Holistic expert to discuss ‘Digital Detox’ Thursday at Mat-Su College

PALMER — Ever been in a group of people, heard a phone ding and been disappointed to learn it wasn’t your phone? Ever count likes on a Facebook post as though they were dollars in the bank? Ever looked down at your phone and looked up only to find that minutes and hours have passed you by?

If so, Dr. Brian Luke Seaward’s “Digital Detox” presentation Thursday night at Mat-Su College may be just the prescription for you.

The Colorado-based Seaward is among the prominent holistic experts in the canon. He’s made his stock and trade looking for mind-body-spirit solutions to the ever-present problem of stress, authoring books such as Stand Like Mountain; Flow Like Water, Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart, and Stress is Desserts Spelled Backward, so to his mind, the pathology at the core of smartphone and social media addiction is stress.

“It’s not only an ego-based addiction, we also now know it’s a neurochemical process,” Seaward said. “When we hear pings, text alerts, a squirt of dopamine goes to the receptors and dopamine is the neuro hormone associated with chemical addictions.”

Seaward said these addictions are ruining people’s lives in many facets.

“It’s toxicity overexposure — bits and bytes of information probably not as important as we make them out to be, and the next thing you know, it’s sucked 3 to 4 hours from your evening you’ll never get back,” Seaward said. “The DSM-V has already included addiction to technology as a diagnosis, so we’re seeing it right now. It’s all kind of new. This is not just going to be a metaphor of a problem, but a very real one.”

Seaward’s prescription to detox begins with discipline.

“I love technology, love my Apple computer, but I have some boundaries, and that’s part of the message — how to establish boundaries,” Seaward said. “One of the big buzzwords these days is ‘mindfulness’, the idea of meditation. Technology can become a distraction into your life and (mindfulness) is one of many ways you can meditate, navigate distractions so you can have a clear passage.”

Seaward said part of his presentation, which starts at 6:30 p.m. in room 204 of the Fred and Sara Machetanz Building at Mat-Su College, will deal with the physical effects of electromagnetism in the air.

“Because of how it’s set up right now with social networking, WiFi is like electricity; we’re never going to get rid of it and I don’t think we should,” he said. “We’ll talk a little bit about microwaves, WiFi and the dirty electricity aspects of toxicity.”