I've realized a few things while living in big cities working in somewhat glorified industries and living in a culture where being glued to a smartphone is standard. That one thing is that we don't take time to pause. I'm not sure my generation ever did pause. I reached my mid-twenties and was already burned out on the flood of information I got in the form of emails, tweets, Facebook posts, instant messages and texts in a single day. As things turned out, I have this flood of communication to thank for the fact that if I'm not on my iPhone I'm thinking about being on my phone for fear of missing out on some piece of content that may need my reply.
I'm already an anxious person. I worry, I think too much and I wonder about things beyond my reach and out of my control. So, taking myself away from technology is great but since I'm conditioned to always 'be on' I experience restlessness. So where does this leave me? To practice the art of leaving my phone a few feet away and reminding myself there's no rush. I'm slowly starting to do this in my professional and personal life and it's taking some time to get used to because I always want to please and I always want to be responsive. But those things are neither realistic nor healthy most of the time.
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