Unplugged! Can being “connected” dammage your Brain?

Sometimes I just crave a slower pace of life, like I crave a warm beach with personal masseuse.

Today, I thought about how we all create our own realities…so what the hell was I thinking when I created this day?!  I had text messages to answer, phone calls, emails, I felt I could not get away to get a breath. Now, I can to my senses and realized the world was not going to fall to pieces if I sat in a coffee shop drinking a cup of tea for a wee bit.

So here I sit, with my phone turned off, my email tab closed, and a lovely cup of herbal tea. AAAAHHHHH. I thought of writing this in my notebook but I would just have to re-type this later, and that would just be more work.

All this technology is great but it is damaging if you do not take control. We need to disconnect, turn off phones, and all those things that distract us from being “in the moment.”

I ask the question is being assessable, plugged in, causing damage?

As I am prone to do…I researched it. YES! Being connected does alter our brain waves. It causes brain confusion- basically it makes us a little ADD.  Some studies relate this to added stress. Some studies examine the effects of electromagnetic fields on our own electronic nerve impulses and neuron conduction, and other studies just hurt my brain read them.

Being connected adds to our stress, it distracts our brains, it clutters our thoughts, it interrupts our lives like a small, bored child.  We end up having a stress response to emails, phone calls, text messages, etc. This in turn causes a release of cortisol; when cortisol levels rises we produce more insulin and store more fat, we don’t sleep as well (cortisol levels are connect to sleep cycles). Stress also causes us to produce more free radicals, we become more acidic and much more. This is not even mentioning the electromagnetic fields we are being exposed to with our “connected” lifestyle. In other words too much technology- when technology controls us, it is bad. When we control and utilize it well, it is very, very good.

Now is the time to take control, take out your phones and flip the switch for a couple of hours each night and go for a walk, play a game, make something, or just chill. It is so good for your brain.