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Show Notes
For today’s episode, Rijul joins us as we discuss the relationship we have with technology and how we can build and maintain a healthy balance. We talk about shifting your perspective from an outward view of others to an inner view of yourself and the joy you can find in the moments you have, Rijul shares his experience with overcoming his tech addiction, and we look into the spectrum of digital wellness. We also get into the comparison of tech to drugs, the connotations that can arise, and Rijul’s analogy of tech to food. Having a healthy, balanced “diet” of tech use can be as impactful as having a balanced diet.
On the business side, we discuss the impact of the pandemic on tech use for those using things like video meetings or sending emails all day, and some tips for lessening the stress these things can add and improving your digital wellness. Finally, we hear how Rijul is reaching corporations and businesses to educate, inform, and build a culture of digital wellness.
In this episode, you will hear:
- JOMO, or the joy of missing out
- Learning to beat tech addiction
- Distraction, addiction, and digital wellness
- Digital diet, the comparison of tech to food rather than drugs
- Tools, tips, and tricks for improving your digital wellness
- How Rijul reaches others with his experience and knowledge
A Certified Digital Wellness Educator, Rijul’s vision in life is to enable people to lead a healthy relationship with technology. He has delivered this message through 150+ global and local platforms like TEDx, international summits, conferences, podcasts, schools, corporates & colleges. Recently, he was featured among the Top 28 thought leaders in Digital Wellness by Bagby (the only Indian to be featured in the report).
Moreover, he is a millennial who’s been on both sides of the table- completely addicted to technology, left it completely, and now he has a healthy relationship with technology.
He’s also the head of LookUp India, which is a youth-for-youth social venture dedicated to helping young people thrive in the digital world. He’s also worked with leading companies in the space of Digital Wellness, like UnPlugHQ & Digital Wellness Institute.
His work has also been featured in international & local media houses like Dainik Bhaskar, ETV Bharat, YES Magazine, Truthout, Cyberwise, Boston Digital Wellness Lab, Screen Time Action Network, etc. He is an ardent advocate of using tech in moderation with a focus on digital well-being and personal growth.
Connect with Rijul:
Website: https://rijularora.com/
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rijularoraInstagram: instagram.com/rijularoras
Connect with R Blank and Stephanie Warner:
For more Healthier Tech Podcast episodes, and to download our Healthier Tech Quick Start Guide, visit https://www.healthiertech.co and follow https://instagram.com/healthiertech
Additional Links:
- Shield Your Body website: https://ShieldYourBody.com
- Shield Your Body Youtube Channel: https://youtube.com/shieldyourbody
- Host R Blank on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rblank9/
- Shield Your Body on Instagram:https://instagram.com/shieldyourbody
Transcript
Rijul Arora 0:00
It’s important to shift the perspective from FOMO to joy, which is Joy Of Missing Out, which is experiencing joy in the moment, like instead of I’m feeling FOMO about what’s happening in other people’s life, can experience joy in my offline moments with the time that I’m spending with someone in person. Or if I’m using tech in a healthy way can experience joy in that particular moment, experiencing joy in the moments that I have in the things that I’m doing and being content with what I really have. And
Announcer 0:26
welcome to the healthier tech podcast, the show about building a healthier relationship with modern technology. Now, here are your hosts, R blank and Stephanie Warner.
R Blank 0:39
So today, we have a really interesting voice, the youngest person that we’ve ever interviewed about tech addiction with a tremendous amount of insight. It’s Rajul odorata. And we cover a lot of ground one of the areas I think that is you know, Steph was most interesting in this interview, is his view on why it’s not not not helpful, in fact, maybe even harmful to compare tech addiction in any way to drugs and what he would recommend doing instead. So I think the listeners are really going to like that part.
Stephanie Warner 1:10
Yeah, I also think that’s a really great part of the conversation. But there’s so much and you know, I always love it when someone can come on and teach me a new acronym I’ve never heard of. So we all kind of know about FOMO. But today, our listeners are going to learn about Jomo, which is even more amazing.
R Blank 1:29
Excellent. So let’s get into it. All right, let’s do it. Rajul Arora is a digital wellbeing advocate and practitioner Rajul is a technology enthusiast working on building a better working world through technology. He’s a millennial who’s been on both sides of the table, completely addicted to technology, left it and now he has a healthy relationship with technology. This transition has completely transformed his life personally, professionally and mentally. Thus, he spread this message of healthy relationships with technology through various platforms. Professionally, he helps clients with end to end technology transformation. And ritual has also delivered more than 70 talks at leading Indian colleges and global platforms like TEDx and character day. Welcome module to the healthier tech podcast.
