Episode 5: Digital Detox – Cleaning Your Mental Inbox

Welcome to Mental Hygiene, a space to care for the mind like we care for the body, daily, gently and with love. Posted by Yogi Chiru and Susan Huu, this podcast brings ancient Yogi wisdom into modern life, offering practical tools to cleanse the mental clutter, restore inner stillness, and reconnect with your true self. Take a breath, you're exactly where you need to be. Welcome to Mental Hygiene. Hello everyone, welcome to Mental Hygiene. My name is Susan and I'm with my incredible teacher and friend Yogi Chiru. Today we're going to talk about something that I know I can personally use quite a bit digital detox. Welcome everyone, yes, digital detox, I am really chiru. I used to do digital weekend retreats. Just to be able to communicate without the gadgets. Yeah, it sounds like so simple digital detox, but if you think about it, there's really this need for us to detox physically but also mentally. I think these days, so many people are doing little things every single day to purify the physical body. We take care of our physical body, someone seeing a while we go for like a deeper detox, maybe a fast, maybe some sort of cleanse, but very often we forget that digitally, mentally, we also need that detox. That's a nice point. People who physically detox, because they're people, people, people, and then they're not so, I need to give them my problems and work. So they take it like into a fantastic or something. And people realize, wait. Just like completely into your organs, so we need a digital world, we're living in digital time. We need to be living in a continuous dimension, but we also need our digital lungs, digital brain, and perfect. We need to think of break from it as well so that our mind can. So that we can once again find that healthy balance between us and the technology that's helping us to connect with people versus actually getting a lot of those side effects that we don't necessarily want. And the key to anything is moderation, but we need to live in this digital world to get by in this damage. So we as a human race, we do everything over the top. We went from one side of the pendulum, like no maths or effort, or ancestors on this planet. They were connected to nature, and the Institute of other, to completely mispeed and closely telepathicism, but also, but no, we went from that time to the other extreme. Where, even if someone lives in your room house, if they're in the other room, instead of walking from a room to their room to say, hey, we send up explanations. And that's not even the worst. The worst is if we're with someone, sometimes we're just all on our phones and not actually connecting with each other. There's this actually really funny true story. My parents are visiting right now, and I have my little dog, Bego. This one we're all sitting on a couch, when we're on a phone, Bego will literally just come here, use his power to put it on our hands, be like, hey, get off your phone, get off your phone. My parents and I, we found it really amusing, but it actually makes perfect sense, because animals, they're so into and they realize it doesn't make sense for you to be on your screen while you're with all those people, with all that loving energy around. But for us, sometimes because we are so addicted, in a way, to the devices that we forget that. They're not yet dogs since always. When they don't see their parents, a lot, they're visiting you and then the dog sees, oh, they're spending time on the dog goes on. Stop it, get rid of your phone. And these days, I think an average person, we spend so much time on the devices, you mentioned how many minutes, how many times do we check our phone every single day? I saw a survey in 2024 that the human, the gentleman today who has a phone, or check their phone, roughly 305 times a month a day. That's amazing. Not in a good way. It's about 3.5 times, check your phone every 3.5 minutes. A human who has a phone next to them, they cannot have their phone next to them and don't look at that screen for more than 3.5 minutes. Wow. So yeah, so that's amazing. You have to move your head to your hand like it's 305 times a day. We get so conditioned. You think it's part of us now. It's unfortunate in a sense that. And also in that duct, in that survey that was a few months today, in a roughly 7.7 hours from 9 hours, just on the screen time. That's over a third of our lifetime. So if we're 11 to 100 years, that means you've probably spent like 4 years on screen time. As I think the average person is 7.1 hours. No sleep is needed for healing. We're spending more time on the screen than in sleep. Then we are resting and we're juvenating about it. Wow. And no wonder we're all stressed out. We're all constantly working through so many different physical, mental imbalances. And also in that survey says a typical human adult spending the screen time is no minimum than two devices. So you know your phone or your computer screen. Or pops another tablet. Kindle or, you know, so it's like we move from one screen to another screen to another screen. I understand if it's for your work, right? If you're working in a lot of like that. But the most of us, the most of us, the masses of healing, we don't need to stay. Yeah. I mean, the device is the technologist great when it's being serviced to