You really do give one a lot of food for thought. 
I am currently trying to find the balance between developing my ideas and my persona in general in my quiet times and actually sinking into a dark hole of depression because i realise that there is still a lot i had hoped to accomplish and achieve at certain times. I now spend more of my time here on Hive than any other social media in general so i hope that is a good start.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear:  I have never looked at my phone in a restroom.  Not ever once for any reason.  :)

I take my time mentally.  I start my day sitting in the dark while I drink my first cup of coffee.  I don't formally meditate much anymore, but I turn my brain loose to go where it wishes every day.  The only possible interruption is the dog and it doesn't take much of my mental capacity to give him his affirmation scratches.

I spend time throughout the day contemplating.  I almost always think before I act or react.  

The consequence of this is that when my head hits the pillow I'm asleep within two minutes.  I sleep for about 5 hours until I need to pee (growing old is not all that pleasant).  Sometimes I go back to bed for a couple of hours but I'm just as likely to go to the first cup of coffee in the dark.

Works for me.  My chances of an ulcer are not very good :)

That's right, but no mental exercise can compare to physical activity. Monotonous physical labor allows you to combine body training and introspection.

I never understood the taking of the phone at the toilet. Never ever.

I agree that most people choose deliberately to shift attention from themselves by consuming social media content at alarming rates. Searching for the meaning in one's life is a tedious job and it might reveal uncomfortable truths. What if the whole life you've been living had been wrong? What if you made the wrong choices? What if you need to do urgent changes which take you out of the comfort zone?

Of course that most people choose to not do some introspection. Sitting alone with your thoughts and questioning your decisions, behaviors, requires a certain degree of self awareness. Depression is one of the signs that people walk on the wrong path for far too long. There is something off when parents are ok with spending more time on their phones than with their kids and viceversa. The human nature is not built for an interaction like this. 

For change to happen uncomfortable issues will have to be addressed. Sooner or later. The lack of genuine communication and affection will leave marks. Stubborn ones. They won't go away with a click or with a scroll. The only good medicine for a social media illness taking over the mind is the search for meaning. In communication as it used to be: people looking in each other's eyes and talking. 1 on 1. Without any distractions.

Man i could use help getting the racing thoughts to not send me into a mild panic every night.   I need a distraction to fall asleep anything to mute the anxieties in my head.   I think i should reread your post a few more times.  There's wisdom in it. 

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I also found it not to be so hard on myself, especially, when trying to sleep.
When you try to make yourself sleep, it normally doesn't end well.
Give yourself the right to be whatever you are.  Even if it is sleepless.
Same with depression, use it as a warm blanket, reduce yourself to the basest level - then you have nowhere else to go, than upwards.
The Pendulum swings from highs to lows.  Especially, when you are younger and uncertain.
As one depressed person said, All I need to do is focus on something I control.  
The first action, was to get out of bed and have a shower.  That isn't an easy battle.  But it was one that she could win - and so began her recovery.

Sometimes I can get to sleep like an angel, but there are times when a thousand things invade my head and don't let me sleep. Normally these things have to do with work to be done, ideas to be developed, which jump into my head and don't let me fall asleep. In some cases I have had to get up in the middle of the night and start working on that pending idea or thing. After I finish, I can quietly close my eyes. It is as if the brain continues to work despite being asleep. The result of those sleepless nights: a few raccoon eyes and a broken body as if a train had run over me. It should be easier to "turn off" our brain. Greetings, @tarazkp!

Indiscriminate consumption has made people lose their way.
I recently commented to my mother that I feel that society has imposed exactly the times in which you must have a house, a car, children, get married and so on, and that means that you live in a race to accomplish everything. This year showed that it does not matter young or adult unexpectedly you can die and you do not take anything, only the satisfaction of what you lived and did. 
Years ago I started a venture and I did it as a virtual store that made me get very close to social networks and I am amazed at the amount of empty content that there is but more amazed at the number of people who consume it or waste time reading it.

Since I was a child I like to read and I always research on various topics of interest, however on this platform I have discovered that I like to write, usually what I do goes with a writing where I offer reflective information or knowledge. It happens to me that ideas come to me at any moment.

I am amazed at the capacity that the brain has to create. I am a civil engineer and I practice my profession, my enterprise is about children's decoration and here I try to expose creative designs with the purpose of encouraging recycling are different topics and I feel comfortable to be able to create and cover varied themes. The key is to be able to develop in that way I feel that the brain is creating and consolidating each idea at the end of the day I manage to rest with the pleasure of the duty fulfilled.

> However, there is an opportunity cost to everything and we live in a world where people get nervous if they forget to take their phone to the toilet with them.

> some people are afraid of their own thoughts, which is why they get nervous when they don't have something to take their attention away.


![Smartphoneless.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/DQmZgA8zS5qnaF2m4jWXrabys5AQYhfGNv1roVjzNX7DoLd/Smartphoneless.jpg)

@tipu curate :)

I’ve taken my phone into restrooms because it’s been in a bag or pocket but why would anyone use it in there 😱

Have also seen how people react when I complain that I’ve left my phone at home the couple of times I’ve managed to forget it doing the short hop to the gym, some are like they can’t cope and there’s myself and a couple of my friends who are just annoyed because we squeeze in minutes of work-related stuff or messaging people in between watching children, cleaning apparatuses and chatting to each other 🤣

I think my kids are doing alright on that front because they have time to be bored and think about whatever, even the one who is permanently glutted to games 🙄

There are two things I have used to work against sleeping problems. One of them is physical activity. On top of getting me tired, it gives me time to think while I am on the bike as I spend 1.5hr on average when I go for a ride. 

A few years ago I also tried mindfulness. I believe it is something everyone should try. I was skeptical and didn't want to spend money in a presidential course so searching the internet I found a free self course created by a fully certified MBSR instructor. After ending the course, some of the students helped translate it to Spanish so now is also in that language.

Anyone can take a look, I am not saying it is the same as taking the regular 8-week classes course but it is a good way to start for free and learn how to relax your mind.
https://palousemindfulness.com/