Do you know that 8 professionals out of 10 suffer from bad mental and physical health?
According to the sources, not only professionals but also normal adults and kids suffer from bad mental and physical health. The reason for this increase in physical and mental health deterioration is the increase of digital assets and social media presence.
Though these gadgets are meant to ease our tasks, many of us have taken them for granted and made these social platforms for fun. Its increased watching hours have made our mental and physical health go from bad to worse.
However, in this scenario, yoga can be the healing aspect and teach you how to increase digital detox.
What is digital detox?
Digital detox is when you refrain from using smart gadgets such as mobiles, computers, and other electronic gadgets that demand consistency and concentration. But that will not be fruitful for your health because it reduces your physical and mental health.
However, when you start practicing yoga, it improves your concentration power and breath control.
Effects of Digital Overload
Digital overload is the condition when your screen time increases. The screens here are mobiles, TVs, laptops, desktops, PlayStations, and others.
Almost all of us enjoy when our screen time increases when we are in earlier stages, but we are unaware of its long-lasting damaging effects. These damages include anxiety, depression, distraction, weakness in muscles, fatigue, and more.
Apart from that, there are many more stages you’ll feel during this digital overload stage. That includes:
Stress, anxiety, and poor sleep
The constant influx of notifications, emails, and social media updates can overwhelm the brain, leading to heightened stress levels. The pressure to remain constantly connected and responsive creates a sense of anxiety. Furthermore, the blue light emitted from screens disrupts the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, resulting in poor sleep quality and insomnia. The constant mental stimulation makes it very hard for the mind to wind down.
Eye Strain, Headaches, and Bad Posture
Long hours of screen time can cause significant eye strain, leading to dry eyes, blurred vision, and headaches. Extension screen time starts with poor body posture, such as hunching or slouching. You’ll feel severe neck and back pain because of these bad postures. The repetitive nature of digital device usage can contribute to musculoskeletal problems. When you try to focus on the small screen, you need to put more emphasis on viewing the screen, it will lead to patches under your eyes and stiffness in the neck.
How Yoga Helps in Digital Detox
Yoga assists in digital detox by promoting relaxation, reducing stress, improving flexibility and gaining strength, and fostering mindfulness. These tasks can help in countering the negative effects of your thoughts and improving your decision-making power.
Below, we will discuss why you should add yoga to your routine for a digital detox.
Yoga’s Contribution to Digital Detox
- Physical Relaxation: As you start doing asanas, these poses help you release physical tension from hours of long screen work or watching long hours.
- Increased Strength and Flexibility: Adding yoga to your daily routine can lead to improved flexibility and increased muscle strength.
- Stress Reduction: Yoga is known to promote the parasympathetic nervous system, which leaves you feeling relaxed when done properly through mindful movements and deep breathing.
- Enhanced Mindfulness: Yoga promotes awareness of the present moment, allowing you to get in tune with your thoughts and feelings non-judgmentally.
- Mood Boost: Some yoga asanas can stimulate the release of endorphins, our body’s feel-good hormones.
- Detoxifying Asanas: Specific yoga asanas such as Down Dog Twist, Quad Stretch with Twist, Prayer Twist, Eagle Pose, Bow Pose, and Seated Spinal Twist can help detoxify.
- Mindful Usage: Yoga is all about being present to your body and mind, becoming more aware of your digital habits and how they affect your well-being, which can offer improved, mindful technology usage.
- Unplug: You cannot feel more in flow than you do when your world is a light that shines brightly for others to share within, and yoga can help you find that light so you can create ways to relax and engage without technology around you.
- Greater Mindfulness: Yoga fosters awareness of the present moment, allowing you to connect to your mind and emotions without criticism.
Best Yoga Poses for Yoga Detox
To assist you in digital detox, there are certain yoga poses that you can try. A few are detailed below.
