Hello beautiful people of Expansive Capacity!
It’s time for that good ol’ Superpower Sunday badassery! 🙂
This is all about how we can implement wee changes that can turbocharge our *existing* superpowers so that we don’t dim our own lights due to inertia, stress, or any other upper-limit problem that reveals itself along our path.
This month’s Superpower Sunday is a reminder of the value in creating — and sticking to — a “No Screens in the Bedroom” policy.
Let’s start with how we can reframe our relationship with technology in general, shall we?
When we get practiced at labeling what we’re letting our brains consume, we get pickier about what we feed them. In addition to all the cyberstalking we willingly allow to happen to us and our most intimate data, there are also a bunch of toxins and fillers and other non-essentials in our tech and those poisons are getting mixed in with the fuel we feed our brains that we then expect to live up to their creative potential.
We’re making it harder for our creative brains to be brilliant when we forget who we are in the relationship with our screens. This mantra helps me keep it in check: “Creator, not consumer.”
By the time we’re making it to bed, it’s vitally important that we allow our brains time to shut down. Relax. Decompress. REST from all the activity we’ve made essential all day long. And it’s very challenging to do that if we’re tethered to our phones ’til the last possible moment before our eyes finally shut for the night.
Ask yourself: What good can come of that one last check of email or social networking *right* before lights-out at night? Nothing. No good. Because either there’s something you were waiting to hear on that you still haven’t heard back about and now you’re cranky or someone comes at you with a need and now you feel obligated to respond… or force yourself not to respond but find your sleeping-brain is busy dealing with what you left unanswered anyway. Or you’ve seen something in your feed you have a reaction to. Or someone *didn’t* give you the reaction you wanted on that thing that YOU posted. It’s all noise at a time we need to be quiet. Reverent. Restoring ourselves for more brilliance.
Watching TV, scrolling on your phone, taking in all the sensations of light and sound and the emotions of what the media is meant to do to you… none of that is healthy for the bedroom. Make your bed the place for rest, friskiness, intimacy. Not to do business. Not to stay tethered to your fanbase. Not to ANYTHING other than bookend your day with some really lovely self-care on clean sheets.
Consider making the last hour before bed all about a bath, a walk, reading for pleasure, cosying up with the pet, getting in the floor and stretching, meditating, journaling, getting frisky, anything other than “one last lap” of tech. On the other end of your night’s sleep, see how long you can go without hopping on tech first thing in the morning. Or build the muscle for checking for audition notifications ONLY but letting everything else sit unanswered ’til after you’ve done a morning non-negotiable or two. With a morning that’s all about intention-setting and those non-negotiables that you’ve pledged to your best self, your entire day is more powerfully effective and pleasant.
If you must use your gadgets within an hour of bedtime, consider using the “night shift” setting to create a less intense glow of light coming from the screen. Use amber glasses (like Gunnar) or install the F.lux app or both. Getting your brain ready for the rest ahead makes even the shortest night’s sleep more impactful!
Consider disabling non-essential notifications (and get really good at labeling what’s *actually* essential). Consider uninstalling some apps on your phone that are intended to bring you closer to your next-tier goals but that ultimately only put your brain in hamster-wheel mode, set you off into the comparison game, or turn you reactive rather than inspired in your work. Aspire to rock it more like we did when it was all happening at 2400 bps. Get connected. Download the things you’re supposed to experience. Disconnect. Get back to your real life.
The quality of your sleep is as important as the quantity. Possibly even more so, actually! The kindest thing you can do for your sleeping brain — aside from fueling yourself with foods and drinks your body treats as medicine AND policing your self-talk to be filled with healthy language too — is to have a sleep hygiene practice that includes anything lo-fi and offline! Go screens-free and watch the shift in your ability to rest deeply and recover fully from the daily experience that is LIFE and all the creative gymnastics we do every day!
Remember: Life is so much bigger than what we consume from a screen — especially if much of OUR life’s work is about creating what goes on screens for others to consume!
All right, gorgeous, go grab your October Aligned Hustle Calendar at the Welcome page if you haven’t done so already. Here’s to a truly exciting month ahead!
As always, I’ll see you in the comments at the dojo! Catch me up on how it’s all going for you!
Much love,
Enoughness is an inside job… and sometimes you need a guide to find your way there. Let Bonnie Gillespie get you started.