I had a habit of grabbing my phone the moment I woke up.
It used to just be about hitting the snooze. It turned into checking the time. Then checking my lock screen led into flipping through notifications. And that of course led to social media.
This 'progression' happened so habitually that at one point, within 15 seconds of waking, I would be on instagram scrolling through reels for a half hour.
And it felt good. On days when i was extremely tired, this seemed to give me the 'hit' I needed to start my brain.
But I learned that this was a terrible way to start the day.
It's been shown that grabbing our phones first thing in the morning forces us to skip over crucial theta & alpha brain wave states, which impairs creativity. The rise of short-form video creates a perpetual flow of flashy scenarios that feeds our brain with a hits of dopamine which actually neurologically and anatomically changes our brain.
I find that while these hits of 'digital caffeine' help jolt me awake, it has terrible withdrawal symptoms. My brain starts to race. When I get to making breakfast, my mind's eye can't help but flash from image to image, mimicking the potent waves of stimulation I get from my waking addiction.
I end up feeling exhausted before the day even started.
So to make a change, I worked hard to make sure I started my day with embodied, slow, almost boring habits ([[making my bed is my most important morning habit]]). And over time, it made such a difference. I felt more calm, more collected. It gave me more gratitude, I was more present with people. I'm working hard not to fall into relapse, hopefully I can keep it up!