Your Phone Is Rewiring Your Brain — Here's the Proof

Your phone is rewiring your brain — and most people have no idea it's happening.

In this episode, licensed professional counselor Jim Cunningham breaks down what constant digital stimulation is actually doing to your mental health — the research on deteriorating attention spans, the toll on adolescent mental health, the relationships quietly eroding in the background of every screen-filled evening.

But this isn't just a warning. It's a practical reset.

Jim explores the one cost-free remedy hiding in plain sight — the kind of stillness Blaise Pascal wrote about in 1654 that's more relevant now than ever. You'll walk away with simple, concrete strategies to reclaim moments of quiet in a world designed to steal your attention.

If you've felt scattered, overstimulated, or just vaguely off — this episode is for you.

Jim Cunningham is a licensed professional counselor (LPC). New episodes regularly — subscribe so you never miss one.

Sources:

Exelmans, L., & Van den Bulck, J. (2016). Bedtime mobile phone use and sleep in adults. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 12(4), 447-453. 

Hari, Johann. Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2022.

Harvard Health Publishing. (2021). Journaling: A tool for stress relief. Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu

Holiday, Ryan. Stillness is the Key. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2019.

Keles, B., McCrae, N., & Grealish, A. (2020). A systematic review: The influence of social media on depression, anxiety, and psychological distress in adolescents. Computers in Human Behavior, 91, 234-243.

Lepp, A., Barkley, J. E., & Karpinski, A. C. (2015). The relationship between cell phone use and academic performance in a sample of U.S. college students. Educational Psychology, 35(4), 507-515. Link

Psych Central. (2021). The mental health benefits of journaling. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com

Ra, C. K., Cho, J., Stone, M. D., De La Cerda, J., Goldenson, N. I., Moroney, E., ... & Leventhal, A. M. (2018). Association of digital media use with subsequent symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder among adolescents. JAMA, 320(3), 255-263. Link

Shensa, A., Escobar-Viera, C. G., Sidani, J. E., Bowman, N. D., Marshal, M. P., & Primack, B. A. (2017). Problematic social media use and depressive symptoms among U.S. young adults: A nationally-representative study. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 71-79. Link

Tremblay, M. S., LeBlanc, A. G., Kho, M. E., Saunders, T. J., Larouche, R., Colley, R. C., ... & Duggan, M. (2011). Systematic review of sedentary behavior and health indicators in school-aged children and youth. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 8, 98. 

University of Rochester Medical Center. (n.d.). Benefits of journaling. Retrieved from https://www.urmc.rochester.edu

The Unscripted Mind — real therapy, real talk, no fluff. Hosted by Jim Cunningham, Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC). Each episode delivers practical tools and honest mental health insight to help you gain self-awareness, make better choices, and feel more in control.

Transcript

Intro

Jim Cunningham 0:01

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly alone in a room . That was written in 1654 by Blaise Pascal . If it was that hard in 1654 , can you imagine how hard it is today just to be still ? Today , on the Unscripted Mind , we're discussing how the breakneck pace of life is stealing our happiness , our focus and our mental wellness , and we're going to discuss some very simple ways you can get back to the basics of being still . And here's the good news it won't cost you a dime . Welcome to the Unscripted

Overview

Jim Cunningham 0:46

Mind podcast , where our goal is to give you fresh perspectives , practical insights and tools you can use to give you more choices , increase your awareness and have better control of your feelings , reactions and behaviors . My name is Jim Cunningham , a licensed professional counselor , and today we're going to discuss the art and benefits of just being still . But first we have to discuss all of the negative side effects of not being still .

