detox

I recently spent a week offline. The occasion was a retreat of sorts, wherein overscheduled, overwhelmed people repaired to comfortable accommodations in the woods to reset. I expected to be anxious, to be thinking constantly about the unreceived, unacted-upon information still flowing into my dark devices. Instead, the disconnection was surprisingly easy. I was a dog walker with an empty leash, braced for the yank of an insistent beast and surprised, over and over, to look down and find there was nothing there. Unlike…

New year resolutions often focus on your physical health and personal fitness — cutting the calories, upping the reps, smashing that 5K run barrier. But what about focusing on your mental well being, too?If you’re looking to give your brain a New Year's detox along with your muscles, the Soaak sound therapy app, available on iPhone, iPad, and as a browser-based service, could give you the lift you need. According to Soaak, “Five minutes of Soaak has been compared to one hour of meditation, but with greater outcomes.”The…

What is a "detox"? It's a process that involves using particular products, diets or other detoxification methods to try and rid the body of so-called "toxins".Detoxes are prevalent on social media and spruiked by brands offering detox products, celebrities and influencers.A documentary airing on Channel 10 this week – Todd Sampson's Mirror Mirror: Are You Well? – explores our fascination with detoxing, and the science (or lack thereof) behind it.So if you're thinking of trying a detox, here's what you need to…

“LIKE MOST millennials, I’m addicted to my phone," said Hannah Baxter. The Brooklyn writer and brand consultant, 33, has lately been trying to cut down on her screen time, so she bought an analog watch—specifically a 1979 Rolex Lady-Datejust. It keeps her sufficiently apprised of the time without assaulting her with notifications. “That I have one less reason to pull out of my pocket is a relief," she said. …

When news broke that Salesforce Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff had taken a 10-day “digital detox” vacation in French Polynesia, the internet ate it up. We couldn't, it seems, stop scrolling about how one very wealthy man stopped scrolling. Stories like this seize our imaginations for several reasons. One is that the merely well-off tend to obsess about the habits of the super-rich, whether we find them admirable or hypocritical. Another is the appeal of the quick fix, whether it is Dry January, a spend-nothing…

After an eventful Halloween, we’re now looking forward to Christmas-themed horrors to keep the spirit of spooky season alive even during a traditionally joyous holiday. Thankfully, horror can be enjoyed all-year-round, meaning that there’s never a bad time to sit back, relax, and indulge in a frightful festive flick. Who ever said that Christmas needed to be all swirly-twirly gumdrops and golden-syrup spaghetti? Unless we’re breaking a rule, we’ll continue to scare the pants off of each other — and ourselves — no matter…

A village in Maharashtra's Sangli district is showing the way out of the clutter of electronic gadgets and social media platforms in modern life by getting its residents to go in for a "digital detox" every evening. The idea was mooted by Vijay Mohite, the sarpanch of Mohityanche Vadgaon village, and residents have been participating in this novel exercise enthusiastically. A siren goes off from a local temple at 7 pm, signalling people to put off their mobile phones and other gadgets and switch off their television sets,…

Lil Baby returned Friday with the new single “Detox.”“Baby Takeover Starts Now 😮‍💨😮‍💨 ….. Let’s Get Ittttttt,” the 27-year-old wrote on Instagram.The track features entrancing, fairly minimalist production from Cubeatz, Eza, KJ, Nick Papz, and London Jae, and a characteristically elite Baby performance.The Atlanta artist is fresh off appearing twice on DJ Khaled’s God Did album, including on the Drake collab “Staying Alive,” and teaming with Travis Scott and Nav in July on “Never Sleep,” then with Senior on last month’s …

Two Fridays ago, just before I left for a week-long vacation to Florida, I went through my pretrip digital routine. I set my Slack status to “Vacationing” with a palm tree emoji and paused notifications until further notice. I turned on Gmail’s auto-responder. I deleted a bunch of apps from my phone that would only serve to distract me from poolside bliss. The last thing I did was pick up my iPhone and create a new Focus mode. Focus, in case you didn’t know, is a new-ish iOS feature designed to let you quickly switch…

The title of this relationship comedy refers to a digital detox; but, watching it, the only unplugging you might be tempted to do is yanking the plug out of the mains socket. It’s an almost entirely unfunny comedy from Debra Neil-Fisher, who edited the Hangover movies and makes her directing debut lumbered with a stinker of a script; it’s not smart enough to work as a grownup relationship movie, and laughs are too few for a proper comedy.To be fair, there’s a relaxed chemistry between Eva Longoria and Matt Walsh playing…