Dr Daniela Otto is an expert on Digital Detox. Her new book Digital Detox für die Seele (Irisiana, 16 euros) is the first book to combine the trends of mindfulness and digital detox. She shows ways in which we can use social media and smartphones consciously and mindfully. Digital mindfulness is the way we can find our way back to a true sense of connection in the here and now. We are delighted that she has written a guest post for us today.
An invitation to digital mindfulness
Dear soul who is reading this. How are you feeling right now? Do you feel peaceful, calm, completely at peace with yourself? Or are you longing for a little more peace, silence, harmony? Then pause now, right here and now in the midst of this fast and hectic digital world.
I would like to show you a way to pay attention to yourself again - despite all the emails, chats, tweets, posts, likes and calls. It is the path of digital mindfulness, which is more important today than ever. Can you still feel life? Because you can't touch it through a screen. Online, we are under constant stress, caught up in permanent competition on social media. In a world where the value of a person seems to be measured by follower numbers, one thing is lost: the essential. What life is actually about. The true, the good and the beautiful. Love. The invisible. The magic. The meaning. And we lose the most important thing of all: the connection to ourselves and to others.
If we want to find our way back to true connectedness, we have to start with a deep, loving encounter with ourselves. When have you looked at yourself with love? Then it is high time. With this exercise you cleanse your inner self, throw off all negative ballast and bathe in the healing light of self-care.
Exercise for Digital Detox
Read this exercise carefully so that you can internalise it. Afterwards, put your smartphone aside so that you can be completely undisturbed. Close your eyes and bring your attention to your breath. Imagine your breath flowing through you calmly, like a harmonious stream on an even, flower-covered spring meadow. The sun is shining. Your breath flows through you.
With each inhalation you breathe in new energy and sunlight.
With each exhalation you exhale spent energy and shadows.
With each breath you feel yourself cleansing inside.
You become calmer, feel clearer, more alert.
Imagine your soul as an inner mirror. Look closely and see where your soul mirror has blind spots, spots that need healing: Spots of sadness, of loneliness, of pain.
Now connect inwardly with the sunlight. It becomes brighter and brighter, the glistening light of the sky.
Now imagine how the light cleanses your inner mirror. How the negative emotions disappear. How everything becomes whole. How the mirror becomes clear again.
Look at yourself in this purified mirror. There is no "wrong" or "right". Trust that the image that appears before your inner eye is true. Dwell in this encounter with yourself. Give yourself compassion.
Flood your soul with love and light.
Say to yourself, "I am love and light". Repeat this mantra in the slow rhythm of your breaths.
Feel your soul begin to shine and this light is refracted a thousand times in the clean mirror.
An inner radiance fills you and the world around you. Look at this healing light within you. Feel it, hold it, expand it: Imagine how the bright light and the love of your soul radiate far beyond your body.
Wherever you go, you spread love and light.
Whomever you meet - they step into the radiance of your soul light and experience love. Dwell in the feeling of loving connection with yourself and the world.
When you are ready, open your eyes and come back to reality.
Feel: How do you feel now? Do you feel more love towards yourself? In a virtual world where we are constantly comparing ourselves with others, this exercise helps you to recognise your uniqueness.
I wish you all the best on your future - hopefully mindful - digital journey. And don't forget: Of all the journeys in the world, the journey to ourselves is the most beautiful.
