A Simple Mindful Cell Phone Practice

I love my gadgets and my social media. But often I find myself checking my phone in the morning before I’ve even checked in with myself or my loved ones in person. How often have you tapped the glowing screen of your iPhone before getting out of bed in the morning? Where is your phone right now? How do you feel when you don’t know where it is? Do you usually keep it in your pocket, your bag, your desk, another room?

At the 2013 Wisdom 2.0 conference, a presenter from Google gave a simple demonstration. I’ve adapted it into the following practice, called the Seventy-Ninth Organ. Try it with your kids, but also try it with your adult friends and colleagues.

The human body has seventy-eight organs. We need each organ to do its job well in order to keep our bodies healthy. If one stopped functioning, our biological systems would be quickly thrown out of balance.

These days, most of us also have a seventy-ninth organ, an external organ known as the smartphone. It’s with us in bed, in the bathroom, at the dinner table, at work—most of us keep…