Well-being Series: How to boost your digital well-being
What is digital well-being and how can you boost your own? Discover how tech is impacting your mental health and emotional wellbeing.
Although people define digital well-being in different ways, this is generally thought to be the extent to which our digital lives help or hurt our well-being. This can involve the physical tools we use to manage the amount of time we spend online, the behaviors we decide to engage in while online, and the emotional tools we use to manage our experiences online. Discover what better digital well-being might look like to you.
Physical Tools for Digital Well-Being
First, discover how much time you spend online and how you might want to disconnect more often with a tool like Google's Digital Well-Being App or Apple’s Screen Time. These can show you how often you use different apps and check your phone. They can also allow you to set limits that can help protect your sleep and focus. Knowing your current digital habits is a good step in understanding yourself.
And setting limits can indeed be helpful for well-being. But if a digital well-being tool's primary purpose is to help us be on our phones less, this means that we’re working with an inherent assumption that more digital interactions lead to worse well-being. And the research doesn’t quite support this assumption.
Although movies like The Social Dilemma point to clear problems with how Internet apps are being developed, these leave out important information that can help you better improve your digital well-being. Indeed, app designers are trained in psychological techniques that get users addicted and reliant upon these apps for a sense of connectedness, emotion regulation, and just survival in the modern world. This can be especially problematic for those prone to addictions and can significantly hurt the well-being of some people.
However, the research shows that some apps improve the well-being of some people in some circumstances. Hopelab published a fascinating study showing that youth who suffer from depression benefited from accessing other people’s health stories through blogs, podcasts, and videos. Overall, research reviews suggest that technology use is not bad for all and not bad in all circumstances.
Behavioral tools for digital well-being
Given the research, behavioral and emotional tools are likely also useful for enhancing digital well-being. In other words, we need to choose to avoid apps or experiences that make us feel bad and instead choose to engage with apps and experiences that make us feel good.
This means growing our understanding of how different apps affect our well-being, self-reflecting on how our digital time is spent, and making the right decisions for us.
Emotional tools for digital well-Being
Many of the emotional tools we need for digital well-being are the very same emotional tools we need for real life. We just need to apply them in our digital lives. Here are some specific tips:
1. Be more mindful
When we're more mindful of how we live our digital lives, we pay more attention to our experiences and emotions, and also to others. This heightened awareness can help us make decisions that help us better appreciate the good and manage the bad.
2. Focus on others
When we are on social media, we tend to focus mostly on ourselves — our feelings, opinions, and experiences. But heightened self-focus can amplify negativity. The research shows that other-focus and prosocial behavior (kindness towards others) are fantastic ways to boost well-being. So when you're online, try to focus more on doing kind activities.
3. Find the good things
While online, try to look for the good things or the silver linings. If you find something positive, consider sharing it with others (#SilverLinings). Practicing this skill both on and offline can help you improve your well-being.
4. Practice gratitude online
Gratitude is fantastic for well-being. And we can practice it both on and offline. Practice gratitude with gratitude journaling apps, share your gratitude in texts, or create a gratitude collection on Pinterest. Our digital lives are a great place to practice gratitude.
5. Cultivate self-esteem
The messages people post on social media can sometimes make us feel bad about ourselves. Maybe we don't feel attractive enough or popular enough. To fight these negative messages, try to spend more of your digital life doing things that boost self-esteem (like learning skills or making content) and less time pouring over what everyone else is doing.
Digital well-being for everyday life
Digital well-being is now an important part of overall well-being. Knowing how to improve it and taking action to improve digital well-being is essential.
If you’re curious about how your digital life is impacting your overall well-being, explore our course Find Your Way where we cover how untethering from tech can help you feel better.
References
Rideout, V., & Fox, S. (2018). Digital health practices, social media use, and mental well-being among teens and young adults in the US.
Verduyn, P., et al. (2017). "Do Social Network Sites Enhance or Undermine Subjective Well‐Being? A Critical Review." Social Issues and Policy Review 11(1): 274-302.
Ingram, R. E. 1990. “Self-Focused Attention in Clinical Disorders: Review and a Conceptual Model.” Psychological Bulletin 107 (2): 156–176.
The Little Retreat & The Big Retreat Festival | A Conversation with founder Amber Rich
We speak to Amber Rich, founder of The Little Retreat and The Big Retreat Festival about how she arrived at these projects, how wellness is now something that we all reach for, and her role as a curator of discovery and awe.
To call The Little Retreat in Pembrokeshire glamping is like calling Glennon Doyle a blogger. Staying in one of the wood-furnace heated domes (with furniture you’d find in a boutique hotel), warming up in your own Scandi hot tub, or roasting smores by a private fire pit after a day at the beach or walking in the Preseli Hills, you’ll sink into what life could be if we stopped for a while to notice its possibilities.
The Little Retreat was founded by Amber Rich, who also curates The Big Retreat “feel-good festival” that takes place on these grounds (2022 tickets are already on sale), and from which it takes its cue. Where the festival has a Darwin den, campfire stage, cold water swims in The Cleddau, a talk tent curated by Shelf Help director Toni Jones, and creative workshops, its weekend away counterpart has sustainability woven through its design, foraging workshops about to start, stargazing tents with views of dark skies, and curated programs focusing on such practices as breathwork, yoga, arts and craft. The festival and retreat overlap, exchange ideas, and share their approach, with both offering a slowed-down lifestyle and collective experiences that get you closer to a vision of how you might shape your own life when you return back to it.
