Digital Detox: How to Set Healthy Tech Boundaries for Mental Well-Being | Eckhart Tolle

These devices, it breaks the relation with other people you had dinner with. Don't allow these things to take over your life. That's vitally important.

I work with technology and I actually, it was quite interesting to hear you talk about technology a few times in the past couple of days. And the way that you mentioned that smartphones are actually an extension of our mind and the way that entered the Internet is actually it's a space for our unconscious mind to actually be reactive. So one of the things I do for work is to raise a bit of the ethical questions around that and the thing that we usually call digital nudges, which is when we try to influence other people through technology. So I would really love to hear a bit of your opinion and maybe your advice. If there is a way for us to use technology as a tool and as a channel to actually increase humanity consciousness and presence.

Yes. So in itself, of course, it's neutral. The technology is neutral. It's not either bad or good. It depends how it's used at the moment. It is to a large extent a reflection of the unconscious mind. So if you want to learn about human unconsciousness, you want to learn about the human ego, just go there and read what people post and look at the reactivity of people on social media and so on, the comments they leave. You can learn a lot about unconsciousness and identification with mental positions. So the first thing of course is be careful with what you put out there, what kind of thing you post. If you post things online, is it reactive? Give yourself a moment when you read something before you type in an answer or comment. Give yourself a moment and go within and avoid making people wrong. You can talk about issues, but don't make people wrong. And amplify your ego by making others wrong, even though their position, political or otherwise, you may regard as completely misguided or erroneous. There's still a human being behind that. So you can put forward arguments against somebody's perspective or viewpoint without making another human being wrong. So what you put out is very important. Is your communication conscious or not? Or is it reactive? And then it can be used for other purposes. The I'm there too sometimes. There are certain places where I appear on. Could go to YouTube or whatever, and then suddenly there's a spiritual teacher talking. So do you professionally work with. What exactly do you do in your work with that involves the media or.

Pretty much involves the creation the ideas around the digital products and services. So creating the product that people actually use and designing the interfaces that people actually use. On the phones and on the computers.

