embodied : "in-body"; to fill something completely
Of all the 12 digital wellness themes that we are going to cover this year, the theme of embodiment is the one I am walking through and learning most about myself.
I'm going to explain how this plays out currently in the digital world and our physical health, but first, "the Why." Why have we abandoned our bodies? It’s easier to do than we realize, and it's been happening for a long time. Sometimes we even believe it's the right thing to do because we've been conditioned by culture to shut down or turn away from our bodies.
From authoritarian influences that do not welcome children's emotions to sports themes of "beating our body" into submission for the sake of the win ("no pain, no gain" pushed to unhealthy levels). From biblical misinterpretations of "denying our flesh" to the beauty industry that lures us into its idealized image standards of what our body must physically morph into and go through to achieve "true beauty." From the workaholic lifestyle that pushes our bodies to exhaustion to the tech industry that is literally rewiring our brains to ignore our bodies.
What if we stopped and listened to our bodies instead?
My bestie, Emily Mills, is the founder of an organization called Jesus Said Love, whose purpose is to awaken hope and empower change in the lives of those impacted by commercial sex exploitation and trafficking. She held an event called A Space For Love in January 2020. That small group of women had no idea at the time what our bodies and minds needed to make space for in the coming months. It was a very timely event that taught us about honoring our whole selves. As I took notes, I wrote these words she said in big bold letters:
"Our bodies are our prophets."
The truth is, we can only push through for so long until our bodies begin to tell us information that we need to stop and listen to. I've lived much of my life forgetting my body, but it has not forgotten me. It is very much a part of my healing journey. Thank God. He chases me down in so many ways, and this is one of them. "Be still and know that I am God." When I take the time to stop, quiet myself, and pay attention to what I'm feeling in my body, I heal. I learn. I live. And I am connected to the Divine. "For in Him we live and move and have our very being."
Ignoring our bodies looks different for everyone. Sometimes it's stuffing things down for so long until they come painfully out. Some get to the point where they can't even feel the physical pain anymore. They haven't felt good in so long that they've forgotten what good feels like. At one point in my adult life, I had so much internal stress I was pushing through I didn't even see it until the stress physically came out of my body as shingles. I was forced to slow down and take an assessment of my pace of life.
My body spoke.
I honor it by listening. What is your body saying? When speaking on digital wellness, I offer this same technique to parents, students, and communities: "checking in" and listening to our bodies to pay attention to our needs. I share all this with you because many of us operated apart from what our bodies needed well before the digital world fell into our hands in the form of a phone. When it comes to our physical health, we are seeing all kinds of issues that need tending to in the realm of digital wellness and human bodies. Our bodies were just not made to carry all that our phones are doing to us and it’s beginning to show.
The sleep health epidemic is continuing to rise. Seventy million Americans are now dealing with sleep disorders, 90 million Americans take prescription sleep aids, and melatonin sales have increased 500% in recent years.
We know that sleep loss affects every major system in the human body.
Our sleep health should be prioritized. It is recommended for kids to be off of devices one hour before bedtime, or at least 30-minutes before according to the National Sleep Foundation. The blue light from devices can interfere with sleep by suppressing the production of melatonin, a natural hormone released in the evening to help you feel tired and ready for sleep.
Speaking of blue light, eye health, tech neck, turtle neck, and eye strain are just some of the headlines that we read about in the news today, affecting our bodies and our children's bodies in ways doctors have never seen. Blue light glasses protecting our eyes and increased rates of myopia developing in children are beginning to be more heavily researched. These concerns might drive new laws and standards for optometry.
More recently with the shift to virtual learning and home offices, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we're seeing even more alarming physical deterioration from overuse of screens and sedentary lifestyles. Placing healthy boundaries on our technology is directly correlated with relieving physical issues in our bodies and encouraging the next generations (our kids and grandkids) to join us in fostering active, healthy lifestyles.
It's also important to find ways to use technology to create new positive habits. Track your health, movement, or sleep. Eliminate phones from kid's bedrooms to create nighttime routines (you might want to check out a tool such as Loftie). I choose to follow healthy eating, stretching, and movement accounts on my social media to keep motivation in front of my blue light guarded eyes :) Evaluate ways you and your family can value these very important bodies we live in. They are for us, so let's not be against them! I'm going to leave you with what our family kept saying to each other last year in the middle of the lockdown,
"OK, everyone, let's look up from our screens and go
MOVE our bodies!"
-Dawn Wible
Find resources for healthy digital habits at talkmoretechless.com
sources: center for humane technology, digital wellness institute, pew research center, childrensscreentimeactionnetwork, nielsen, Pslam 46:10 and Acts 17:28, Rockhopper Osteopathic clinic, optometrytimes.com