The Power of Off: The Mindful Way to Stay Present (and Sane) in a Virtual World

• Science & Health

Nancy Colier

Do you compulsively check your smartphone? Always connected to the Web? When did you last see your child’s face without the glow of a screen on it? Our addiction to technology is real. In the digital world, we have far more possibilities but find less meaning, take more selfies but feel less self-worth, communicate more but feel less connected. We’re interested in mindfulness, but we use our devices to escape the present moment, and ourselves. Continually distracted, always on, we’re “twired,” simultaneously tired and wired, living in a perpetual state of anxiety. Our nervous systems are depleted; we want and need downtime and silence, to power off ourselves. The way we’re using technology is not leading us to a state of well-being.

But with greater awareness, responsibility, and new habits in our digital lives, we can rediscover an inner quiet and stillness, and radically improve the quality of our lives. In this workshop, Nancy Colier will offer empowering strategies to become more mindful and present, to wake up and reclaim a sense of control over our time, attention, and life. And ultimately, to find freedom in tech not from it.