Three weeks ago I introduced the Fear of Feeling Good (link in the PS if you’re wondering what that means), and since then, every Tuesday I’ve been dropping a bite-sized action step into your inbox to help you heal any underlying Fear of Feeling Good.
Dropping this subconscious fear (I had it too) helps you rearrange your psychology to lose weight and heal chronic conditions with ease.
This series isn’t about the foods you eat, what you drink, or the workouts you do – it’s about bringing awareness to self-sabotaging patterns and taking tangible steps to change them so you can finally have a body you feel amazing in.
Today I have tip #3 for you, and it’s a SUPER important one.
This is probably the single most impactful thing I do for my health every day.
TIP #3
Put your phone on airplane mode when you go to bed, and
don’t look at it until at least 20 minutes after you wake up.
When you roll over and immediately look at your phone, your body produces cortisol and goes into the fight or flight state as the sympathetic nervous system is activated.
Plus, it’s a distraction from taking action to feel your best, and therefore a manifestation of Fear of Feeling Good. When you scroll through Instagram, you numb out uncomfortable feelings and avoid taking action to feel your best.
It’s a form of procrastination.
If you had nothing distracting you in the morning, you’d naturally tune in to your body and notice that a run would feel amazing, or meditation is just what you need… or maybe you need to blast your favorite song and dance around in your underwater.
Instead of tuning in to what we need to feel our best, so many of us numb out with our phones then rush to work, never taking a moment to notice what we need to truly rock the day and move the needle forward in the areas that matter most to us.
Even if you’re just looking at pretty photos on Instagram or texting with your boyfriend, your body still goes into the stress state because you never know what you’re going to see when you start looking at social media and checking your texts and emails.
Yes, you might stumble on some adorable bunny photos… or you might have a scathing email from your boss. Your body doesn’t know what’s coming.
Whether consciously or not, your body is in suspense and therefore produces stress hormones that inhibit digestion and mental clarity, leading to weight gain, bloating, and anxiety.
Your cell phone also emits positive ions – which are actually detrimental, contrary to their name.
Electronic devices like phones, computers, and TVs produce positive ions.
Negative ions are found in nature, and they’re what make you feel peaceful and grounded when you’re at a park or in the woods.
Positive ions stress your adrenals and make you feel frazzled and agitated, and therefore more likely to eat a tray of brownies and skip the gym in favor of a Netflix binge.
Negative ions make you feel calm and centered, which makes you more likely to cook a beautiful meal and connect with a sweet friend.
Checking our phones first thing in the morning sends us into comparison mode. We scrutinize our groggy morning selves as we look at the bright, beachy, modelesque photos that populate Instagram… and we start to feel less-than.
This can trigger us to give up on our goals and just get a greasy breakfast sandwich and rush to work.
When we wake up and spend a little time breathing and just being with ourselves, we’re more likely to have a calm breakfast and do a few simple stretches or a short meditation.
THE FIRST STEP IS TO SIMPLY NOT CHECK YOUR PHONE FOR THE FIRST 20 MINUTES YOU’RE UP.
You don’t have to do anything else, just go about your normal routine, sans phone. Shower, use the bathroom, get dressed, and make breakfast… whatever you would normally do that doesn’t involve your phone.
Simply start there.
After you’ve taken this key step, check out my personal morning routine to get your wheels turning, then create your own ritual based on what you love to do.
What do you do first thing in the morning?
Leave a comment below and tell me – I can’t wait to hear from you.
Hugs,
Lula
P.S. Read more about Fear of Feeling Good…
Photo: Magdalena Wosinska