Rijul Arora 2:21
Thank you so much. I’m really grateful for the opportunity. And I look forward to a fruitful conversation and discussion here.
R Blank 2:27
Yeah, there should be a great talk. I really appreciate you making the time. Yes, very,
Stephanie Warner 2:31
very excited about this one, I actually heard your interview on evolve digital self. And I was like, Oh my gosh, we need to talk to we need to talk to you about your work. We’re really excited.
R Blank 2:44
So to kick us off, you’ve been on both sides of the table. As I said in the intro, you’ve been completely addicted to technology, then you left it and now use it in a healthy way. When did you realise your relationship with technology had become a problem? How old? Were you? What was the context? Great.
Rijul Arora 3:02
So I’ll take this back five years back, I’ll be around 2021 years of age. What had happened was I used to check my phone first thing in the morning. Last thing in the night, I was talking to people I used to pick up my phone I was following people wearing I’m slamming my stomach people in person through my technology. And you know, it was there in every aspect of my life. When I was studying in college in classes, I had my phone with me and I could feel all of these aspects affecting my happiness level, my can mix level, my productivity level, my physical health, my mental health. So I could see all of this happening a lot. Hence, I felt that there was something wrong in my life, which was affecting my balance and my general well being. So I decided that I would go to cold turkey to see what was like beyond tech as well. I think that was a trigger point wherein I could realise that it was affecting several aspects of my life.
R Blank 3:55
How did you know it was? Right? Because there’s a couple of steps there, there’s realising that something’s wrong, and then realising or suboptimal. And then realising that tech was the cause of that, how did so how did you come to realise that the technology was the cause of these negative feelings that you’re having?
Rijul Arora 4:15
So I would say, while Tech was a cause, it wasn’t tech. Exactly. It was the way I was using tech. That’s how I would put it because like anything else in life, it’s a tool. Like it’s a tool mindset. It’s not something that would cause addiction, per se. But like the way I was using it, like, in the sense that I was taking first thing in the morning last thing in the night, I could see it’s affecting different aspects of my life. Like if I go back a year, so what happened was, that was third year of my college life. And during that period, I had a lot of responsibilities in the sense that I was leading clubs, I had to be always on. I had to lead teams, I had to be always available for my teams. And I had to you know, check in on people I had to check in on their work. I had to constantly send emails constantly send WhatsApp messages, so I was constantly hooked to my phone. So I think that transitioned from my second year of college to third year of college, when I had loads of responsibility, and I could feel that it was an easy way for me to use tech to reach out to them. I think that was a trigger point wherein I realised, and when, when I realised this problem, I was watching a lot of content around it, like I watch call, you put stock on quit social media, and then it made me less Oh, I could relate with some of these aspects, or the TED talks or the content that I was watching online, I could relate with those symptoms. So that’s, I think, how, you know, that awareness led me to watch some content, which made me realise, oh, I can relate with what’s happening, such.
R Blank 5:34
Cool. So you’re gonna see, I’ll be jumping around here. So I appreciate you bearing with me here. So a lot of people and I know we’ll be talking about a lot of people have heard this term, and we’ll be talking about it. It’s called FOMO, or fear of missing out. But in a lot of the things I’ve seen you talk about, you talk about Jomo, which I understand is the joy of missing out. Can you talk a little bit about what how you what you view Jomo is and share your journey with that. Absolutely.
