If you feel restless after scrolling, you probably opened your phone or an AI chat for a quick answer, and 30 seconds became an hour. In Ayurveda, that restless feeling is called vata, and the screen may be feeding it.
An AI chat keeps asking one more question right when I think I'm done, and I get pulled back into a conversation that was only supposed to take half a minute. We all use this technology now, and like it or not, it's here to stay. We can begin by noticing how interacting with AI and social media is also feeding the restlessness in our souls.
Vata is the energy of movement, choas, of everything happening all at once. When vata energy is out of balance, you might feel anxious and unable to slow down, or have racing thoughts and trouble sleeping. A feeling of restlessness. And a restless soul searches for rest. But as we’re busy searching, it becomes harder to feel grounded, harder to feel connected to nature, or close to the people around us. So we reach for something to calm the restlessness. Shopping, doom scrolling, Netflix bingeing, a glass of wine, a long chat with AI. Or we reach for heavy, dense food (the sweet cake, in my case), because heavy things feel grounding when everything around us is moving.
In Ayurveda, like increases like. So scrolling feeds the racing thoughts, and the racing thoughts feed the scrolling. After the scroll or social media sesh, many of us crash into heaviness and lethargy, with no spark left. Ojas is your physical and spiritual immunity and it runs low when we take in more information than we were meant to.
The way back to ourselves and to quiet the restlessness within starts with bringing your attention out of the screen and back to your body and the world around you. In the episode, I share several simple ways to do this.
Try this today: Take your shoes off and stand on the grass or the earth for a minute. Feel the ground and the sun on your skin. Then ask yourself one question: what am I searching for?
Takeaways:
Why a 30-second question can pull you back in and what it may be feeding
The comfort habits that calm you for a moment and leave you heavier afterward
Simple resets that move your attention out of the scroll, and why they work
A restless soul is searching for rest, and slowing down is how you hear what it’s needing.
If your usual ways of unwinding leave you feeling worse, here's why your wellness routine might not be working.
Curious about what your needing? Schedule an Embodied Wisdom Session today to discover how to quiet the restlessness within.