Right. There are some meditation sites on all these things. So there's great potential for raising consciousness there. Somebody recommended to me several apps for meditation which I now have on my phone. I haven't tried them yet. I've been there for a while, but I have four or five that are there. Want to try them out? So that's the very thing that otherwise would clutter your mind can actually also be used to bring about space or spaciousness in your mind. So it doesn't necessarily mean that when you have your phone, or in 99% of cases, when people look there, their mind is being cluttered. But maybe they're on a meditation app. Maybe they're looking at a beautiful, spacious picture and. Or listening to some sound. Or take a conscious breath. Have a little reminder every two hours to take a conscious breath and bring spaciousness. Oh, yes, spaciousness. So the very same thing that otherwise clutters your mind can now unclutter your mind. It's possible. So believe that it's also going to grow now. And it has to, because otherwise that technology could potentially drive humans completely insane, remove their ability to focus on anything for more than a few seconds. People create. Young people who are totally uncentered, have no spaciousness within, don't even communicate with humans anymore because they prefer to communicate digitally. So these things are important. What you put out is important. So always take into consideration whether this brings people to presence or whether it clutters somebody's mind. And perhaps you can combine. Of course, what you do needs to be also commercially viable, but I believe you can combine the two. It's not necessarily a question of either it's commercially viable and it clutters people's minds or its presence. And we are going to go out of business. It doesn't have to be like that. It's up to you to be creative. The more still you are, the more creative insights you will have. And we might get some amazing ideas of what is possible. I can't tell you what is possible. I don't know enough about it. I know very little about it. But you are in a wonderful position. So allow yourself to go deep enough within, because then it is. Then the creative ideas seem to come. And if you find a thing that not only brings people to presence but also helps your company to grow, then that then becomes a conscious business, which is wonderful. It's challenging. Of course it's challenging. So don't let all your attention be absorbed, though, by that kind of activity. You still need to connect with nature, take it off as much as possible away from there, connect with nature and then bring it back. Another thing that's just in connection with this, not perhaps directly related to your question, but related to this. What tends to happen is these devices. People are never. They're in bed and they're still doing stuff on it. And that takes you over there at dinner and they're doing stuff on breaks. The relation with other people you had dinner with. I see people in restaurants, the couple sitting, having dinner together and both are on their phones. Now that probably means they've known each other for a while. If it happens on the first date, the first date will probably be the last one. But it happens after they've known each other for two years. Then it's almost a normal thing that they're not present with each other. Or then they exchange a few words. And then she looks at the phone again and then he stares into space. And then she's still on her phone. I've actually observed it. She's still on her phone and he's staring into space. And then finally he gets out his phone too, because he doesn't want to be staring into space. And then I wonder, are they texting each other? Two good things that I did. I learned that in some huge companies, I believe it might be VW in Germany. Well, they've had enough problems, but now they, they tell their employees after 6pm they're not allowed to use the company phones anymore, not to deal with emails or anything. They need to get off. And that's a very wise thing because the more people's attention gets absorbed by this, the more, the more confused and non creative they become. The more cluttered their minds become, the more ineffective they are even at their work. Not to mention as human beings, their quality of life decreases enormously. So don't give yourself spaces, don't allow these things to take over your life. That's vitally important. So it's wonderful that some big companies like that have this policy now. No emails or anything after 6pm well, that's wonderful. I talked a couple of years ago to Arianna Huffington, who has a famous news website and has also written some books. And she describes in her latest book how her life deteriorated more and more, or that she was making a lot of money and finally she collapsed and hit her head on her desk and complete breakdown. And now she has, for example, in her private life and that's a good thing. She has this policy of no digital device in my bedroom. So in her Bedroom. She still has books. Sometimes she reads in bed. But it has to be a book. Not a Kindle, not the iPad, not the iPhone, no digital device in my bedroom. And that's a good thing to have. That's at least you have that space for yourself. So everybody needs to be really conscious of the addictive nature of these devices. How I sometimes say, I even said that before these things were invented. The greatest addiction for human beings is compulsive thinking. They can't stop thinking, really, that is what is the meaning of being an addict, whatever it may be. If you're an addict, it means you have no power to stop, whether you're addicted to a drug or to alcohol. And. And many people who are addicts say, no, I'm not an addict. I could stop, but they can't. So the nature of being an addict is you no longer have the power to stop doing this. And this applies for many humans. First of all, all humans are addicts, and that was already before these devices came. All humans are addicts, addicted to their thinking, to their compulsive and unconscious, superfluous, excessive, often destructive thinking. They can't stop, and they don't want to stop because they're so identified with it. Their entire identity is in their thoughts. So they have to go on. They don't even know it. So the greatest addiction for humanity is not heroin or whatever. It's the human mind that's actually. You're addicted to thinking. And now these devices are amplification, externalization of the human mind. And so that makes it even more difficult to deal with, because then you not only have your mind, you also have the collective mind. Comes at you through your iPhone, and there's Samsung, which hopefully doesn't explode in your face. But, well, if it did explode, that would make you present, and it might suddenly break the addiction. So give yourself space in your bedroom, that this is a good policy, and don't be on it at all times. The younger you are, the more difficult this is for you. For old people like myself, it's still relatively easy. But if you're 18 or 20 or 25, then you've grown up with these things. The older they didn't grow up with these things. They're not quite, perhaps not quite as addicted and identified with it. Another way to tell is whether they've grown up with these things is how they type into their phones. I always admire the young people because they type. They go like that at enormous speed with their thumbs. How they do it with their thumbs. I don't know. And they can even talk to you about they're doing it. And then I get a text message and somebody expects an answer who might not know that I Not that fast, because. And then with a text message, you can actually see that somebody is replying, you know, that he's replying. And so they wait and say, why isn't he. He's doing something. They don't know that I go like that. It takes time, and that's a good thing, because it's easy to be present. When you're not good at this, you can be much more present. Where's the bee? So it's a challenge. Let's. I hope you come up with something wonderful that promotes presence in this world and helps your business. Thank you.