Everywhere I go, I see people glued to their phones.
People seem obsessed with their phones and you might even say, why not?
Phones these days can do everything – take photos, store games and books, keep our calendars…Even help us chart our happiness.
Yes, I did say chart our happiness.
This app is one that I had heard of first when reading a Science article last November.
Matthew Killingsworth, a PhD student in Dr. Dan Gilbert’s psychology lab in Harvard, created a smartphone app that allows you to track how happy you are at various times.
You register on his site and answer some basic questions. You then are able to download the app and choose how often you report your feelings and current activities. If your mind isn’t on task, you are asked if you are thinking about something happy, unhappy, or neutral.
At the end, you receive a “happiness report,” which will show your happiness depending on factors like what you are doing and who you are with.
They compiled this information from 2,250 volunteer app users and found that: (1) people are lost in thought nearly as often as they are focused on the present moment and (2) this “non-present” thinking causes them to be unhappy.
Overall, 46.9% of the time the participants’ minds were not on their present tasks and overwhelmingly these wandering thoughts were unpleasant.
When reporting on the activity, participants were given a choice of 22 general activities, which included working, resting, having sex, etc.
In all but one activity (having sex), participants reported that their minds wandered at least 30% of the time.
That is a lot of unpleasant thoughts swirling around in our heads.
One of the reasons why this study was so interesting to me is that mindfulness meditation can be so useful in solving this “wandering thoughts” problem.
By staying on the present moment, we are better able to moderate our emotions, to find joy in our lives, and to be better practitioners.
While there may not yet be an app to tell people to meditate, this app sounds like it could have potential for convincing patients of the benefits that mindfulness can bring.
Check out our courses on mindfulness for more information.
We explore ways of introducing mindfulness into both our practices and our patients’ lives.
How have you utilized new technology to help your patients? Please leave a comment below.
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Good information. I now realize that this is just another way to keep us away from ourselves rather than being in the present.
I use apps to help people use mindfulness all the time. There are apps useful for adults and children. The children take to it because technology is so embedded, they don’t realize they are employing a practice thousands of years old. There’s even an app that measures sleep and wakes you at the optimum time so you aren’t groggy in the morning, helpful for teens who have difficulty getting up in the morning (all of them)! Loving your series!
This is a great idea. It seems like all the young people use cell phones, so to have a tool to encourage them to reflect on their emotional state and come back to the present moment is wonderful.
This is very heartening information. I teach mindfulness to nearly all of my clients and struggle with how to engage them in the practice in a meaningful way. This information may be a key for some who have not yet bought into the practice. I have a Dialectical Behavioral Therapy component to my practice where clients are encouraged to practice the Distress Tolerance skills mindfully, rating their tolerance of the distress in their lives on a 1-100 scale both before and after practicing the skill. This new piece of information may be an additional support for this practice. Thank you for all the work you do here. It is so helpful for working with clients in the real world.
Diane,
It’s promising to see that text messaging has the potential to be a part of the solution. Reminders, we all need them. Busy world, busy minds…
A prominent researcher in Positive Psychology, Sonya Lubomirsky, Ph.D., released a “happiness app” via another company a year or so ago.
I oversee a large program in several states around the country to improve services for youth and young adults (14-26) with serious mental health conditions. We are also using cell phones but in a little different way. We are using text messaging to send affirming messages. In preliminary stages, we are getting feedback from the young adults that these messages are very helpful to them and make them feel connected and positive. Just though I’d share!
THANK-YOU for sending this today. Perhaps the person who will not, cannot, feels unable to attempt self-help between sessions will be encouraged knowing the results of this revealing study. I will share this information with just such a person this very evening. I pray it may just help turn a corner.
It makes perfect sense that when we are not “present” or in the “now” our minds wander to negative images or thoughts. (Unless we have chosen to practice being Mindful of our thinking processes and practice to take the best and release the rest). In the past there was research that it takes 10 positives to make up for 1 negative. However, if we discharge energy attached to any image, it is less likely to stick in our minds. This is where Choice comes in.
Teaching about how we become fused with the “languaging” of our minds is very powerful and an aspect of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy which uses Mindfulness exercises in session to practice understanding the fact that thoughts are thoughts and feelings are feelings. Images, thoughts, or feelings are neither good nor bad – they just are. It is the type of energetic charge associated to the image – through language – that can cause perturbations in our own energy fields.
For years my motto has been “Isness is my Business.” Learning to accept what IS affords each individual unit of consciousness the psychological flexibility to Accept the Present and chose to take steps towards what is Valued. Of course, it takes a little time to explore, what is it that I value and want to move towards in my life? If I know my values then I can ask the question: Does this choice move me towards my values or away from my values?
Happiness is a choice. This App sounds interesting and I would like to find out more about it. Many of the Veterans with whom I work are using the PTSD coach which was developed by an effort between the VA’s National Center for PTSD and the DoD’s (Department of Defense) National Center for Tele-health and Technology. This app and more information can be found at http://ptsd.va.gov. There tag line is “Technology to Make People Healthy.”