What if the very thing you’re holding in your hand right now is what’s draining your recovery energy the most?

In today’s episode, Michael shares the often-overlooked connection between smartphone overuse and energy loss—especially for survivors of injury, illness, and trauma. You’ll learn how digital distractions quietly erode your sleep, focus, and resilience... and what you can do to reclaim control.

• Discover 4 research-backed ways smartphones impact your physical and emotional health.
• Learn simple daily rituals to restore your energy without giving up your phone.
• Gain a new mindset around digital boundaries that honors your healing and joy.

Take deep breathe and uncover the biggest hidden energy leak in your life—and learn how to shift it for greater presence, rest, and recovery.

Receive my free text messages by texting Whole Again to 866-612-4604

Did you know that stickers are wonderful visual cues to help you create healthy habits? You can get one of my free Pause Breathe Reflect stickers by clicking sticker.

To discover more and sign up for My RIPPLE EFFECT newsletter by clicking Ripple Effect.

We can also connect on LinkedIn. or at Michael@PauseBreatheReflect.com

Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am. 

With Whole Again: A Fresh Approach to Healing, Growth & Resilience after Physical Trauma through Kintsugi Mindfulness, listeners explore resilience through personal stories of trauma, scars, and injury while learning to overcome PTSD, imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and perfectionism with self-compassion, self-love, and self-worth. Through insightful discussions on building resilience, resilience building, resilience and fitness, fitness and resilience, stress management, mindfulness practices, and digital wellness, the show offers practical tools like breathwork, micro-dose meditation, grounding techniques, visualization, and daily affirmations for anxiety relief and stress relief. Inspired by the art of kintsugi, the podcast embraces healing as a process of transformation, encouraging a shift in perspective from worry and being overwhelmed to gratitude and personal growth. By exploring the mind-body connection, micro-dosing strategies for emotional well-being, and holistic approaches to self-care, this podcast empowers listeners to cultivate emotional resilience and live with greater balance and intention.

 In this episode, you'll discover something that's draining your energy and it's right near you right now, and what to do about it. Hey there, it's Michael. Welcome to Whole again. A show about helping survivors of physical injury and trauma reclaim their strength and resilience through the wisdom of Kazuki.

On Fridays, I love sharing a microdose of wisdom with you to help you become whole again and step into the person you're becoming. In this episode, you'll discover that one thing that's draining your energy. In four ways to stop it from doing so. But before we dive in, I have some exciting news to share with you.

Our pause, breathe, reflect, text messages are back. They're free. They come out a few times each week, so I don't blast your inbox. And they're the perfect message for that particular moment. And you can sign up by sending me a text, just text whole again to 8 6 6 6 1 2 4 6 0 4. I'll say that one more time.

8 6 6 6 1 2 4 6 0 4. And I'll set you up with our wonderful text messages. There's also something else I would like to share with you. This year in the States, there have been many government actions that haven't helped us feel whole again. In a lot of ways, we feel more separated, more divided, or perhaps broken from immigration to affordability, to healthcare being at risk, and it's natural to feel worried or anxious.

But often when we hear about these new policies and the impact they could make, it might be challenging to fully appreciate the impact because we might not know someone who has truly been impacted by these new policies. So if you're feeling the effects from one or more of these changes and it's making it challenging to feel whole again, please reach out.

I'd love to share your story if you're comfortable. So those in our whole, again, community can have a greater appreciation on how action ultimately impacts us. 'cause we each have the ability to set our intentions and put forth good energy that can help us feel whole again and not separated or at risk.

So please reach out if you have a story you're willing to share. Now, let's dive in to what may be draining your energy. And my guess is you might be listening to this with it right now. Yes, I'm talking about your smartphone and I'll start here. I love my smartphone, and of course, as you know, I have an app.

Pause, breathe, reflect. I see it as an important tool, but when the tool starts to use me, I can feel my energy draining. So if you have a hunch that your phone may be draining your energy, you might be onto something. Our phones. Especially when we're on them as frequently as we are and checking them as often as we are, it can lead to mental fatigue, which then impacts our physical health.

As you might know, I've shared in the past, there are four cornerstones to our overall happiness and wellbeing that can help us feel whole again. Our digital health, our mental and emotional health. Of course, our physical health and our social health. Our phones can impact those other three cornerstones.

First off, our screens and our phones can disrupt our sleep. And of course, we need sleep for proper energy. It can also lead to cognitive overload because we have so many alerts and notifications and just a flood of information right there in the palm of our hand, so we can get mentally fatigue pretty quickly.

It can also lead to pretty fuzzy boundaries between work and our personal lives. All the tech execs out there promise that with all this new technology dating back to the Palm Pilot and the Blackberry onto today's smartphone, it would help us become more productive. We would have more free time, but really we're just working more.

We feel like we're constantly connected and it can also lead. This is the fourth area. The paper highlights. It can lead to addictive loops. Always checking the phone comparison, fomo, all that. I'm sure you've felt that from time to time, at least I know most people have. All of this can drain our energy and it will impact our mental, physical, social, and digital health.

Again, the smartphone is a great tool when we use it as a tool. But when it starts using us, we're in some unhealthy territory. But the good news is that we can do something about it. The first thing you can do, and I'm totally biased here, is to download our Pause, breathe, reflect app. You can try it out for free for seven days, and when you do so, we'll even plant a tree on your behalf or remove ocean plastic, and you can block distracting apps and websites so you can reclaim your time.

And by doing so, regain some of your energy so your energy isn't leaked via your phone. The next thing you can do is to turn off all your notifications, at least all the non-essential ones. So all that, bing, bing, bing, turn it off because that has a way of pulling your attention and focus away from the present moment and over time that can drain your energy.

It's also helpful to have some phone free time, in particular before bed for about an hour or after you wake up again for about an hour. That can give you some space to get ready for bed and to wake up thoughtfully and set your intentions. The next thing you could do. Try to create a boundary that's less fuzzy between work and life, and I get it work sometimes calls at the weirdest times, so you may need to check it every now and again.

But see if you can take a step towards creating a better boundary so you can create space for things that bring you more joy. No one's saying you have to get rid of your smartphone, but imagine. How much more energetic you would feel if you used it just a bit less.

So there you have it. The one thing that could be contributing to some leaky energy, you might be holding it right now, but the good news is that you can do something about it to reclaim your energy and to help you feel whole again. Thank you for being here, and thank you for being a fellow survivor and if you wanna receive those amazing pause, breathe, reflect text messages, send me a text to 8 6 6 6 1 2 4 6 0 4.

And I'll set you up,

and if you wish to further enhance your digital health, I'll invite you to take my smartphone wellness check, and you can access it through the link in the show notes. Or you can visit my website, which is Michael O'Brien shift.com, and it's absolutely free, and it'll help you scroll less and live more.

And of course, I hope you'll join us here on whole again every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and discover how to heal, grow, and become more resilient and celebrate our scars as golden symbols of strength and resilience. Until then, remember, you can always come back to your breath. You've got this and we've got you.