Jim Cunningham 1:15

You

Problems with not being still

Jim Cunningham 1:16

know , everywhere we look there's another distraction . Often we create our own diversions . Every moment is filled with something , from texts to email , to music , to video games , to work you name it . We carry devices with us to ensure that we are never , ever bored , and we are never without our devices . The news gives us a perpetual stream of crises and work follows us home on every screen . We just can't get away from it these days . So what does research say about the effects of electronic devices and social media on us and all these other distractions ? Here are just some of the impacts and spoiler alert , they're probably not going to surprise anyone . Mental health impact review published in Computers and Human Behavior found a significant association between social media use and increased risks of depression , anxiety and sleep problems , particularly in adolescents and young adults . Speaking of sleep disturbance , research published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine indicates that the use of electronic devices before bedtime can lead to poor sleep quality and shortened sleep duration , particularly among teenagers . You might be noticing a trend at this point . Adolescents and teens , and our youth , are particularly susceptible to a lot of these distractions . But that doesn't mean we as adults aren't also impacted . A study in educational psychology highlighted that heavy use of electronic devices can negatively impact students' attention span and cognitive functions , which in turn affects their academic performance . Findings in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine suggest that excessive screen time is associated with increased risks of obesity and other sedentary life-related health issues . Research published in Computers and Human Behavior demonstrated that heavy social media use can lead to poor interpersonal communication skills and weaken real-life relationships . And finally , a longitudinal study in psychology science found that frequent use of digital media is linked to ADHD among adolescents .

Jim Cunningham 3:32

I've included the citations in the description below , but these are not surprises for any of us , and neither are any other consequences . We know these things . In his book Stillness is the Key , ryan Holiday says it this way we are overfed and undernourished . In his book Stillness is the Key , ryan Holiday says it this way no-transcript . What's the point ? Well , the point is that the things that we're doing aren't helping . In fact , in a lot of ways , they're making things worse . We have more mental health services available now than ever before , with more people taking advantage of those services than ever before , and yet anxiety and depression trends and a lot of other negative symptoms those trends over the past 50 years continue to show a significant rise in prevalence across all age groups , with notable increases you guessed it with adolescents and young adults . Now , there's a number of social and economic and technological factors that have contributed to these trends , but the problem exists and we have to acknowledge that .

Getting back to basics

Jim Cunningham 4:33

So how do we get back to basics , back to a time before all the noise , when you could just sit , visit with neighbors , when evenings and weekends were your time to be with friends and family , when you were not in a hurry , you didn't have a list a mile long of things you needed to take care of , when you were actually off the clock and unreachable by the boss . When was the last time you gave your brain a break just to be still , to sit quietly , to think , to wonder , to relax . No music , no distractions , no nagging notifications , just solitude ?

The benefits of stillness

Jim Cunningham 5:15

We often forget the tremendous benefits of stillness . According to Holliday , it's stillness that aims the archer's arrow . It inspires new ideas . It sharpens perspective and illuminates connections . It slows the ball down so that we might hit it . It generates a vision , helps us resist the passions of the mob , makes space for gratitude and wonder . Stillness allows us to persevere , to succeed . It is the key that unlocks the insights of genius . This is one of those true cases where less is actually more . Downtime might seem like a waste of time these days because we always have something to do , but it's anything but that . In fact , it can be our most productive and creative time .

Jim Cunningham 6:04

Why do you think so many great ideas have happened in the shower , when people are being still and relaxed . I'll give you a few examples . Archimedes discovered the principle of buoyancy while taking a bath . Einstein often mentioned that his insights into physics , including those that led to the theory of relativity , came during moments of daydreaming and relaxation . Jk Rowling conceived the idea for her Harry Potter series of books during a delayed train trip her Harry Potter series of books during a delayed train trip . James Watson had a sudden insight into the double helix structure of DNA while he was relaxing . Jonas Salk came up with the idea for the polio vaccine while taking a break at a monastery . And Paul McCartney of the Beatles famously woke up with the melody for Yesterday in his head after dreaming it . If it works for , why wouldn't it work for us

Ways to add stillness back into life

Jim Cunningham 7:03

also ? So here's some ideas on how to add some stillness back into your life and , again , not going to cost you a cent to do them .

