What happened when I stopped wearing my smart watch?

I wore my smart watch for a year and a half. I enjoyed being aware of my steps, active minutes, REM sleep and resting heart rate.

I noticed after a few months, I was checking it all the time and started to become fixated on the numbers. I observed that if I didn’t close all the circles by the end of the day and achieve the numbers I wanted, I started to feel negatively about myself. Was I lazy and unhealthy if I didn’t get 10,000 steps? No, but my focus on these things definitely wasn’t healthy.

The watch band started to irritate the skin on my wrist, causing a painful rash. I didn’t stop wearing it until the rash was quite bad. I just couldn’t live without those numbers! How would I know when to get up and move around? How could I track my cardiovascular health without knowing my resting heart rate? (I am deeply rolling my eyes right now as I write this )

The answer to this question is I live FREELY. I am free from the limiting belief that my smart watch knows better than my body’s own intuition. I don’t need it to tell me when to get up. My body lets me know when I have been sitting down for too long. I am free from the limiting beliefs that if those circles don’t close, I didn’t ‘do well’ today.

I exercise and know that being out of breath and sweating means I’m getting a good workout. A pulse is easy to check with your fingers. When I stopped worrying about sleep, I started sleeping better, go figure!

I’m not saying smart watches are bad. If they work for you, great! Taking it off so my skin could heal highlighted other things I ‘wear’ that limit me (guilt, shame, expectations, social conditioning) to name a few.

What are you ‘wearing’ that is limiting you and not letting you heal and breathe?

Isn’t it time to take it off?