Rijul Arora 6:10
If you look at what’s happening, most of us have this concept called FOMO. Fear Of Missing Out, I’m going to miss out on a party which is happening, I’m going to miss out on what’s happening online, I’m going to miss out on what’s happening in other people’s lives. I’m going to miss out on this particular news. So we always have this FOMO fear of missing out on what’s happening online or offline. And honestly, there’s always going to be FOMO you can’t be up to date with all the news, all the updates with what’s happening in different people’s life. You can never be updated with that. Hence, I feel it’s important to shift our perspective from FOMO to Jomo, which is Joy Of Missing Out, which is experiencing joy in the moment, like instead of I’m feeling FOMO, about what’s happening in other people’s lives, I can experience joy in my offline moments with the time that I’m spending with someone in person. Or if I’m using tech in a healthy way I can experience joy in that particular moment, experiencing joy in the moments that I have in the things that I’m doing and be content with what I really haven’t. So it’s that perspective shift from FOMO to Jomo, and I think that perspective shift first happens with that acceptance, acceptance that, Okay, boss, I’m always going to have some kind of former life because I can never be up to date to things. And it’s about being content with what you have. So I love this quote, which I read somewhere which stated that and there are two quotes. One is the code that and I quote, that, how can I compare my life to You know, if I’m going on the road, if I’m walking the road, and I see someone just passing by? And if I compare my life to them, how would that feel? Would that be fair or unfair to me, it’s just 10 seconds of their my life, which I’m comparing with them. What’s happening online now comparing it to online, I just see someone like 10 seconds, I just see a real, and they’ve gone to this beautiful, wonderful holiday in Rome, Paris. And I feel jealous that you know, I missed out on something. So essentially, we’re comparing ourselves to wrong standard, we’re comparing ourselves to the perfect self of someone else, which is really unfair on our society. And another quote, which I really love around this concept is the fact that the irony of the moment essentially, like if I’m going to a concert, essentially, and I click a photo of someone, so or I click a photo of the concert, I’m essentially missing out on the moment to capture that moment to upload it somewhere to make someone else feel for potentially doesn’t make sense to me.
R Blank 8:29
So yeah, the so So you gave you started with a tech fast or partial fast in in college, how long from when you made these changes to when you started having these realisations of of the value of Jomo was it was it instant was it a process,
Rijul Arora 8:48
it was a process, the first thing was terrible. If they could edit having a withdrawal symptoms the first week, you know, I felt constantly going back to my phone, you know, what happens is when you go away from some apps, you try to spend time on some other apps or some other means. So you could see yourself getting distracted for something else. You know, essentially, I didn’t feel very happy what I was doing, like, Honestly, after one week itself, I downloaded back WhatsApp, because you know, I wasn’t missing the FOMO I was having that FOMO and on so that one week of struggle was there because I didn’t have a proper routine. It was a big change for me. And you know, it’s not just you it’s people around you as well. It’s that external noise people were like, Have you become a saint? Like what are you doing right? Are you a Baba? Or are you are, you know, like Baba guru or something, essentially. Have you gone to some other world? Are you even part of this world and also, all of this pressure and you also don’t have 100% conviction in yourself. So the first week was tough, essentially. But as I kept going forward, I really believed in this cause because I wanted that transformation in my life. I wanted to have Good health, physical health, mental health, productivity, happiness. I believed in my wife essentially. And I kept going at events, slowly the processes, the routines that I made, like I constantly went for exercises. I had, I used to read a lot in the morning, I adopted some great habits and routine start time. So I could then started, I could then start feeling the benefits and not experience that Jomo gradually, I would say, it’s a tough process in, in short, but you learn to love the process.
Stephanie Warner 10:31
Yeah, yeah, totally. I, well, you were just talking, I had this, this kind of thought of when I stopped doing when I stopped being so active on social media, I had this other little, little piece of joy that really just if you just it just just popped into my mind. And it’s that moment where you’re, you’re offline for a while, and somebody messages you and say, Hey, I was just thinking about you. And like getting that personal contact, instead of just a thumbs up. You did? Yeah, that’s a great whatever post, it’s like you actually your absence can make people think about you, and then reach out and just say how you’re doing, which I think, you know, for me, that was a really, it’s a fun observation. And it always makes me feel really good, you know, to have to have that. So I want to segue a little bit. We talked a lot about tech addiction on the podcast, but you’re one of the few younger guests that we’ve had on the show talking about it, which is a really unique perspective, because you’ve lived with social media most of your life. Can you tell our listeners? You Born Digital? I didn’t want to say it. But yeah, that’s a yeah, you’re born digital? Can you tell our listeners what tech addiction is to you from like your perspective and share some facts about it? Correct.
