Are We Losing Ourselves in the Scroll?

You finally get a moment to yourself. The day’s been full on work, family, life. You could take a breath, sit in the quiet, let yourself just be…

But instead, you reach for your phone.

Just for a minute. Just a quick check.

And before you know it, 45 minutes have disappeared into TikTok, Netflix or YouTube.

I get it. I do it too. We tell ourselves it’s rest, but deep down, we know it’s something else.

The Escape That Doesn’t Work

We think we’re unwinding, but really, we’re just numbing. Avoiding. Keeping the noise going so we don’t have to sit with the exhaustion, the overwhelm, the uncomfortable thoughts creeping in.

And yet, when we finally put the phone down, do we feel better? Or just… emptier?

The stats are stacking up. Women are more burnt out than ever. Antidepressant prescriptions are climbing. We’re juggling everything, but instead of replenishing ourselves, we’re losing hours to content that isn’t even making us feel good.

And that’s a hard thing to admit.

The Rest We’re Actually Looking For.

What if the thing we need most isn’t more content, but less?

Less noise – More space.

Less distraction – More deep rest.

Less numbing – More actual presence.

Because real rest isn’t another episode autoplaying. It’s not TikTok filling the silence.

It’s stepping outside for a breath of fresh air.

It’s making a cup of tea and actually drinking it.

It’s lying down with your eyes closed, just for a minute, just to feel what being actually feels like.

When was the last time you gave yourself that?

A Small Experiment

I’m not here to tell you to delete your apps. I won’t pretend I’ve got it all figured out either. But I do know that when I pause, even for a few moments, something shifts.

So what if we tried this?

• Before you open an app, just take one deep breath. Ask yourself: What am I actually looking for right now?

• Give yourself 5 minutes of quiet today. No screens. No input. Just you.

• Make space for real rest. The kind that fills you instead of draining you.

Because we don’t need more distraction. We need more of ourselves.

And that starts by giving ourselves permission to step away from the noise.