Jim Cunningham 7:12

I might suggest starting with the question why do I avoid the quiet and the stillness ? I see many clients who spend a great deal of time trying not to hear that inner voice . I've had some tell me I just don't want to be alone with my own thoughts too long Trying to avoid uncomfortable thoughts . Fears and regrets are other reasons people tend to avoid it , but I think being aware of why may be a great place to start to investigate this for yourself . The second thing I would say is to be intentional . Stillness is not going to happen on its own or by accident . You have to schedule it , put it on your calendar . You'll need to be ruthlessly deliberate on this . Too many other things are vying to get your attention and your time incredibly restorative , and this doesn't mean just sitting and scrolling on TikTok or watching television . It means turning off all the noises and just being still .

Jim Cunningham 8:13

One other thing I might recommend and this kind of ties in with the idea of figuring out why you're trying to avoid the quiet is journaling . I know you've probably heard this a million times , but I don't think there's any right or wrong way to journal . I don't journal daily , but I tend to do it when I need to , when I need to process some thoughts and try to get some stuff out of my head . I tend to start writing just free flow or thoughts to declutter the mind , and the simple act of getting all those thoughts out of my head forces me to organize them in some sort of way and to see them more objectively . When all those thoughts are still just rolling around in my head , it feels very chaotic , and so getting them out of your head is a great way to kind of address that . I think it's kind of like when you have a nightmare where you tell somebody about the nightmare . That seemed really scary in the moment , but as soon as you tell somebody about it it sounds kind of ridiculous and demystifies it in a lot of ways . But as soon as you tell somebody about it , it sounds kind of ridiculous and demystifies it in a lot of ways . I found that journaling during times of stress tends to reduce the emotions , provides better contact and clarity to the issue . So something to try out . But I would say this if you're gonna journal , do it with like pen and paper old school . I know there's a lot of apps and stuff that are good for journaling , but for the purposes of this exercise I think pen and paper works the best , and there's a lot of reasons for that we can go into another time .

Jim Cunningham 9:32

Another thing I would suggest is just letting go . Being still necessarily means relaxing our control of things , unplugging and just being left in the present . It can also be very helpful to let go of the tension . We carry that around and a lot of times we don't notice it . So I would suggest , as you're sitting there and trying to control , just notice which muscles are still tense and then consciously relax them . In short , start caring less . If you don't know how to do that , I recommend you check out my previous podcast on you guessed it Caring Less . And the last thing this is like mind-numbingly simple , but take a walk .

Jim Cunningham 10:13

Walking provides calming bilateral movement . If you're familiar with the therapy EMDR eye movement , desensitization and reprocessing it's a trauma-based therapy that I do , but it is based largely on bilateral movement . Bilateral movement tends to calm us down and really facilitates our ability to process things . So in a lot of ways , the tools that we use for EMDR mimic walking . So walking without music or distraction gives us time to think , to process the day effectively , to assimilate and make sense of all the random thoughts and all the ideas and emotions .

Jim Cunningham 10:51

So a lot of people ask well , how long do I walk ? And the answer is as long as it takes . Some days a half mile walk would do the trick . Some days it's a six mile walk . Sometimes I need an hour or so just to process through all the stuff , depending on how much stuff I've got to deal with .

Conclusion

Jim Cunningham 11:09

I think that by turning off the noise and using some of these techniques , even 30 minutes a day , I believe you will see a tremendous difference in how you feel and your productivity .

Jim Cunningham 11:20

If we can just take a few minutes to be still , we might be able to reduce some of the daily noise that distracts us , that makes us anxious , sad and just completely overwhelms us . But remember , that takes intentionality . It's not going to happen on its own . But here's the great news there's nothing between you and standing still from where you are now to doing nothing . In fact , you don't need a therapist , you don't need new devices . You don't need new devices . You don't need another app or money . All you have to do is stop and be still . Simple , but not easy . Thanks for tuning in to the Unscripted Mind . If you found this episode helpful , please subscribe , leave us a review and if you have any questions or topics you'd like us to cover , please us a review . And if you have any questions or topics you'd like us to cover , please include that also . Until next time , remember , life does not come with a script . So embrace the unexpected , cherish the unplanned , always stay curious and have an amazing , amazing day . We'll see you next time on the Unscripted Mind .