- Child’s Pose: Relieves stress
- Downward Dog: Improves circulation
- Seated Forward Bend: Calms the mind
- Legs Up the Wall: Reduces fatigue
- Corpse Pose: Deep relaxation
1. Child Pose
A gentle restorative pose that allows you to take breaths, facilitating relaxation and stress relief. It activates your spine, hips, and back of the legs and offers a sense of calm.
2. Downward Dog
This yoga pose stretches your entire body, especially the spine, hamstrings, and calves. It improves circulation and energy levels while strengthening arms, fingers, the upper back, shoulders, and legs. Plus, it also enhances mood and overall vitality.
3. Seated Forward Bend
Paschimottanasana, or the seated forward bend pose, is made for relaxing. Under this yoga pose, one has to stretch their legs, gently fold forward, and try to reach towards toes and feet. It elongates the spine and opens the hamstrings, encouraging mental clarity and serenity, an ideal tool to combat anxiety.
4. Legs Up the Wall
This soothing yoga pose alleviates fatigue and reduces swelling in the legs. This helps for relaxation and good venous flow. Hence, it is good for those who are struggling with stress and anxiety.
5. Corpse Pose
Corpse pose, or Savasana, the ultimate pose of yoga, is performed after all the yoga asanas. It helps to release tension from the body and brings about deep relaxation, which is excellent for relieving stress and revitalizing the mind.
Additional Yoga Poses for Digital Detox
The above-discussed are physical poses that are perfectly adapted for digital detox. However, some other breathing yoga asanas can also assist in digital detox. A few of them are detailed below.
Breathing & Meditation
- Alternate Nostril Breathing: Balances energy
- Humming Bee Breath: Reduces mental noise
- Guided Meditation: Improves focus
1. Alternate Nostril Breathing
This energetic breathing exercise balances the body’s energies and mitigates stress and anxiety. It improves attentiveness and mental activity while providing a clear and calm mind, resulting in emotional stability.
2. Humming Bee Breath
The humming bee, or Bhramari Pranayama, is one of the best yoga poses for alleviating stress, anxiety, pain, and restlessness. The soft hum helps to calm the mind, boost awareness, and provide a peaceful atmosphere to practice meditation.
3. Guided Meditation
Under this yoga, you will practice meditation under any instructor who will take you to the phantasm world and tell you to visualize things and use mindfulness. This encourages better concentration and focus while also bringing peace and relieving tension through conscious attention.
Tips for a Successful Digital Detox
It is very difficult to keep yourself away from screens when your entire life is based on screens. In offices, you can’t refrain from using laptops. In schools, you can’t escape digital classrooms, even though for your communication as well, you need screens now. However, there are some working tips you can follow for a successful digital detox.
- Set Your Screen Time and Take Breaks at Regular Intervals: You can set a daily time limit on devices, along with periodic breaks to refresh yourself and improve concentration on other activities.
- Engage Yourself in Outdoor Activities: It is good to have great interaction with nature by hiking, biking, or walking. These activities not only contribute to your physical health but also clear your mind and fatigue and connect you to the world outside the screen.
- Practice mindful eating: Though you might be wondering how meals can play a significant role in improving digital detox. But researchers said that if you pay attention to your flavors and textures and add satvic meals to your menu, it will not only keep your digestive system good but also enhance your sleep system.
- Join yoga communities: Find online or local yoga communities for motivation and support for your well-being through yoga and the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.
Conclusion
At last, we can conclude that the addition of yoga in our daily lives is one of the proven techniques that works well in improving digital detox. This not only adds value to a healthy lifestyle but also makes you strong in facing the digital overload challenge.
As we accommodate our lives to new circumstances, yoga provides fundamental physical and mental health benefits, including the reduction of stress, mindfulness, and flexibility.
When we start to practice yoga more diligently, body movements, and deep breathing, we can become more aware of how these digital assets badly impact our lives.
However, by practicing yoga regularly, you’ll not only learn to control your senses but also provide your body and mind rest. Without compromising your digital tasks.
