How To Switch Off In An Always On Culture?

The question is ‘why would we want to switch off?’ Our culture is boundlessly entertaining, fascinating, captivating, compelling. We’re talking about our online culture of course. There are so many rabbit holes to go down; we can find anything and everything there and the instantaneous nature of the internet provides immediate satisfaction – what’s not to like?

We catch up with wellness expert and Director of New Forest Spa SenSpa, Lina Lotto to ask ‘how do we switch off in an always on culture and why is it so important?’

The problem is that we were not designed to live in a virtual world for long periods of time without serious consequences. Online culture is taking us as far from our natural state as we are from other galaxies.

We are led by the nose into a virtual reality where we are ‘in our heads’ most of the time without any awareness of its impact on our wellbeing. The consequence is that the more we live our lives online the more we disconnect from our instinctive, animal nature, its innate intelligence and our means of survival – you don’t see wild animals in their natural habitat engaging in self-destructive behaviour.

One solution is to return to our source – to the earth, to nature, our native home as often as we can. The earth has a natural frequency of 7.83 hertz on average, which can be described as its natural pulse or heartbeat. This frequency is also close to that of our brainwaves when we are in the relaxed and receptive Alpha state. When we attune our brainwaves to the earth’s frequency we feel better, restored and refreshed. This is one of the reasons we feel so good being in nature.  In cities it is impossible to measure this frequency due to congestion from TV, WiFi, mobile phones etc. whereas it is more readily detectible in nature. This applies to us too, so returning to nature allows our body to entrain with the pulse of our planet which is restorative and healing

Regularly walking or being in a forest or by the sea contributes to our sense of wellbeing and allows us to adjust our focus from the external to a more balanced state. This is what good quality sleep does too. Our brainwaves slow right down allowing us to deeply rest and break free from the chattering of an ‘always on’ culture.

At its core our New Forest spa, SenSpa, is rooted in this belief. With the word ‘Sen’ describing the body’s energy lines in Thai traditional medicine and translating to ‘forest’ in Chinese, SenSpa is entwined with its New Forest home.  Here, you can experience a spa break with a difference; the opportunity to walk through the ancient heathland of the National Park, giving yourself the opportunity to regain your natural pulse before relaxing and soothing the body in the hydrotherapy pools of SenSpa. New Forest hotel Careys Manor is home to three restaurants, meaning you will be spoilt for choice and sure to find dishes to whet your appetite before retiring for the evening back to your room.  You will leave feeling restored and healed.

Another remedy is to return to the source within through daily meditative practice. But that’s a blog for another day.

Return to your Alpha state at our New Forest spa by planning your next spa break.