Chiropractic Awareness Week: How Tech Can Help Rather Than Hinder

Earlier in the week we gave you a few tips for getting your mobile more health-friendly. And as we said it’s not just about the stretches, it’s about being mindful and changing our tech-habits to fit in with our daily lives. It’s not just mobiles that need attention, it’s all of our screens! Here’s a few more tech-hints about mobile phones and other devices to help you become calmer and full of positive vibes.

We recommend reducing the blue light from your mobiles and other tech. Research shows that the unnatural blue light from screens plays havoc with our natural body clocks. The blue light wakes our brains up when they should be shutting down, and can also cause strain in your eyes. It’s easily fixable, if you have an iphone you can adjust this directly in the settings. There are two ways to adjust an iphone’s yellow tint. The steps are laid out below:

Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift > edit to personal preference
In this setting you can set the exact yellow-toney you want, and it can be set to turn on and off at specific times

OR

Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Colour Filters
Then pick from the colour filters (see below image), have a play and see which option best suits you. You should be aiming for a creamy-yellow tint to the screen. (and don’t worry, having this filter on doesn’t affect your camera so your photos will still be true-to-life!) Android phones are a little more complex, but there are several free apps available that offer the same options. If in doubt, check the phone settings, ask us for help next time you’re in the clinic, or have a quick Google!

And these yellow filters are useful on all screens, so have a look on your computer/tablet settings, in your app store, or even look at buying a physical yellow filter to put over your screen.

We’d also recommend a mindful app. There are plenty of options out there (both free and paid-for). These apps are about taking a little bit of time out of your busy day to become more mindful. It is essentially meditation for the modern day and can really help in not only reducing your screen time, but also reducing stress and anxiety levels. You may not realise that the pain in your shoulders or the headaches you’re getting may be related to your stress/anxiety levels. Check the instructions below for a quick practice on mindfulness.

You could also try sorting all your ‘admin’ at one point – why not set aside half hour/hour (with your stretch breaks of course!) each day to reply to emails/messages/social media etc, but try not to check your phone throughout the rest of the day. See what a difference it makes to your mental and physical health.

In this hectic age it’s important to take time to yourself and relax. And hey, if you want to just have a bath with glass of wine after a long day, then that’s ok too! (At least if you’re in the bath there shouldn’t be any screens to distract you!)

Don’t forget to head over to our facebook for videos everyday this week, and for your chance to win!