Rijul Arora 11:53
So I would say there are two things that come to my mind, which is one is constant distraction. So when I’m trying to work on something, I’m constantly distracted, essentially. So I will put into to the broader buckets. One is the fact that like, which is addiction, and second is destruction. So when we talk about addiction, like there are, addiction is a more severe form. And destruction is a less severe form. So there’s a whole spectrum to digital wellness, essentially, at one underspend one end of the spectrum is something called detox, when you go cold turkey, other end of spectrum is addiction. They didn’t, you know, you feel withdrawal symptoms. And I’ll come to that, then if you go a little bit. Here, on the positive side, there is destruction. So if you talk about addiction, I’ll give an example like if a severe form of example, which could be the fact that if a school boy, or if a college boys playing games, essentially, and they get hooked to the games, what happens is they don’t even get up to go to the washroom or do some basic stuff in life, like eat food form social connections. So I would say addiction is when it starts affecting your day to day life, in terms of what you eat, how you eat, you have withdrawal symptoms, when you go away from tech. So I think those two Basic Tenets come to my mind that it really substitutes your life instead of supplements your life. And when I mean substituted, I mean in different aspects of your physical health, to forming meaningful connections to doing basic chores in life to eating and stuff. So what happens in gamer senses, or social media addicts is that like, they’re not able to do their basic duties in life. They’re constantly hooked to their screens, they don’t go out in nature, they don’t do their homework, they don’t do their work, essentially. So that’s what a form of addiction is, essentially. And when it comes to distraction, which I talked about, there are two tenets to that. One is the fact that you’re always on like a 24/7 connectivity technology. The first thing you do in the morning is check your phone. Like even if you sleep in the night, you checking your phone, or even in the middle of the night, like that was something that used to happen to me as to get them in the middle of the night, just to check my WhatsApp messages. I used to do that. Now though, I have this alarm clock, which is liquid, which I’m very grateful for. But I think that always on culture is something that’s pertinent a lot. The second is constant distraction, like we have on notification. Like if I’m trying to work on something, focus on something, I get a phone call, or I get a ping message on my phone, or I get an email notification or I get a match from Tinder, let’s say that you’ve just got a match or your match is waiting for you. So all of these distractions, which are not helping you to focus on what your work is because essentially, each distraction really affects us because I think there is a research which states that if you have a distraction, it takes anywhere between 70 seconds to 23 minutes to refocus after a distraction. So that’s a huge distraction. Because if you’re distracted, it takes you that time of refocusing, plus the amount of time away from a distraction. For example, if I just now get a let’s say notification from Instagram, I go to my Instagram and then scroll for 10 minutes, and then it takes me some time to refocus. So essentially, it’s taking anywhere between 15 to 20 minutes to refocus up the distraction. So it’s really affecting my productivity environment. And there are a lot of other aspects to it as well. Mental health physical and and a lot of it.
R Blank 14:55
So yeah, yeah, you see in that description, you talk about certain words and behaviours that one would associate with other types of addiction. So, you know, one that stands out is withdrawal, and that you hear a lot in, you know, drug addiction and when you stop doing drugs, but you don’t think that comparing tech to drugs is maybe the healthiest approach, is that right? So what what, why is that? And what do you think is a better kind of point of reference?
Rijul Arora 15:27
When I started on my journey, I had that same perspective, which a lot of people in the industry do, like when they get started, take his negative tech is like drugs, but I feel it’s an unhealthy comparison to have because drugs, we are known that very, very sad, it states that it causes cancer, it causes addiction, and there are a lot of negative effects to it, essentially. So the better healthier comparison is with food. And let me explain this analogy, the kind of food that you eat on a day to day basis, if you have a balanced diet, it really shapes a personality. Like if I have the right amount of vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins, I’m a healthy human being in general. And if I look at it from the lens of digital life, if I am using technology moderately, if I consume the right kind of content, for me, it’s consuming a lot of digital wellness content, or it’s about self health leadership, digital transformation. So it’s depends on different people. And if I do it that way, then I’m growing as a person. So it’s about growing yourself online. And third is the fact that we’re producing as well. If you look at most of us, we are passively watching something on Netflix, you’re passively scrolling through most of us are passive consumers. But very few of us are going there and producing content as well, because social media and tech in general gives us a huge audience to reach out to millions of people. So are we also producers out there when we putting out content, putting out something we’re passionate about and making an impact on communities. So it’s about you know, using tech in the right way. And I feel the healthy food analogies, because better because like with food, if you have the right type of food, you will be healthy. But if you don’t have the right, if you have junk food, then you will not be healthy. Similarly, the digital diet concept comes in, because if you that I mentioned, moderation, healthy consumption, healthy production will be healthy. But if you don’t like if you’re using it constantly distracted, if you’re always on, then it could impact your productivity, mental health, and you will not be held the digital citizen.