us. Like in my case, my parents, they don't live close by. So when they're away, it's great that now we have those devices that can connect us with each other right away. And if we're spending so much time on those devices that's taking away the actual human connection, then we need to make some adjustments to bring ourselves back to this balance. Yeah. Every time in the same room with you, okay, we don't need the screens on the wall. Let's put the phones down, put the gadgets down on B. Right? Usually the person. Mm-hmm. Yeah, when we spend so much time on the devices, we start to lose that connection in a way unfortunately. Most of us, I can speak for myself. So often I'm just so habitually having my phone close by even when I'm with someone, once in a while, I would pick up my phone. Hopefully, it's not every 3.5 minutes. But that really takes away that presence of you. It takes a toll on any kind of friendship relationship that we have. We can see that equal the ground vacation. And there is more tension on the vacation because of the budget. This family is supposed to be there, but then one of the people, either the husband or the wife, have to be at work still on the gadget. And then I have to say, the ground vacation is still on the top. So how to recognize that? Your vacation? I mean, use the phone for one or two hours. And then put it on. No, silence it. Right? And it's constantly be, yeah, that's because the world we live in is going to make us think is important. Totally. No, no, there's nothing more important. We know. There's nothing more important to us than our bread. Bread is the fundamental of bread. But the gadgets are pulling us away from the bread. As a moment. Like, you know, I see sometimes there's some apps that help people. Okay, time to breathe. Right? And then the first up. Oh, the humans use their gadgets for that. Okay. Slow your breathing now in the heading for four. Exhale for four. Those are good. But I don't see many humans. There's bread. It pulls us away from, made from one, the gadgets pulls us away from the bread. On the bread, we're going to be cool away from everything else that is important to us. No, and the most important thing to you. Don't be surprised. You ignore other things as well. Totally. Yeah. And, yeah, when we are spending so much time, when we're becoming addicted in a way to those devices, we lose that priority of what's actually important. We think the next thing that I see, that next notification popping up on my phone is the most important thing. And we forgot. We really just have this present moment right here right now. And most of the things that we're watching on the phone, it's not even from right now. Mm-hmm. You spend a time watching a lot of YouTube videos. All of those things are in the past. Yes, they're important. Watch it once, get the information, bring it back to here. People go into those and they get locked in, right? And it was in the afternoon. The new house, put a video for you that figured your mentality, you would like this. And sure enough, you go and you click. It's like someone control your mind for us. Click this, click that. And all of a sudden you're in a world where it's the political tension, people are this and you get more upset. Whether it's for whatever you do, if it's for surfing, you can find if it's for nutrition, if you do so many videos for nutrition. Right? I said you can use them but don't get caught where you spend so much time on the speed. The information is there to digest. You cannot digest it if you're moving from one video to another video to another video to another. It's just information. And then we become as one of my friends, you see. We go mentally constipated. Too much information. And yet we don't know how to even concentrate our mind to process information. But we're thinking that's the happiness, right? No, no. Getting information, earn off the guidance, collect the right digested information, include them and college. We get intelligence. We're hoping, oh no, this is a work for them. Come up with your own intuition. So again, like we say, when someone makes a choice for us, we need to do it. We're not going to be happy. So a lot of the information that we're getting from the green world, the digital world, our information is created by other people that are ourselves. Now some of it, we can relate to it. Some of it, create tension in us. So why did you make someone else create tension in us? So we have to learn the art of motivation for what we need to. And then when it's time to avoid it, you have to will forward to say no to. Like give yourself that beautiful challenge. Okay, I'm going to have my phone next to me and I won't check it further next 15 minutes. I won't look at it. I will do something else. We forgot how we are born today. When me and you took birth and all of you were on all species. I haven't seen a species yet. Who does it? I don't have. But when we came out of our mother's room, we came out first and I'm sure that one time I'm on, I'm not on. It was satellites. Right? And the hands. And the feet. Today, it looks. If someone didn't know how you were born and they look at humans, they're going to train or a bus or something, they're going to think. We were born with those gadgets. And then one hand. Right? It looks like no, we train and we start. So there's a way