26/10/2020
Spend less time staring at a phone might be a good idea! 📵
The time we spend on our phones might be interfering with our self-esteem, relationships, memory, attention spans, creativity, productivity skills, and sleep. ⚠️
❗️We should put down our phones because they affect our cortisol level by chronically raising it. Cortisol is a stress hormone released by our brain 🧠 to help us act on instincts to cope with physical threats. Cortisol’s release triggers physiological changes, such as spikes in blood pressure, blood sugar, and heart rate.
❗️Smartphones and apps are specially designed to trigger dopamine release. Dopamine plays a primary role in how we feel pleasure and helps us form habits & addictions. That’s why it’s so difficult to put down the phone 💯. We’re developing behavioral addiction to it. Every time you check your phone, you’re likely to find something else stressful waiting for you, leading to another spike in cortisol and another craving to check your phone to make your anxiety go away. This cycle, when continuously reinforced, leads to chronically elevated cortisol levels.
Chronically elevated cortisol levels may cause severe health problems, including depression, heart attack, dementia, obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
To make your phone less stressful, you can do the following things: 👇👇👇
✨Turning off all notifications, except ones you want to receive;
✨Hide apps which leave you feeling stressed;
✨Do breaks regularly; that can be an effective way to rebalance your body’s chemistry and regain your sense of control.
Take care of yourself and 💙