R Blank 17:14
Yeah, so So tech provides a sort of, it’s a productive tool, it provides actual value. And if you use it correctly, this is what I’m hearing, right, if you use it correctly, it adds a lot of value. And if you abuse it, that’s when problems start happening. Whereas with a lot of the things that we classify as drugs, it’s only value is the the recreation, the recreational,
Rijul Arora 17:37
exactly. So and you can apply a lot of analogies to it as well like food, you know, like, if you don’t apply the food hygiene, like if you don’t have the food in the right way. Like if you don’t wash it, you will get sick. Similarly, if you go online, if you don’t apply that safety, hygiene, like good passwords, good privacy measures, good safety measures, you know, you will not will not be maintaining your online privacy. So a lot of food analogy kind of sticks. Similar to the you know, screen time analogy. Yeah,
Stephanie Warner 18:06
I really liked that. I think it’s, it resonates. And it really, you know, for myself, you know, what you put in your body, what you put in your mind is really, you know, obviously, it’s critical to good health. So the food analogy really, really makes sense. The way I tend to use social media is for inspiration. So my social diet, or my digital diet is inspiration. It’s what, what gets me up and motivated or excited to go do something out in the real world, or go find something or explore. So I, I really appreciate that analogy. Sorry, to cut you off.
R Blank 18:43
No, that’s cool. So, yeah, so in that last answer, right, because when when I was doing my background research on you, a lot of what I heard was about social media. So I know WhatsApp is a is a big example for you. But just social media in general, when I and I know social media is a really big problem for a lot of people. But when I think about issues around unhealthy relationships with technology, I also would include things like Netflix and video games and all these other sort of immersive experiences that we experience through screens. But I think I started in your last answer to hear you talk about, about that. Just scrolling through videos and so forth. When you what, what examples of these harmful or potentially harmful experiences outside of social media, you know, would you consider?
Rijul Arora 19:41
I think there’s a plethora of it, to be honest, as you mentioned, streaming services, like if you look at Netflix, Amazon Prime, they are also meant to hook to hook you in one way in the sense that, you know, if you watch a Netflix video or an Amazon Prime video, you know, you automatically get the next video essentially. So that could be another route of, you know, getting constantly hooked or being called is on. So that is definitely one Tenet, which is streaming services, then obviously games which you mentioned. So there are a plethora of it gaming as well. And especially massive online, you know, multiplayer game, very general games are okay. But what happens with online multiplayer games is it is good, but you have a social connection with someone else. So what happens is, if you don’t find an offline connection, you’re trying to find that online somewhere. So you you kind of become accountable to that person out there, that online person, you come there to play with him or her, you come for that community as well, you come for those rewards as well. So massive online multiplayer games can also be addictive in nature as well. So I think that is another example of it. And you know, looking at it more from the COVID lens. Now, video calling could also be, you know, harmful in the sense that if we have a lot of back to back calls, you know, it affects your fatigue as well. And if you look at statistics as well, I think Microsoft Teams, I think approximately there was like a 200 or 300% rise in the number of meetings that you had. So if you’re having a lot of back to back meetings, a lot of back to back stuff, it really impacts your physical health, mental health posture, as well. And a lot of simple hacks you can make to make your meetings work for you. So I think video calling is also one pertinent thing which has happened because of COVID times, then email as well. Obviously, most of us are also hooked to emails as well. Like we check our emails first thing in the morning last night, you know, looking at more from a corporate lens. I think emails are something that can also be a cause for trouble as well. Yeah. Zero.
Stephanie Warner 21:30
Yeah, I’m really glad that you brought up the work aspect because, you know, for me, I’m always on my computer. So social media and all of that stuff. That’s my that’s that’s after work. But for during work time. It’s it is my it’s email, it’s Skype, it’s meetings. And when you said in the beginning that it takes 23 minutes to refocus after an interruption. I’m like, Oh, my God, my entire day is just running around unfocused, because I’m always I’m always in that circle of refocusing. And I’m really intrigued to know what advice or hacks you have four, especially pertaining to how to become more productive and more focused during work when it’s your job to kind of be unfocused, apparently.
