How to use your iphone mindfully, a dopamine detox diet:

Hi, and yes we all have one and we can’t live without it nowadays, it’s serves ur for almost everything, clock, reminders, agenda, email, wasap, social media, maps, conference calls, video online, TV, music, well almost everything is on that little screen, what a luck right? But even being a such complete device that serves even to cook nowadays if you don’t use it mindfully is ruining your life, yes but you don’t know it yet, until one day you realize and see the statistics on it and you’ll get surprised… if is not just go and look last month statistics on your iphone or Android device, so what did you find? As an average most people spends an average of 3 to 6 hour looking at that screen, woahaaaaaa!!! Yes 3 to 6 hours, not that bad right? So I’m telling you go back to caverns times and live without it? Nop, just use it as a tool and not let it use you as a consumer or train your brain like a little dog waiting for the next dopamine dose.

And yes I must confess that I was one of those binge scrolling for hours looking at the screen with no purpose at all just for fun and receiving my dopamine dose here and there. So if you haven’t seen the documentary on Netflix “Social media dilema” which I recommend you you should know several things about how this little tool works and how the designers of apps like Facebook, youtube, google, Instagram, WhatsApp and other do the thing to keep you as many hours as they can engaged to it. And how your brain react with every interaction and like or follow on social media.

So first let me tell you what dopamine is if you don’t know it yet:

Dopamine (DA, a contraction of 3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine) is a hormone and a neurotransmitter that plays several important roles in the brain and body. It is an organic chemical of the catecholamine and phenethylamine families. Dopamine constitutes about 80% of the catecholamine content in the brain. It is an amine synthesized by removing a carboxyl group from a molecule of its precursor chemical, L-DOPA, which is synthesized in the brain and kidneys. Dopamine is also synthesized in plants and most animals. In the brain, dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter — a chemical released by neurons (nerve cells) to send signals to other nerve cells. The brain includes several distinct dopamine pathways, one of which plays a major role in the motivational component of reward-motivated behavior. The anticipation of most types of rewards increases the level of dopamine in the brain, and many addictive drugs increase dopamine release or block its reuptake into neurons following release. Other brain dopamine pathways are involved in motor control and in controlling the release of various hormones. These pathways and cell groups form a dopamine system which is neuromodulatory.

Source: Wikipedia

Well it can be confusing but to summarize and make it short dopamine is a neurotransmisor that make you feel a high similar to some drugs, and it’s necessary for our brains normal function but not in excess or defect.

And now why I talk about dopamine here, well applications as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or any other useful app is designed to keeps you as long as it can looking and engaged to it just because the more time you spend on them the more ads you’ll watch and the more money their developers makes, and it is like that believe it or not, I’ve been working on marketing for more than 25 years now and I know what I’m talking about because I paid for those ads and know how the market works, and that’s why those tiny little notifications are beeping and sounds to make you look to your cell phone all the time, just to keep your engagement ratio as high as possible as they sell to brands… the more audience and the more engagement ratio the more money they made period.

So every time you received a notification is like when you play to a slot machine on a casino just to simplify it to you, and your brain don’t know if it’s going to win or lose and have the need to look at it and go to the app and see what’s going on there, and if the notification is good “zas” you received your dopamine dose, and if it’s not good you loose and need your dose, do you understand it? So that’s why all those apps are asking you allways to turn notifications on to keep you “engaged” as much as possible to them.

So after long periods of expose to this yeah you’re a dopamine yonqui even without noticing. And I don’t want to sound like a preacher or a radical because I use mi iphone too much as a tool for writing or reading wich is good and I think is the best invent on the last decade but trust me we are yonquis of dopamine nowadays, if not just make 2 experiments;

1) Go down the streets without your phone and just observe the world and take a walk of an hour or so, and look to other people walking and what are they doing? Maybe looking at screens, waiting on the line at local market, waiting for the bus, even walking 🚶‍♀️ and not looking at front, even if they can fall, or walking dogs without knowing what the dogs are doing, is not interesting? Why are they not present? Dopamine dose needs.

2) Try to put your phone on a drawer for let’s say 1 hour to starts small and observe carefully your mind… and what is she talking about, listen 🎧. After the first 5 minutes you’ll be ok but let the game starts, “Should I look my agenda to see what I have to do?” “Maybe I should write my wife to see how is she doing” “I have to buy this on Amazon for tomorrow party” or you name it, listen to your head and write it down, in an hour or so maybe you think about doing something with your phone like 100 times on average…

So yeah I was a yonqui also and still am, so what did I do to minimize my dopamine addiction;

1) Turn my notifications off on all apps except Calendar and reminders.

2) Keep a minimalistic Home Screen without red globes even on my calendar app or WhatsApp.

(My Home Screen)

3) Uninstall all Social Media apps except Pinterest which I use for my Job and inspiration, and If I need to see something on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram for my work just install them, look what I need and uninstall them, that’s it.

4) Keep my iphone (not sponsor on this) on other room all the time while I’m working, with my family, or cooking or whatever.

5) If I Go outside the house to buy groceries and I use it as my wallet keep it on my pocket and just walk to the market shop and take it out to pay.

6) When I go out with my family or dogs I keep it at home, and if it’s something really important waiting, I’ll take it with me but in my pocket all the time, and if I’m not waiting nothing important keep it Home.

7) Use it mindfully, it’s a powerful tool but it should serves me not me to it so that’s it.

And more or less that’s what I did, but first I did a weekend of detox (mobile phone off) then a week and after that adopt these habits to detox of my adiction to dopamine…

So why don’t you give it a try this weekend and let me know how it went? Let’s try the weekend detox challenge, then the week, and let me know in the comments bellow your experience?

Well that’s all for today and I wish you a nice weekend, go out and play with the snow and let your phone at home :)

And remember if you want to be updated with my newsletter just go to my website angel-rivera.com and sign up if you like this article or if you want.

Best wishes for today and have a nice day

Angel Rivera