At the beginning of last month, I did the unthinkable and deleted Facebook and Twitter from my trusty iPhone. I was never an avid poster on either platform, but was absolutely hooked to the torrent of news that streamed into my right pocket at all times. Between predictions about the election and think pieces after, I couldn’t get enough.
But I found myself increasingly glued to my device, pulling it out every time I was walking to the water cooler or waiting in line to buy lunch. Finding myself constantly distracted, I made the decision to lose the apps in order to bring myself back into the present, to pay attention to what’s around me and to better focus on my immediate priorities.
Striving to be present is something Penn’s Michael Baime, MD, director of the Penn Program for Mindfulness, knows all about. For decades, Baime has taught patients and students to be present in their lives, to remove distractions and to “remember the present.”
When I talked to Baime, I confessed to deleting my social media apps from my phone. “Oh my, how could you?” he joked.
The modern struggle against the smartphone overload was one that he’s noticed as well.
“I was on an Amtrak train to Washington D.C. and I was walking through the car and every person was on a device. Every single person,” Baime said. “You’re in an elevator, you’re teaching a class. Everyone is on their phones.”
Baime started what’s now the Penn Program for Mindfulness more than 25 years ago. He said he was working as a primary care physician at the time and recognized that many of his patients could benefit more from a better mental balance than any prescription he could write.
By this time, Baime already had a long history in this field. He had his first meditative experience around age eight and started proper meditation training when he was just 14. At 20, Baime met and began learning from a mentor in Buddhism and soon taught Buddhist practice himself.
When he first began teaching meditation and mindfulness to patients, Baime said he was primarily working with people with terminal illnesses or with disabling anxiety that wasn’t being treated by the systems already in place.
“Meditation was once reserved for weirdos, but now has very good science behind it to support its role in emotional balance and cognitive function,” Baime said. “It helps you to stay on task when you’re distracted, and helps you manage reactions that would otherwise get in the way.”
And as the years went on and word about the Penn Program for Mindfulness spread by mouth, Baime’s mindfulness practice grew and grew to the point that it became his full-time role. Now, most of his students are now professionals looking for something deeper in this often-distracted life.
The program as it stands now is an eight-week regiment where Baime and other teachers will guide students through the meaning of mindfulness, guided meditation practice and mechanisms to keep students focused in their day-to-day lives.
“It has a profound effect on students,” Baime said. “They thought they came to us to manage their stress and what they found was that they could actually change their life.”
As for me, in the weeks after deleting my social media apps, there was a peculiar withdrawal period in which I’d pull my phone from my right pocket, remember the apps were gone and put it right back. I’d do that maybe two dozen times a day.
Now about a month out, I’ve broken the habit of pulling out my phone during every pause in my day. Instead, I can use those moments to think about my day, organize my mental to-do list and generally stay – you know – present.