Rijul Arora 22:20
Okay, so, I would say that it’s first of all, understanding the different tools that you use, and what is your biggest problem? So it’s about that awareness piece first, like use screen time apps measure which kind of tools that you’re struggling with? Because if you don’t know what our problem is, how would we solve that problem? So if email is a problem, you know, there are tools to manage that. So it’s also understanding which kind of tools or which kind of technology tools to struggle with potential. And let’s take a couple of examples, common examples, which people struggled with. So if you’re talking about, let’s say, if you’re having a lot of back to back calls, video calls, if that’s something that you’re struggling with, what you could do is, if you take a zoom call, or Microsoft team calls, you can hide yourself. So what happens is, when you’re on a video, can you see yourself a lot like us automatically see your video, and that causes a cognitive overload in the sense that we are all conscious human beings, we’re seeing how we are looking. And also you can hide self view, when you press your own video. So in that way, the cognitive load comes down of a video call. And there are settings in which you can have default meetings of 55 minutes instead of an hour or 25 minutes or 30. So you automatically get a fine rate. That is really possible within Microsoft Teams now. So these inherent features of tech really enable you to have that balance essentially. So if that’s what it comes to, you know, like, email, but let’s say, you mentioned that you’re facing a productivity issue, there is an app called forest, which is one of the number which is the number one productivity app out there. What happens in forest is, let’s say I want to focus for one hour, what I do is in my phone, I go into this forest app, and I put a timer of one in that one, or what happens is that seed I saw a seed, that seed grows into a plant essentially. And if during that one hour I check my any other app on my phone, I skill that seed so I’m responsible for killing a seed if I you know, check my phone within that one hour. So they’ve gamified the concept of digital wellness.
Stephanie Warner 24:17
Really interesting.
R Blank 24:19
It’s like a reverse demagogy. Yeah. Yeah.
Stephanie Warner 24:23
Do you have a forest at the end of the tour? What do you have? You know, the interesting.
R Blank 24:28
Cool, yeah, please continue. If
Rijul Arora 24:29
you’re successful, you get a real tree. Yeah. If you’re successful, you grow real tree, essentially. And they’ve gamified the whole concept of a leaderboard. And after certain point, they actually plant a real tree somewhere in the world as well. So they have that gamification concept. And they built another concept for sleep as well. Like, like when you go to sleep, you you are asked to build a house. And if during the night you check your phone, that house gets broken. It’s called sleep down, but if you’re able to successfully not check your phone In the night, that house gets really built. So they really use that concept to, you know, make sure that you have a better sleep, have better bodies with tech or have a better digital wellness and better productivity. So there are a lot of these apps out there a lot of plethora of these digital wellness apps essentially.
R Blank 25:15
So I, I’d like to learn, well, I’d like you to share with our listeners. But I’d also like to learn I understand you do with coaching and consulting. And so I’m wondering, you know, in this area, what does your kind of customer look like? And, you know, what do you do with them? What’s the what’s the coaching and the consulting kind of consumer who’s interested in it? And what does it consist of? Absolutely.
Rijul Arora 25:39
So my I primarily work with education institutes, and corporates, those are my two major areas, what I do is essentially, two or three things. One is first, like a Keynote or a workshop thing, in which I kind of make people aware of these problems, which I talked about, and then giving them tools and tips and tricks to help them understand digital wellness, then there are people who are struggling with this in their personal life as well, then they particularly reach out, these are generally people from, you know, students in college, or these are corporate people, you know, knowledge workers who are working on screens all the time, you know, they’re struggling with productivity, mental health, physical health issues when it comes to screen. So I help them, you know, have a better balance with tech. And this generally involves on this helping them get aware of their problems, which are there, when it comes to technology, and working along with them to you know, set goals for their digital wellness, what they want to achieve, and giving them the part of how they want to achieve. And another thing is that accountability partner, I’m with them, you know, we have weekly check in calls so that I’m making them accountable for their goals, essentially. So this is how they’re able to go from where they are in their digital wellness to where they want to be, and have a better balance with tech. So that’s when it comes to coaching. When it comes to consulting, it’s about, you know, if you look at consulting, again, similarly, for education institutes and corporates, it’s about understanding, you know, it’s not just about a tick in the box, when it comes to digital wellness, that you’ve done a workshop and you know, the culture has changed. But in order to imbibe culture of digital wellness, it has to be a multi pronged approach in the sense that you need to have different workshops for different kinds of people, because leadership needs to have a different understanding of digital wellness. For them, they need to understand that this has an ROI, that health is not just a tick in the box, that it impacts your attrition impacts retention. So different workshop needs to be there for different stakeholders, then, you know, it’s about looking at the policies of, do they have a right to disconnect policy? Or do they have D and E policy? Do they have a digital wellness policy in place or not. So it’s about looking at changing the policies as well. And it’s about, you know, identifying champions within the network as well, like in the sense that there are people who are really passionate about this topic. So making them you know, educated about digital wellness, and then they encourage peer to peer network. And, you know, it can also be accompanied by comms as well, you know, sending emails about digital wellness, educating them about digital wellness. So the point is, to this consulting engagement, we need to imbibe a culture of digital wellness and a positive digital culture so that, you know, it improves your attrition, it reduces irritation and improves retention and all of your key performance indicators, essentially, so
R Blank 28:12
and so what I hear when I meet someone like you, who is actually making money and doing business like this, is that there’s a growing realisation in the corporate world that this is actually an important set of considerations. Is that is that your experience? Is? Yeah, yeah, so sorry, I totally cut you off there. And what was your answer when you were nodding?