to be taught to ourselves from the mind. The object is someone else's mentality. Someone else is taught pattern trying to influence us. And there's no wrong with that. So the problem is when you go in there, you try to listen to one. You're going, oh, I want to listen to this. But as soon as that ends, what happens? Something else. Someone is starting to choose things. And all of a sudden, they're about two, three hours. And that's two, three precious hours of the following number. Life is the time is cushioning. Once a container, life we cannot buy. So let's minimize the screen time. If you're, I saw the zen, was it the zen, the dancing, the dancing, the dancing. Gen Z? What's it called? The generation? The mirror. This bananas. Because it's totally. It's really cool. It's really cool. It's really cool. It's really cool. I already give them a tablet, right? So they grew up with the tablet. It sounds like I'm from a non-indulgent or rich. I didn't get my first mobile phone. The level is like, I mean, five. The first one I was leaving home from. The quarter. I was leaving home from the tablet. So I think I got my, it's going to be there. The kid has a tablet. Found there. 5, 6, 7, 8. The tablet that keeps the baby quiet. It's a prison. Oh, different culture. So now with that generation, we have to empathize with them. Because that's all they know. I didn't understand a word without gadgets. So grateful that I existed in a world. I was on this planet at a time when people didn't have no mobile phone. Totally. Remember. When people didn't have it in every house. I remember if you wanted to use that, send that email to computer. It was, uh, I think they make cafe, right? You go to an internet cafe. I remember I was in Hong Kong. I went out to go to like the server cafe. And I didn't like it. It was so loud and was so smoky. I was like, you went and then you leave. Then I had no team. No, spend time. Oh, that has changed. Yeah. I read something a while back. They say people used to use the internet to escape reality. Now we use reality to escape the internet. Because we spend so much time on those devices. The digital world become more real than what's literally around us. And it's more important that we really need to have that awareness knowing all those side effects that we have. If we're overly dependent and addicted to the devices. And the importance of one thing a while due to a little bit of detox. Just so that we can again and again come back to that balance of remembering what's actually important to us. I grew up in Berlin. I remember you have in your time. Oh my cousins sit up in the middle. I remember we were almost there. I remember right there. I was a conversation about this. That I've been to this work at the school. You hear it from the adult. I would hear it. I was conversation. I was so personal. I went to our restaurant. And it was like a table was there. But it's probably was like 15 people around the table. The grandma. The kids and then like the end grandkids. The grandma was the only one without a graduate. You know, all the grandkids had a tablet. And they were no older than like the door edge between five and 14. But each one of them had and then they were doing like they were playing a game with each other. And they knew I was like, you know, it looks so. But then I understood which are this is another time on the planet. On the island we were born into I was born in another time. And so you have to look at it and think, okay. Empathize it then true. They don't they don't they don't have the cool of something. But we can understand it. But typically that it brings it brings up it brings up in person. A list of what we're relationship. The kids. I'm speaking to someone about the things that I'm going to come from. So we want to be more personal with our friends. The family members. You know, we use the gadgets that work. And create a room. No phones. Find a hard like I said earlier, they can't spend time with their breath. So if you know the most important thing is. And once we're able to on the other hand once we're able to kind of work through that addiction. And we have then it becomes so liberating. You don't feel bored because you don't have your phone. You don't feel like you have to be watching something constantly. Being I don't know sending text message or doing whatever on the devices to feel your actually alive and here. Then this world becomes so much more so much more colorful. And we're able to really really lift this human experience without the devices. And we're able to do it. The digital world. Because it's advanced medicine. It can balance travel. You know, like. Where I go to India a lot. If I fly it. The public computer and that plane allows me to get. You can come. And we have the digital world with these instantions. Two months. So the digital world advanced or living now with the advancement. Then we should have more time on our hand to go. When instead of taking the time to go within. We get caught up in a world of just that. Without really going. Connecting to the real thing that. Yeah, and with those devices, we also lose our. We are not able to focus the mind because we're constantly distracted by the phone. We're not able to have any sort of patience because devices somehow enable us to have whatever information. We want anytime as long as