Christopher Nolan Vindicated My Inner Luddite

Are we using technology as a tool, or have we slowly handed over parts of ourselves to it?

Just last week, I was telling my boss that I'm a Luddite. Not because I truly am one, but because I'd found an excuse to use some of those archaic Spelling Bee words my kids used to learn.

The conversation was about the use of AI at work, and it made me wonder whether my reluctance to embrace some of it was simply because I was getting older.

Then yesterday, I felt completely vindicated.

I heard Christopher Nolan talk about how he doesn't have a smartphone or even an email address.

What caught my attention wasn't simply what he doesn't use. It was why. He has said that if he had a smartphone, he might become addicted to it.

That made me pause for a second, and I knew exactly what he meant.

Not just as an individual, but also as a yoga teacher and a therapist, I understand that concern. Somewhere along the way, in the name of technological progress, we've begun handing over our attention, our intuition, and perhaps even our creativity.

For example, take something as simple as the weather.

It's become a running joke in my yoga classes. Instead of looking outside, feeling the air, and making a reasonable guess about the weather, we instinctively reach for our phones to check the weather app.

It's such a small thing, but it makes me wonder how often we've stopped trusting our own observations.

We have an incredible ability to notice and interpret the world around us. Yet, little by little, we have started handing over some of that awareness to a device.

Our watches and phones can now measure almost everything: our heart rate, our steps, our sleep cycles, our REM sleep, even how "ready" we are for the day. There is tremendous value in these tools, and for many people they genuinely improve health and well-being.

But I also notice another side of the story.

As someone who works with people experiencing anxiety, depression, and insomnia, I often see sleep anxiety increase after someone learns they didn't get enough REM sleep or enough deep sleep the night before. Before they've even gotten out of bed, they are already worried about the numbers on the device.

Our bodies carry an incredible amount of wisdom. Long before we had watches tracking every heartbeat or apps analyzing every sleep cycle, our bodies were constantly communicating with us.

One of the ways I redirect is to remind them to check in with their bodies instead of their devices by asking a simple question:

Do I feel well rested?

Sometimes, that answer alone gives us enough information to make small changes in our routines. We don't always need more data. Sometimes we need to pause and listen to what our bodies are already telling us.

This isn't an argument against technology. I appreciate the many ways it has made navigating our lives easier. For example, even this writing came to you through technology.

It's not about giving up on technology completely. It's about creating more space to reconnect with ourselves.

Perhaps that is where the balance lies: using technology as a tool, while still preserving our ability to observe, be curious, wonder, and finally to trust ourselves.

As for me, thanks to Christopher Nolan, I no longer feel quite so pressured to replace my delightfully antiquated phone. :)

Maybe I'll upgrade one day.

But not today.