The Role of Technology in Stress Management and Mindfulness

stress relief comic
stress relief comic
stress relief comic

Technology both reduces stress and increases it. We have to carefully consider its pros/cons before we commit to it.

For example, I shared that I recently started using a humidifier so that it would help with various things. It has done a wonderful job making my environment more comfortable. However now I have the added stress of having to fill it and clean it. Rarely do we get a benefit without a cost.

Which is why we have to consider not the financial cost of things, but the other costs to our well being. Do the things we invite into our lives make us more content, or do they introduce new stresses and frustrations?

I shared before that if money was no issue I would have more electronic goods and devices. Mostly because I am curious. However I know that I would tire of them and then feel the urge to buy new things and to give my friends things they may want. I can understand that having more money just increases the speed of materialism and unhappiness with what I have.

In some ways peoples lack of purchasing power in the last few decades as helped focus their lives. While I am not defending or supporting inequality, one silver lining is that we have a better understanding of contentment. We can be content with very little, and those who are rich are unhappy with unlimited things.

In an ideal society we focus on being content. Most people are not doing this. They chase the idea of happiness or material gain and are constantly unhappy. They buy things that will never satisfy them because they don’t know what they want.

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Like a child with a credit card they buy without thinking what problem am I trying to solve? Will I feel content long term with this, or is this just another thing to give me a quick hit and then I buy something else. One of the saddest things I see are hoarders who prove that material things can’t make you happy. They have bought so much. More than they can even use, and they are depressed and desperately miserable. I see too many people tend towards being a hoarder, rather than sharing their wealth with others who can truly end/reduce their suffering.

Letting go and being content with what you have will go further than any technological purchase you can make.