The Holistic Approach to Cell Phone Addiction:Helping The Children and Adults We Serve Transition from Withdrawal to Wellness
Recently we’ve heard of more school districts across the country limiting or planning to limit cell phone access for students during the course of their school day. We also know that there are court case precedents set, acknowledging the intentional addictive factors of cell phone use.
As I remain a presense in our public school system, I have had a birds-eye-view of students’ reactivity when stepping away from their phones, theoretically in order to better focus on their work and learning. I think this brings into focus an unaddressed issue in our work with students (those considered typically developing and those living on the autism spectrum) and perhaps all of our work with both children and adults in mental health and educational interventions.
We are recognizing the need to limit cell phone use but are we taking a close look into how we can treat and diminish the withdrawal symptoms that so often result?
I see students at the high school level immediately engage in escape behaviors and exhibit severe anxiety and restlessness following the act of putting away their phones. I’ve seen students as young a 5-years-old relentlessly trying to escape the classroom in order to access the i-pad that has been left in their backpack just outside the classroom door.
As parents, do we see these withdrawal behaviors when we ask that cell phones be set aside during a meal or family time?
I wonder, too, as we sit with adults in the business of mental health recovery whether we are offering a transition period or activity to allow for openness to the therapeutic process…just as we can intentionally offer a transition activity so that students can move from their cell phones to learning mode.
Indeed, there are a growing number of rehab programs that exist, both inpatient and outpatient, that address these withdrawal issues.
But just from a day-to-day perspective, simple mindfulness maze activities, breathwork card games and finger tracing posters deliberately implemented between cell phone release and brain/healing work can be enough. Just a small transition for big results.
Try it! Expect Miracles!
Bridging Worlds In Our Work and Parenting
A Better Day Curriculum was originally written as the book Children of the Cosmos. In this publication, I shared tools that can help us reach and communicate with our children and the clients we serve. Especially when trying to connect with those living on the spectrum, both diagnosed and undiagnosed, it is so helpful for us learn new ways to enhance and strengthen our communication and bonding.
I have included here an excerpt from that book that you can download at no cost. I have always been able to reach for metaphysical tools and levels of understanding and transfrm these into practical life skills. I hope you will find the Bridge Visualization, the Metaphysical Conversation and the Marqee Visualization helpful in your work and in daily life in general.
Try it! Share it! Expect miracles!
With love,
Sandra
Why Is Explaining Child Spirit So Complicated?
Over the years, I have found that talking about Child and Family Spirit, spiritual approaches and nurturing the hearts and souls of those we serve bring about hesitancy, inner unrest, skepticism and fear in the educators and other interventionist colleagues.
I have yet to perfect a way to share this approach that can be well-received by mainstream teachers and other professionals.
Over the years, I have found that talking about Child and Family Spirit, spiritual approaches and nurturing the hearts and souls of those we serve bring about hesitancy, inner unrest, skepticism and fear in many of my educator and other interventionist colleagues.
I have yet to perfect a way to share what I call a spiritual approach that can be well-received by mainstream teachers and other professionals.
Yet I know for a fact that we are missing the mark in our educational systems and intervention services when we disregard the spirit aspect that exists in all of us and when we neglect to nurture that beautiful mysterious something.
We hear to care for the whole child…but we rarely do. We say to heal our own inner child…that’s a rare occurrence, too, in the big picture of things. Physical life has become too distracting.
I have stayed connected to the work in our schools and our communities. It’s a mixed bag out here. I witness the spirits of our kids being beaten down every day. But I also witness educators and providers who, even when exhausted and overwhelmed, lift up our kids and nurture that beautiful uniqueness inside of them that I call spirit.
There’s so much hope. There’s so much love.
Injecting spirit, heart and soul into mainstream modalities is not religiosity. Nurturing spirit means lifting up the part inside of us and those we serve that is deeply human. Extraordinarily kind. Perfectly real.
And I am hopeful that by talking about it enough, and in showing by example, we can multiply the numbers of children whose spirits can thrive in our world exponentially. Let’s get started!
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