you have the internet. Yeah, it's a lot of. Oh, when did it go? I need it now. What does uncle Google says? You've got your finger. It's amazing. But how. It's all. When they you get up and the internet stuff. The phone stuff. Whatever. What will we do? We have our breath. We have each others. We have our pets. We have to. I'm putting it like the people. Take their pets for a walk. Do all they're full. But not all of our car. Because the person is on the. It's like. I love humans. Let's. Let's use the intelligence. A little refined. Is that time for you on your. Your husband or wife. Your kids. We. We in the present with them. But today. The addiction is so strong. We can't even. Bottom. Walking the pets. I don't like. I. And remember the culture does that for us. Get back into your building. You need that gadget on your phone to open the gate. You need to get back into your. So true. Home with you because you can't get back in the gate in your house. It's amazing. So it's not. Keys. I think these guys are running out of business. That's so true. Yeah. For my front door, I have to use the key cards. It's not like a jet, but it's a card. The physical key only opens my door. I know there are other places. You don't even use the physical copy of key anymore. I see people that they get to open your gate. The community is on your phone and I found. And to get to open the door. It's the same. I'm like. It's simple, but then it's. It's telling you you need. It's a survive. Right. So how do we use it in moderation? So we're trying to go out and use it together. Use it. When you get in the home. But then it's built it. Okay. So if this is this is it's like you don't get a break from it. It is trying to replace our work. Remember our breakfast is with us 24 hours a day. But they compete in the channel make us feel that. The computer, the phone, the more important that the bread. I have to never have to. They are already taking up a third of our day. So. If people are making choices for us all the time, they will never be happy. The mind needs peace. Everyone that everyone I know is looking for peace. Even if they are using the screens 78 or they're looking for peace. They just have to give them a alternative. And alternative in the other version. Technology. But then have the will power. The mental strength. Turn it off. I'll be at home. Check my phone in the next 3.5 minutes. I want to check the computer. And what if you're not doing that, what would you do? I guarantee you will be doing something in the mode of. Hmm. The mind to be. Whether it's cleaning your back and cleaning it. You will be doing something positive. And actually being present knowing what's happening around rather than just being glued to the phone. So. Let's appreciate each other. Okay. I live in a different one to none mind. So I need to call them. We're grateful for Zoom. But in my harmonies I would mean finally. Why do I need to. Okay. Switch it off. We'll have the other. We have the time of the number. And every night before we go to sleep, like we spoke about a few weeks ago, when we go to sleep, put a phone away. At least put it on. Do not disturb air play mode if you don't feel comfortable turning it off. And yeah, funny moderation so that we can slowly come back to the place where we are independent human beings. Human being. The mind that has more. More of goodness. Right. That's nice to listen to our message. And I'm positive that when the lecture finished, turn it off. Close your eyes. I just. You might not be able to. You're being seen with a proper serve or a. Keep. I'm a different part of the planet. But they might have a YouTube. So okay, you watch it. You sit. I just. You make. I need. I need. We need time to digest it. But they're just. It's like the algorithms are so. Oh, you need this one. That one. And then all of a sudden. You don't digest. And yet confuse about our goal of life. You get confused about our. You change. You get confused about calling. So I think in a way to be able to find that mental hygiene through digital detox. We can. Use our devices in moderation. Make a point to put it away when we are with someone when we are going to rest when we're coming to a place of. Regrivenation. So that we're also just mentally sending ourselves this signal. Okay, right now I am literally on do not disturb mode. I'm going inward with my thoughts with whatever meditation I'm having. And it doesn't have to be a seed of meditation. It can be a nice walking. A park. It can be spending time with your pets. It can be spending time with the loved ones. And then when we can perhaps do a little bit of a deeper detox. When we go on vacation, make a point, even if you have to check or work limited to a certain hours. So we're not just constantly being enslaved to our devices. Right. I remember when we used to do the digital detox week. The first nine people come. They because all their home dollar tablets. I will take a rather full federal. I will tell it to my nice. And you see the next day. You can just see the first day when people go through. Which draw. But then we have so many nice techniques to help them get through right. We're taking to nature walks. We think that we have a swim and just. And a big elements. And no one need to take a selfie. No need to take a phone to force anything. It's just a real information. Living