Why You Need Quiet Time

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Abstract

/p><p id="d88a">In other words, quiet time is not just beautiful, it’s absolutely necessary to our existence. Social media and online connections are wired, connected, and always on. Always! Think about it.</p><p id="dcb9" type="7">When you are constantly posting, consuming, commenting, and refreshing your feed, when do you give yourself the time to be completely still?</p><p id="6852">This morning when I woke up, I sat up in bed and spent a few minutes listening deeply to the silence. As the quiet washed over me, my mind grew increasingly aware of how much autonomy we give away when we subject ourselves to the principles of stimulation.</p><p id="6607">Do you know how much time you actually spend on social media? You’d be surprised. For most people it could be anywhere between 2 to 6 hours a day. Don’t believe me? Install the <a href="https://www.rescuetime.com/">Rescue Time Chrome extension</a> on your browser and download the app on your phone and track your time spent online. You’d see what I mean.</p><p id="7bf0">The external world of technology over stimulates us. On social media, you’re subjected to a series of notifications and validations every time you post a fresh piece of content. Your brain is caught in this interminable loop of rewards. But what of the joy and peace that comes from quietude? What about the white spaces in our day?</p><p id="9519">Cal Newport explains it well in this fascinating piece — <a href="https://www.calnewport.com/blog/2021/04/07/on-slow-productivity-and-the-anti-busyness-revolution/">On Slow Business and the Anti-Busyness Revolution</a></p><p id="82a6">If there’s one absolute downside to this pandemic it’s how it’s driven more of us into the arms of technology in the pursuit of connection and comfort. And that’s a problem on so many levels as Catherine Price, the author of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35209767-how-to-break-up-with-your-phone"><i>How to Br

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eak Up With your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back your Life</i></a>, puts it:</p><blockquote id="2f7a"><p>If you wanted to invent a device that could rewire our minds, if you wanted to create a society of people who were perpetually distracted, isolated, and overtired, if you wanted to weaken our memories and damage our capacity for focus and deep thought, if you wanted to reduce empathy, encourage self-absorption, and redraw the lines of social etiquette, you’d likely end up with a smartphone.</p></blockquote><p id="beb5">As you move through your day, infuse more intention into your actions. It could be something as simple as a gentle, conscious pause before you navigate to that social media app on your phone.</p><p id="6bef">That pause has the power to extend into longer hours of quietude, peace and harmony. And let’s admit that we could all use a bit more quiet time in our lives. We owe it to ourselves.</p><h2 id="4e7c">Recommended Reading</h2><div id="3cf1" class="link-block"> <a href="https://shailajav.com/social-media-sabbatical/"> <div> <div> <h2>My Social Media Sabbatical: 60 Days Away from Social Media</h2> <div><h3>On May 27th, 2021, I decided to embark on an experiment: A 60-day social media sabbatical. Not just that, I decided to…</h3></div> <div><p>shailajav.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*t8LzaAEbDWCkHMzb)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="a12d">If you enjoyed this, I talk more about how to find joy in content creation & organic growth in my free Friday newsletter for content creators.</p><p id="16c8"><a href="http://www.shailajav.com/newsletter"><b>Click here to join my community of conscious content creators</b></a></p></article></body>

It’s absolutely imperative that you get it every day

Last night I went to bed with a fresh perspective. This could be due to the fact that I’ve gone 21 days without my social media channels or it could just be some sort of awareness now that my mind has space to breathe.

Why do we need to:

Switch off screens at a certain time every night?

Limit our consumption of content to a reasonable amount?

Ask ourselves the question- is this really worth posting online?

And the answers that emerged were all tied in with an overarching response:

Because we were not put on this earth to be active every waking hour online

Leonie Dawson explains this so very well in her post on why she quit social media. But this graphic spoke to me more than anything else:

And it reminded me of all of the times I have sat quietly, lost in thought and contemplation, pondering on nothing in particular. Maybe it was the downtime after a fascinating book or just the time that I sat by the window watching the traffic go by.

In other words, quiet time is not just beautiful, it’s absolutely necessary to our existence. Social media and online connections are wired, connected, and always on. Always! Think about it.

When you are constantly posting, consuming, commenting, and refreshing your feed, when do you give yourself the time to be completely still?

This morning when I woke up, I sat up in bed and spent a few minutes listening deeply to the silence. As the quiet washed over me, my mind grew increasingly aware of how much autonomy we give away when we subject ourselves to the principles of stimulation.

Do you know how much time you actually spend on social media? You’d be surprised. For most people it could be anywhere between 2 to 6 hours a day. Don’t believe me? Install the Rescue Time Chrome extension on your browser and download the app on your phone and track your time spent online. You’d see what I mean.

The external world of technology over stimulates us. On social media, you’re subjected to a series of notifications and validations every time you post a fresh piece of content. Your brain is caught in this interminable loop of rewards. But what of the joy and peace that comes from quietude? What about the white spaces in our day?

If there’s one absolute downside to this pandemic it’s how it’s driven more of us into the arms of technology in the pursuit of connection and comfort. And that’s a problem on so many levels as Catherine Price, the author of How to Break Up With your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back your Life, puts it:

If you wanted to invent a device that could rewire our minds, if you wanted to create a society of people who were perpetually distracted, isolated, and overtired, if you wanted to weaken our memories and damage our capacity for focus and deep thought, if you wanted to reduce empathy, encourage self-absorption, and redraw the lines of social etiquette, you’d likely end up with a smartphone.

As you move through your day, infuse more intention into your actions. It could be something as simple as a gentle, conscious pause before you navigate to that social media app on your phone.

That pause has the power to extend into longer hours of quietude, peace and harmony. And let’s admit that we could all use a bit more quiet time in our lives. We owe it to ourselves.