Please continue.
Stephanie Warner 28:53
Should I get to relax? Yes, yeah. I think we should leave this in and just put a little little bump in for the watch the YouTube channel, if you want to know what he actually says.
R Blank 29:05
Once you got over cracking up, yeah. No, please. Yeah. So let me so what I’m hearing is that, you know, there’s a growing awareness in corporations and businesses, that this is actually a problem that they need to start solving. Is that Is that what you’re you’re seeing?
Rijul Arora 29:24
Yes, it’s definitely there has been a realisation, especially due to COVID Because with COVID, everyone went online and the problem is extrapolated, and with aspects like Metaverse coming into place, and the technology is also becoming you know, more addictive, destructive, there is that realisation that they need to do something about it. But the point is for them, is it like Like is it a ticking the box or do they want to really cause that cultural change? So I think that transition is taking place essentially, from making it a ticking the box to cultural change. I think some organisations are lower on the maturity curve in the sense that for them, they just did a workshop, but for some organs agents, they really feel that this change needs to be brought about hence, you know, they’re proactive about getting stuff done, instead of waiting that, you know, cyber bullying happens, or we are not productive, and you know, we do call fatigue and all they’re reactive in nature. So there is a spectrum to it, essentially. And some organisations are more mature, some organisations are less mature. Greatest, and people are,
R Blank 30:22
like us. Yeah, there is hope that really gives me that makes that makes me happy to hear that that’s happening. So we talked, we just touched on your coaching and consulting, where can people learn more about your coaching and consulting services? Yeah, so
Rijul Arora 30:36
you can go to my website, it’s literally jeweller rhoda.com. And, you know, you can get all details about the coaching, offerings, consulting offerings, you can also refer my previous keynotes and offerings, testimonials, you know, so feel free to reach out to my website, and we’ll also put a LinkedIn, I also put my LinkedIn profile, and you can reach out to me and happy to support help you thrive in the digital world.
R Blank 30:59
Excellent. Yeah. And well, we’ll include the link to your website and your LinkedIn profile in the show notes. And I would encourage everybody listening to go check this out his website, it has a lot of great content on it. Videos, podcast appearances. It’s really informative. Yeah. So we’re Joel, I know this is really late for you due to time zones. So I really appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule to come join us for this chat on the healthier tech podcast. And in your last answer you mentioned, you just touched on very briefly the metaverse, I think we’re gonna have to have you back at the future point just to talk about that. But for now, this was a really great conversation and a really thank you for coming on.
Rijul Arora 31:41
It’s a pleasure. And no, I love the conversation that we had and hope to continue it in another way to Metaverse and all the next one
Stephanie Warner 31:51
to we’ll find some other things. There’s there’s you you bring a lot of great points to the to our audience and we’d love to to definitely connect and, and have you back on.
R Blank 32:03
Thank you so much. Thank
Announcer 32:05
you. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the healthier tech podcast. Remember to check the show notes for all the links and resources mentioned in the show. Please like and subscribe to the healthier tech podcast on Apple, Spotify or your podcast platform of choice. Get your free quickstart guide to building a healthier relationship with technology and our latest information at healthier tech.co
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