the person. And then we will have like lectures. We have a meditation classes. And then. By the third day. No one wanted to do a song. I don't want it. I don't need it. And then. You know, we give it back. But then we give it back with. The news. Okay. When you go back. They did that exercise where. I want to use it in moderation. Totally. Bullet group points. What they know. Overriding them. And how they can be in for money. We don't want to go from. Overuse to my use. How to bring it in moderation. That's the key. Maybe one of these days. We'll do the digital lead tattoo. That will be amazing. Yeah. And then you know, we get to connect. Humanity. We're going to do that. Yeah. And then you know, we get to connect human. The human. Without the. We get to come. Human to nature. Human to grab. Human to test the plants. The water. And just the stars. And I don't know. The star. Stargazing. The flame. Over. I whisper. Moving to space and time right now. I'm going to say that we will sound. The more we feel it's so, so many. I'm going to find some amazing universe. And get people to remember that they are an important part of this universe. Hmm. That sounds incredible. I want to go to that retreat. And then when you go back into society. Let's try and bring what you learn from the retreat. And then you learn. And the retreat is. It's like intense detox. It's a reset. So when you go back in, then you have to learn the art of moderation. Otherwise, it's going to pull you back into just. It's like when you detox the physical body, when we do a cleanse. We don't go back to eating junk food right away. I mean, we could, but it's probably more sustainable if we learn how to eat properly through that cleanse so that we don't have to accumulate so much toxins in the body. And the same thing for the mental state as well. When you see someone do a fast, today is fast. So all the fast, fast, dangerous, and then you see the intelligence comes from within. So while I'm going to eat, I'll eat fresh food. I'll eat the left shoulder. The left shoulder. You do this. And then you might keep it from like, I'm eating the crap. That's a lot. And then you're back to the retreat. No, no. No, no. I need to go back to that. We detox enter again. The human condition and we have today, we have these, we're part of it. So we have to see, okay, I'll not throw us back. We have someone fast, but in these and the first thing they eat is pizza or chocolate. No, no, they're bad. You lose the taste for those things too. But similar to when you do it, digital detox retreat, you're certainly thinking you start to gain control over. It doesn't control you. I want that you see tonight. I'm not going to look at my street for 30 minutes with 5%. Yeah, you've been back some of the stuff into the video and then you see the road. More of a modernization and that's what you need it for modernization. Amazing. So you guys do a short meditation where we can use it before we can do a deep detox. At least when we listen to this short recording, we can kind of detach from our devices for a moment, even though most likely we're still listening to them on those devices. At least sitting in the mode of goodness to come back. We can listen to our lecture from a student. We can use it for meditation on the subject. And this is what I always tell people when we listen to our meditation from me or something, using it once clients. After that, when you're in the practice, do it by yourself. Gadget becomes a truck. Whenever I do training because I do trainings online, I do people want one online. I always give them a little recording of something. It's a recording two more times. When you know it, the next four days, do it by yourself. I always do a 20 meditation. I need that record and learn. You can do it with it because when I was in the Himalayan, I was a little recording. I would have to learn it. I would learn the technique and after I learned, I would go and do it by myself. That's why I train. We can do it like that. Let's come into a nice comfortable seat. The palms underneath. That's the tip of the thumbs. Close the eyes. Bring your awareness to something that is a natural gift from divinity. It is not digitalized. It is your natural breath. Feel the air moving in and out. And recognize your breath is always with you. Ever since you came out of your mother's womb as a little baby, up to this moment, your breath has been your constant companion. The breath keeps us alive. If we were to stop the breath, we won't be able to breathe. We won't be able to use our brain, use our intellect. We won't be able to use our gadgets. In our amazing planet that we live, the technology world has advanced medicine, advanced in travel, advanced in so many things. We need technology. We have to learn to use them in moderation. Want you to bring into the center of your eyebrows, the gadgets that you use that pull your minds away, and you can use it as a TV screen, or a computer screen, or mobile phone screen. Bring those gadgets in your awareness. And contemplate which one of them you spend the most time with. Now, those, the ones that you spend the most time, maybe it's for work. You know, that's why you do it. Maybe it's just addiction. If you fall into that addictive nature, then mental repeat, I will use this, say the name of it, this gadget, 50% today.