Social Media: Control + Alt + Delete

Social Media: Control + Alt + Delete

by Troy Cady

Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

While it is possible to sustain a playful way of relating to social media, it is not always easy. Many people this time of year decide to intentionally limit their social media usage or cut it out altogether for a while (or permanently). Indeed, experts in the fields of mental, emotional, and spiritual health recommend as much.

Social media usage even has effects that can be detrimental to one’s physical health. Consider this list from a recent article by the BBC World Service.[i]

• Dopamine - A pleasure neurochemical linked with instant reward but also addiction. Technology is increasingly being designed to specifically trigger the release of dopamine.

• Adrenaline - Best known for regulating our responses in fight-or-flight situations, but also released by likes and pokes on social media.

• Cortisol - The hallmark of stressed-out, sleep-deprived, too-busy and distracted individuals.

• Oxytocin - Released when we have exchanges in a meaningful connection. It is generally healthy but online predators can tap into its effects to abuse their victim's trust.

• Serotonin - Released when we are creative, connected, and contributing.

• Endorphins - The "painkiller" of the body. Released when we experience mindfulness, meditation, gratitude, and cardiovascular exercise.

Those who limit or abstain from social media discover these alternatives are healthier:

Reading or listening to audiobooks (or podcasts)

Journaling, creative writing or sending hand-written letters

Drawing, painting or taking photographs

Exercising or playing sports; even going for a short 15-minute walk can do wonders

Playing unplugged games

Working with your hands: needlework, gardening, crafts, sculpture

Spending time with a friend

Taking a class to learn a new skill or to learn about a topic of interest to you

Dancing or listening to live music—there are plenty of free options available if you look for them

Practicing prayer, meditation or simple breathing exercises

Participating in a local church or other faith community

Volunteering for a good cause

Trying out some new recipes

Attending a storytelling group that meets weekly or monthly (they are not as threatening as you might imagine!)

As you set goals for healthy living in 2019, what real-life practices feel life-giving to you? Even choosing just one or two things to do regularly can make a world of difference. PlayFull encourages you to live a life beyond the digital world; you’ll thank yourself for it!

And, yes: we’re aware of the irony that we just used social media to post these thoughts! :-)

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[i] List by Pablo Uchoa, “Why a ‘tech diet’ should be your New Year’s resolution,” BBC World Service. Source:  http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20181227-why-a-tech-diet-should-be-your-new-years-resolution. Accessed: January 2, 2019.

DoxaSoma

I am grateful to my wife for introducing me to a fitness program called DoxaSoma. Here’s a description of it from the DoxaSoma website:

DoxaSoma® is a physical practice which incorporates elements of stretching and strength building with prayer, worship and reflection upon the Word of God.

The word DoxaSoma is comprised of 2 Greek words:

Doxa, meaning "praise or honor"

and

Soma, meaning "body".

Every Monday night during Lent we attend a DoxaSoma session hosted by our church. I must say: I need it incredibly and always feel so refreshed afterwards. I find myself looking for times to practice it at home and have been able to do so at least once more each week so far. Of course, it would be best if I could practice it 3 or 4 times a week, but twice is better than nothing, right?

This morning I had the chance to practice a handful of the stretches for about a half hour and even that short amount of time is worth it.

I love how DoxaSoma truly integrates body, mind, spirit and emotions. Each stretch represents a spiritual posture. For example, among other stretches this morning I practiced the “hill and valley” stretch.

It seems like a very simple stretch at first but it yields great benefit. Here are a couple pictures to give you an idea how it looks.

Hill

 

Valley

Simple, right? Anyone can do it. (That’s another thing I like about DoxaSoma. You can adjust how you perform the stretches to suit your own level of fitness).

I think of it as being a kid again, using imagination in tandem with my body. At any rate, as I performed the hill and valley stretch this morning, I slowly breathed in and out, concentrating on taking in as deep a breath as I could on the valley portion of the stretch and breathing out fully on the hill portion of the stretch.

This deep breathing and stretching opened my mind. I found myself reflecting on moments in my own life that were like “mountaintops” or “valleys.” I found myself reflecting that when we feel the most tired and “out of breath” in the valleys of life, God enables us and invites us to “breathe in deeply”. Conversely, I reflected on what it could mean that on the mountaintop God invites us to “breathe out fully”.

And there was more: to make the hill part of the stretch, I realized that in tucking your chin close to your chest, you are making the gesture of being bowed low. I reflected that in my own life, my tendency is to do the opposite: when I am on the mountaintop I typically want to raise my head, lift it high. But that is when I realized that the Bible says those who are bowed low are those who are raised up. And…as we go through the valley, God lifts our head—which is exactly what the valley stretch portrays.

I found myself praying through the different spiritual movements of these stretches, bowed low and raised up, breathing in and breathing out, knowing that God can be found in both places: hill and valley. I offered to God in prayer my tendency to pride on the mountaintop and my various sorrows I encounter in the valley. The movements of stretching freed my mind and spirit to converse with God.

Because play integrates mind, body, spirit and emotion I find DoxaSoma a fine example of what PlayFull hopes to champion.

If you live here in Chicago, I invite you to come to the next session on Monday night at 7. Visit the DoxaSoma website here for more details.

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