Are we becoming dependent on data?
This past week I taught 10 in-person yoga classes. One thing I observed how many people had on Apple watches. Some completely left them alone, while others could not stop looking at them, reading emails, pressing buttons, some even had the watches going off in the class.
Have we reached a breaking point with how much we track? Are we losing the connection to ourselves at the same time?
Looking Outside vs trusting ourselves
For the past 5 years now one of my taglines has been slow down, tune in and connect with your inner wisdom. Since the Apple Watch and Oura Rings, and phones that track all of our movements have entered the landscape I feel that phrase is becoming more and more relevant.
One of the fitness business mentors I follow online recently shared a quote her mom shared with her in a quote box on her IG post-
Remember your Oura Ring can't account for the mental load you're carrying.
Boom, there it is. A nugget of wisdom we all need to be reminded of.
That is exactly what I've been feeling when I look at the landscape of the world as a collective.
If yoga teachers can't turn it off why should you?
I put up an innocent post on Threads commenting on people using their Apple Watches in class isn't that defeating the purpose of yoga.
A yoga teacher commented and said she likes to use hers to time for class and loves when people in class including herself announce that they closed another yoga circle ring.
(I don't even know what that means, I'm a non Apple Watch user)
I found that to be interesting and also insightful as I don't want her to be my teacher. I want someone who can handle the stillness and silence and leave us be. I don't want my classes sharing they closed a yoga ring in class.
An innocent conversation
In one of my classes this week I was getting to know a new male yoga student. We were talking about the apple watches and phones in yoga classes. A few days ago someone in the class I taught got her phone stuck on talk mode and it kept sharing outloud to us all her progress. He didn't like it all.
I told him there are usually different people in yoga some don't want any silence and to be talked at all class to not hear their own thoughts others like to listen to their own wisdom. He was the latter and that is the type of teacher I personally am.
Right as I told him I can always tell my pitta clients apart as they will ask to start a workout over if they forgot to press start on their watch because it won't "count" for the day. Which is actually ridiculous when you break it down, count for what?
As soon as we finish this conversation in walks one of my regulars who wears a watch and was asking what setting she should set her watch to for our core class that day.
My male student and I had a chuckle proving our point people are obsessed with tracking.
Why all the tracking all of a sudden?
From macros to micros, from how many steps did you get in a day, how much were you on your phone last night, how much complete sleep did you get last night, how long was each feeding with the baby, how many hours was the baby up last night?
That makes my head explode!
The real question is
What are you doing with your data?
I know so many people track but are you doing something different based on the numbers you're tracking or are you just being rigid and not really sure what outcome you're aiming for. You do it because one paper they say 10,000 steps a day is great, or eating 1200 calories is the goal.
Are you losing the connection with yourself in the process?
That is the question we all have to start asking ourselves. Is this data actually serving us or is it taking us further away from us.
Now I'm all for a good data track- you have digestive issues I want you to track your food to see what's going on. You have an irregular menstrual cycle let's get to tracking to see if we can figure out why.
After we found the solution do you still need to track? Often no. I don't want you to live such a rigid and structured existence. Self-trust is a gift and we have it as a small child and slowly the world chips that away from us.
Weekly Challenge
How can you put away a data tracking device that no longer serves you this week?
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