My body can’t poop without my phone anymore
A fun anecdotal newsletter about the mind’s ability to affect physical reality
Without further ado…
It’s true.
My body can’t poop without my phone anymore.
An otherwise healthy digestive system and all the manifesting (“manifesting”) I strive for in other areas of my life, yet here I am instead, having manifested a functional bodily reliance on my mind (and hands) being busy and distracted throughout each day surrounding one of my body’s most vulnerable performances.
Since I have your attention and it is Mehret’s reputation which will suffer as a result of this week’s newsletter instead of my own, I would also like to share with you that I have, at least at home, taken steps to rectify these consequences of habit by substituting washroom-phone-use with an old GameBoy, lol.
One baby step in one area of life to back-peddle from this smartphone addiction running my life.
I always think about the time I first started using a cellphone, not to mention how fun and harmless it was then still. It’s been 20 years now. The devil wanted to trap our energy and attention today, so he planted a seed 20 years ago. It is the same technique spiritual teachers and coaches teach us about goal-orientation, discipline and process, meanwhile behind the scenes of our awareness more sinister and cunning energies are using the same wisdom against us. Life is funny.
Again, since it is Mehret’s legacy at stake here I will happily use this opportunity to air my grievances to you, the unsuspecting audience, as a quirky alternative to the usual uplifting and inspirational time spent offline stories and tips.
If my smartphone addiction, (which can also be called fear of boredom/emptiness/silence/loneliness) has manifested a physical consequence in my body, let me tell you what it has done for my relationships, aka, none other than the most important aspect of our lives.
A friend of mine described one mental health challenge of smartphones now as “always being available.”
What do we do when something is always available to us? We take it for granted. When I think about my phone and the very small group of people I keep it to stay connected to, well, without a very healthy dose of self-awareness, discipline, and to be very honest, fulfilment in other areas of life otherwise, I find myself using my phone for everything except that. And in turn, the very small group of people I care about maintaining a connection with aren’t necessarily in a rush to reach out to me either because I am always available. And if (when) I expose a particularly vulnerable feeling with someone from this very small group that stems from a sense of loneliness, I am told, “what are you talking about? We are always here.” Meaning they are always available because of and through their phones. But of course, as you and I know, the availability we are looking for is of a loved one in the same moment as us, present in their bodies with us, available to see us as we are, to hear what we are saying, to receive our heart and soul in good faith and to share their hearts and souls with us in return.
Of course, because our maniacally wicked Creator (if he/she/it exists) finds his utmost delight in Paradox, it is precisely because we are “always available” via our phones that we are burnt out and have the desire to retreat and isolate when a more qualitative human connection is desired of us. And when my loved ones find me absent from the digital realm they assume it means I want to be left alone even further, as opposed to the reality where I in fact want to connect in our 3-dimensional space, and even beyond.
We have taken away the juiciest most worthwhile aspects of relationships with our phone use. If you and I are texting, I can’t hear your voice, you can’t receive my reaction; I in fact take away one layer (or the only layer) of authenticity by having to step outside of myself to think about how to communicate this reaction to you, instead of the 2 of us existing in the same moment, spontaneously and sincerely. On our social media platforms we get to control our images, how we present to the world, we get to tell people “this is who I am and this is how you will perceive me,” but enjoying any kind of relationship or human interaction means having (almost) no control and being entirely at the mercy of how The Other receives us - digital interactions are ultimately just relationships and conversations with our own egos, and the person on the other side of the screen almost literally becomes nothing more than a ghost. It’s exactly like using a Ouija Board: all text, one-sided interpretation, no physical body. And we have even brought these ghosts into the real world now among us - like when you’re waiting in line for your coffee while 20 “mobile orders” are being served before you. You are the only customer physically present, but you will be served last, and not one of these ghost-orders will be picked up before you receive yours. Quite literally ghosts have now left our digital space and found themselves welcome - nay! Prioritized! In our 3D reality. Relationships and happiness aside, being reduced to a ghost while we are still alive - now there's an injustice.
Listen, I warned you this was going to be a list of grievances.
Weren’t relationships and communication difficult enough without our mainstream technology being introduced into it? Weren’t we all still figuring out how to be with one another - hell, how to be with ourselves, before smartphones, the internet, and social media seemingly set us 1000 steps back? Do you remember people “joking” they had to learn how to socialize again after our pandemic isolation? Well, let me tell you how this girly still finds herself flabbergasted in the face of opportunities to be present with another human being in real time because we were hooked on our phones long before 2020. Let me tell you how this edition of time spent offline is brought to you by a full-grown adult only recently learning how to do exactly that.
“Mind over matter” has seeped its way into the most delicate and essential part of Humanness between our computer addiction and our relationships. I honestly couldn’t tell you which feels easier to revert back to its natural state between my body and my relationships lol. My colon waits for a game to load on my phone the way a virgin waits for her wedding night. And I am just as eager to, and anxious about, reconnecting with myself and others in real time, in the present moment, and authentically, outside of the strings we pull behind our screens and the performances we have by now confused with our genuine selves.
A HUGE thanks to my friend for this week's guest post- You know who you are!!! <3 Thank you for your silly text, it delighted me so much, and thank you for allowing me to bully you into actually following through with writing a guest post about, well… Thank you. I hope it delights everyone just as much. That’s all for this week!
Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.
Until next time,
Mehret
Mehret this is your best piece yet. I knew your were a writer, I had no idea you were a poet.