After a few days at The Little Retreat, we had the chance to speak with Amber about how she arrived at this place, how closely the festival and the retreat are connected, and how wellness is now something that we all reach for:
Let’s start with the connection between The Big Retreat and The Little Retreat. Why did you start them and how do they connect? If the core value of the festival is one of ‘discovery’, how would you describe the retreat?
I used to own my own gym and ran fitness and wellbeing classes to improve mental and physical health. After the birth of my daughter Bea (who is now 7) I decided that I wanted to utilise the family land to create a sanctuary where people could come to escape their busy lives, pause and reconnect. This was the start of the original "Little Retreats".
I found that these retreats were having such a profound effect on people’s lives and making a real difference: One lady who attended had not been able to sleep for years. After our retreat, she learnt how to pause and use those skills to have her first good night’s sleep in 7 years! It was feedback like this that spurred me on to create The Big Retreat Festival.
I wanted to create a space where people could come and discover breath work, fire walking, gong baths, yoga, wild swimming, forest bathing — literally anything and everything that allowed people to "find their feel good". It also included festival favourites such as gin workshops and music to enhance people’s experience and wellbeing.
I realised that giving people time and space in a beautiful setting to discover all of these wonderful life-enhancing experiences could really make a positive change in people’s lives.
Discovery and "finding your feel good" still remains the core value to this day.
What do you think people are looking for who stay with you or attend one of your events?
I think people are looking for time to reflect on themselves, to unplug from daily life and to find out what makes them feel good. We are perfectly poised in the heart of the Pembrokeshire National Park on the banks of the "Secret Waterway". The stunning location inspires awe and wonder every time and we think the unique setting coupled with a sanctuary and safe space to discover is the catalyst for change.
What do you hope people experience with the projects that you create? What do you hope they take away and bring into their everyday lives?
I hope that people’s appreciation for nature and the outdoors grows and they are able to reconnect and utilise outdoor space to improve their wellbeing. I think it’s important with the complexity of modern living that people are reminded that sometimes it’s the simple things that bring us the most happiness.
If you attend one of our Feel Good Retreats you will learn skills that you can take away with you and implement straight away in your everyday life. The goal is to inspire people to reset and to really connect with themselves and the great outdoors.
I see my role as a curator of discovery and awe, allowing people the opportunity to reset, rethink and equip themselves with a host of skills and experiences — a toolkit that they can take home and continue to use to ultimately change their path and enhance their lives.
How do you think the idea of wellness has shifted since you started The Little and Big Retreats?
When I first began The Little Retreat the words wellbeing and wellness were quite niche and only appealed to a select few. Today looking after your mental and physical health is much more mainstream and in the public psyche. With the Covid pandemic more and more people are realising just how important nature and mental as well as physical health are to enhance our lives. That is one positive we can take away from the Covid pandemic.
What motivates you to create these spaces in the world? What kept you going during recent challenges?
My key motivation is to provide a sanctuary that allows people to discover not only nature but how to unwind and reconnect for their physical and mental health. A safe space where people are free to discover and pause.
The design of the space at The Little Retreat was about focusing on ways for people to connect with the outdoors without necessarily having to "rough it" to experience the joys of being close to nature. A key focus was also to have a minimal impact on the surrounding ecology and landscape.
The pandemic has actually given me the time and space to take ecology and planning into focus and look at ways for nature to thrive. We noticed during the pandemic the return of otters on the river banks and native oysters that had previously been wiped out due to human impact. This rewinding of our natural space showed me just how important it is to tread lightly on the site and in everything we do. We have worked to encourage nature in the planning — from bat boxes, swallow bricks, hedgehog runs, planting native species and harvesting the rainwater. We are really hoping to reduce our carbon footprint at both The Little Retreat and The Big Retreat Festival.
Over the pandemic, I realised that conserving the area was so important for nature and our own wellbeing that I set up the nonprofit arm "The Big Retreat Community". This is geared at enhancing and protecting nature as well as giving welsh artists a platform at our next festival.
In our guide for life, we roam across ten different pathways in the places that we feature and I’m curious about where you’d position your projects and why?
After looking through your Ten Pathways it is extremely difficult to choose one. All of them are intertwined intrinsically in everything we do from untethering upon arrival, to reconnecting mind and spirit right through to purpose and doing good. All of your pathways align exactly with our mission and how we conduct our projects.
How do you bring the values of the places you create into your own life?
I am constantly trying new things and discovering not only the latest external wellbeing practices but rediscovering the landscape. I make sure I set aside time every day to do this. Whether it’s a cooling wild swim in the Cleddau or a mindful walk through the woodland set around our site. I make sure that at least once a day I allow time for myself to reconnect and discover. I think it is so important to schedule this time into your diary in the same way you would an appointment at the doctor’s.
As we emerge from the lockdowns and are maybe feeling more hopeful about our worlds, is there anything that you’re particularly excited about going forwards?
There is so much going on at The Little Retreats this year it’s actually really really exciting. We have the addition of wild food workshops offering a foraging course and a 12-course dinner, the release of our Find Your Feel Good In Pembrokeshire guide, wild swimming sessions, forest bathing, and breathwork. We are currently building the space for the new stargazer tents with outdoor hot baths — a perfect opportunity to make the most of our stunning location in an official UK Dark Sky reserve. There are so many things that are organically falling into place.
We want both The Little and The Big Retreat to be a sanctuary and a beacon for anyone and everyone who wants to set aside time to find out just what it is that makes them tick and "find their feel good".
While there: we recommend pastries and bread from the micro bakery in the village Hugtasty, the award-winning beach shack Café Mor at Freshwater West (also the site of Dobby’s resting place), the stunning beaches, hikes, and paddle-boarding at Stackpole, and cafe with a mission Get the Boys a Lift.