through it. It's not like, it's hiding from me. Like before, I just started when I read it like that. I also feel like, oops, what is this? Now, it's not anymore. Because you can get used to it, right? But I realized there, I don't need to read comments every day. Unless, I just see something randomly. So, I have an idea in reading comments. You know guys, I found the lady who took care of me back in Nueva Ecija. When I was born, back in 1991. So, I've been asking my mom to look for her, Nanay Julia. I said, look for her, mama. Why is she not in our contact list? Guys, I read comments on TikTok a month ago, two months ago when I was in Mallorca. That was the first comment I saw. So, I have an idea in being online and reading comments. Because I'm just a human being at the end of the day. I read hateful comments. Especially now, the gossip on websites, on Reddit. Of course, at the end of the day, you're just a human being, right? This is where people throw their one-sided beef. And you don't have a chance to tell people your side. Then I realized, I don't need to defend myself. You know, I also need to choose my battles. Because I don't have time to fight for one-sided beef. I don't have time for that. So, instead of fighting for that, I'd rather go offline. I'll just go to a digital detox. I'm sure you're the same. You don't have to be someone online to experience these things. Even if you're just a normal person. You don't have work, online, or social media presence. You can experience this. People say this, people say that. I know some people on Facebook are listening. When you encounter these things, better just go offline. This is also what I tell people. That you have a bigger reach than me. I'm not famous, I'm not relevant. I'm just here for my business. I tell them, when you experience these things, just go under digital detox. After a day or two, you'll lose those things. Because I have friends. They have millions and millions of followers. I only have 100k followers. They experience more than me. I'm already crazy here. I'm splitting my life. Imagine what they go through. It's so easy to attack people online. But we don't know these people. We are attacking them based on one tweet. One video that's 15 seconds. It's like we're judging their whole existence. If they've been living for 30 years, we're judging their whole existence based on 30 seconds of videos. So yes, we can criticize. But we can't avoid people criticizing us. The best thing to do is offline. Adios. Ciao. Lastly, the effects of lack of rest. Poor sleep. Scattered focus. And just feeling mentally drained. We don't want to show up for the sake of showing up. We need to get better. Be the be the. Because we're only gonna live once. So we need to get better. And always presentable. I'm here to win my game. And even if we don't win sometimes, it's okay. But as much as possible, let's show up. But not always drained. When we're well-rested, we show up better, we create better, and we connect better. But here's the good news. Taking a detox, even just a weekend off, helps us with everything. Especially to reconnect with the present moment. It gives us space to enjoy real conversations, real food, and real life. Sometimes, I get mad at my colleagues. It's like, you're on the phone, why aren't we talking? So I think if we learn that skill to put our phones down, it's just beautiful. It's such a beautiful skill that I'm really learning in Europe. When I'm with my European friends, there's really no phone. Sometimes, I just want to throw it away. It's like, I'll just put you back there. BRB. It's also a creativity reset. When we step back, our minds have more room to breathe. And suddenly, we have new ideas, right? It's easier to think because our minds are fresh. And most importantly, digital detox reminds us that we are more than the likes, followers, or online presence. It helps us create healthier tech habits that support, not drain our mental health. So if you've been feeling restless, drained, or glued to your phone, it might be time for a social media pause. Think of it as a mental recharge, not a punishment. Because at the end of the day, a balance is what keeps us grounded online or offline. Thank you so much. That's all, guys. Follow us on Instagram, lifeinprogressph, on TikTok, lifeinprogresspod, on YouTube, AngeliDub, and on Spotify, lifeinprogressph by AngeliDub. Adios!