Have your life back... Try "Mobile Fasting"

What does the doctor tell you when you are diagnosed with Diabetes? Stay away from sugar...
What does the wife of a smoker tell him when he coughs incessantly? Stay away from cigarettes...
What does the priest tell the person confessing to a misdemeanor? Stay away from sins...
What does the father tell his wayward son? Stay away from bad company...

I think these instances are enough to bring out the intent of this discussion, which is, if there are

symptoms pointing to a problem/issue/disease you would be better off by "staying away" from the "cause". Moreover, have we not heard more often than enough that "Prevention is better than Cure"? The problem we are facing today is that of too much screen time. Anywhere we go, we see people staring at various types & sizes of screens - from large TVs, computers / laptops to tabs & mobile phones. Recently I saw four "friends" sitting "together" on a table-for-four at a restaurant as each of them looked at his or her mobile phone maybe replying to the business email or chatting with some other friend in some other corner of the world while the other inconsequential friends sit on the same table. These days no one chats up with the co-passengers at the airport as people are seen smiling at their phone reading whatsapp jokes or watching movies totally blinded to the people around them. Men gawk at images of women on their phone while a beautiful woman sits right next to him. Train journeys have become a nightmare as no one now admiringly looks out of the window or bothers to share food with others as almost everyone is blabbering and cursing on their mobile phones marred by frequent call drops. Corporate meetings have totally lost their meaning as all attendees come armed with myriad devices, emails are being reverted to on laptops and messages responded to on phones while the presenter tries hard to get attention and put across his point which obviously is all noise to people immersed in their own screens. Selfie-mania hits you hard as soon as you walk into a party where everyone's only agenda is to click as many selfies in as many different pouting poses is as many phones as possible. In most cases the group of friends is almost the same in all parties and to me at least all the pictures look the same. To make it worse, I don't think anyone looks at these pictures even once afterwards.

Now that you are diagnosed with screen-mania which is affecting your life what is the obvious recommendation? Stay away from mobile phones... What am I saying? Obviously that cannot happen now that mobile phones have become a part of us... So how does one handle such a situation?

Let me place mobile phones at the same level as something that's very basic, is a necessity, without which life cannot exist (just like most of us believe we cannot live without mobile phones now)... FOOD. What do you do when you eat too much on a particular day? Mostly you would compensate for it the next day. Also, across all religions or regions, it is considered good for the body and the soul to "fast" once in a while or maybe at regular period which helps in detoxifying. I am suggesting the same to treat the mobile-affection.

I would like to call it "MOBILE FASTING". 

I am calling it "mobile fasting" and not "screen fasting" as the equivalent is that of smoking & drinking. Like smoking, mobile phone can be used anywhere while drinking like TV watching is mostly done privately and also maybe because mobile phones (like cigarettes) are more harmful than large screens (like alcohol) to your social health (physical health). What it means is you will not look at your mobile phone while you are mobile-fasting. This means exactly that - Can't LOOK! While you are mobile-fasting you should put your phone in silent mode or Do-Not-Disturb mode with even the vibrator mode being turned off. Best is to switch it off during the fasting time. You can do it at your convenience for any amount of time you wish to start off eventually leading to a full day fast once in a week. You can decide to fast once you reach home or fast for a couple hours in the morning or fast when you are at a party or at a dinner with friends & family. Minimum 2 hours at a stretch is prescribed to start off. Subsequently move to one full day in a month and then in a week.

Initially you will have nasty withdrawal symptoms as your hands would twitch and you would not know what to do with your time. However, slowly the addiction will wane off. The most important is that you need to get rid of the belief - "The sky will fall if I don't take that call or don't respond to the email/text message or don't read the whatsapp joke." Let me tell you - NOTHING HAPPENS... The world (or the company you work for) was nicely operational before you were born (joined) and will continue to do so when you die (resign or retire)... 

As you start practicing Mobile-Fasting more frequently, you will start seeing the benefits coming to you soon. You will realize that you spend more quality time with your family and friends, your children would be sharing much more of their day's activities with you and the parties would be much more enjoyable. This would even benefit your marital life and to the contrary can even improve your work life as instead of doing "activities" of just responding to emails, you can do some "active thinking" while the phone is away.

Time to get your life back... 

Start "Mobile Fasting" TODAY...