Screen Time – not just about the kids

While the dangers of social media and teens, and screen time for children, are hotly debated, many of us in the midlife demographic will be reflecting inwardly, guiltily, about our own doom scrolling habits.

I’ve been looking into dopamine, addiction and how to “hack” this trend for our wellbeing. In April I’m launching a 30 day challenge where you will move the 3 apps that you open first, to the end page of your screen (or for the determined and brave, delete for a month so you have to login each time on a browser).
Then before you engage with your habitual apps I invite you to engage with my self care app Sage & Circle!

I’ve used your addictive traits (and my own) to develop something that gives you rewards for self-care and self-awareness and connecting more slowly and more deeply with fewer people. It won’t give you what doom scrolling does because I’m not deliberately aiming to keep pulling you in like FaceBook or Instagram. It will be more engaging than checking your email but take less of your time than endless social media.

I know  you will reach for your phone several times today – so why not make it a pathway to self-awareness, reflection and presence? You can always go onto FaceBook afterwards if you still want to. I would like to offer an alternative and if you put Sage & Circle on your home screen, you can use that reaching for your phone habit, to “habit stack” some constructive habits. You will get rewards and pop ups which give your brain a feel good hormone called dopamine.

Two activities from my 24 week Nourish & Nurture Women’s Wintering Course – 2026 will be its 8th year!

What is Behind our Midlife Doomscrolling?

• Hormonal “Brain Scrambling”: During perimenopause and menopause, fluctuating oestrogen levels can disrupt serotonin and dopamine regulation. This makes the brain more susceptible to the “dopamine hits” provided by constant scrolling as a way to self-medicate low mood or anxiety.
• The “Safety” Paradox: Many of us still feel a responsibility to “protect the family”. Scanning for threats is a biological drive but might lead to compulsive news checking, where knowing the “latest bad news” feels like a form of preventative protection and control, even though it just increases our cortisol and stress!
• Lifestyle Transitions: Life events like children moving out (empty nest syndrome), career changes, or caring for ageing parents can increase a loss of identity. So our phones can be an escape from caregiving burnout.

If we could just turn that carer’s burnout into self-care habits rather than exhausted avoidance that would be massive win!

• Download Miriam’s  Sage & Circle  App
  If you check in to the app before social media for 30 days in a row you will win rewards and rewire your brain!
• Create “No-Phone Zones” in High-Trigger Areas:
  Where does scrolling usually happen? In bed? While the TV is on? Or at the dining table? Play a game with your partner to see who can last the longest with their phone in another room! You could designate these as phone-free areas to improve sleep and connection. Some shows – such as Line of Duty might mean you need to watch carefully so scrolling isn’t an option. Or a little trick is to turn the TV volume down and the subtitles on, so that you put your phone in a different location and do one activity at a time.
• Practise “Joyscrolling”:
  Intentionally follow accounts related to new hobbies, travel, or positive news. Use Substack and podcasts more than social media. Balance news with “uplifting” content and help rewire the brain’s reward circuit. I look at travel sites, I’m currently obsessed with Nordic and Slavic culture, listen to podcasts, chat online with friends in my social media time. If you follow gardening groups or DIY groups it lessens the more combative dialogues. My partner likes to follow a guy who tends to cow’s hooves (?!) and the minature scenes of a crocheted frog and toad and I like acapella groups or Jack the young autistic lad who sings with his dad playing guitar.
• The “6 PM Rule”:
  I’ve taken to not checking email or social media until the afteroon. It’s greatly improved my dopamine levels to complete a more complex piece of work in the morning – such as writing, managing accounts, research, marketing, course creation and so on – and to do my ‘bitty’ more fractured work later as my energy and concentration are less and thus suit short bursts of work.
  I now limit news to watching the TV early evening news, before going onto fictional entertainment shows. I quite often do not know where my phone is during the day and am reunited with it after 4pm.  This prevents “autopilot” scrolling throughout the day and if I’m mindful about TV protects the “wind-down” period before bed.
• Engage in Real Life Alternatives:
  Come on a Wise Woman Retreat, scrapbook, journal. Swap 30 minutes of scrolling for physical activities like walking, reading a physical book, or creative writing. These activities help lower the “brain rot” associated with excessive digital consumption.
• Audit Your Notifications:
  Turn off push alerts for news and social media. This gives you back control over when you engage with information, rather than letting the phone dictate your attention.

  

  Just three of the courses – many are free – on the Sage & Circle App. The courses have progress bars, completion rosettes, discussion threads, meditations, videos, journalling prompts.

 Download Miriam’s Sage & Circle App

Features include:

Quiz – Personal Self-Care Needs assessment to help you prioritise the area that will give you the most benefits.
Self Care Plan & Promise – Guidance to write your own contract with yourself and to review and edit this regularly.
4 Basic Habits – You can just use these 4 habits to get going. Use the free handouts on my unique 3-2-1 Method and my Heart-Head-Hand Method to help you minimise your things to do and to align your behaviour with your inner voice.
FREE Midlife Stress Busters Course – and others with downloadable PDFs, videos, meditations and journalling prompts.
60 Second Mood Boost with the 3 Gratitudes Section
Personal Habits – Add to the basic habits by creating your own (notice your feelings HEART, reflect on what this prompts in you HEAD and take daily action towards a new habit HAND). You’ll be rewarded with Wellness Seeds to buy courses or items for your virtual garden.
Mood Log – Log today’s mood and see the bars on a graph for the week or click to see line graphs of each 28 days. Does your mood rise and fall with your menstrual cycle, the moon cycle or your work rota?
Journal – Daily reflective quotes from wise women are posted as a prompt for your reflection or to begin your daily writing in the journal app. If you prefer writing by hand, that’s obviously wonderful but you can still use the app to catalogue and date your handwritten journal with tags to help you find earlier entries. There’s also a little feature where you can write entries and drag them to the fire to virtually burn them! And for those of you that like to – a place to record your New Moon intentions so you can review them monthly at Full Moon.
The Moon and The Raven Page – Explore pre-psychoanalytic and esoteric ways of personal exploration through archetype, dreams, moon cycles and kitchen magic. There is also a 24/7 healing circle there.
Courses – this was one of the primary reasons for the app, to house my courses which had previously used Facebook groups. My Signature Course is naturally Nourish & Nurture, Women’s Wintering Circle and my Feature Course (you can look inside without buying) is the only journalling course for women coming out later in life THE MANUAL!
LGBT+ Support – the app is friendly and has many from this minority group but it’s also safe for those in the closet as it’s not solely for rainbow people.
Circles – Not all the chat groups have taken off yet as the app is so new. The Cabin is fairly chatty from the N&N course but the chat groups NeuroNest; Worth The Wait; Menopause & Me and so on need some fresh input. Part of Circles is Soul-Meets a personal ads section.
Calendar & Events – you can advertise free events for free and paid events for a donation. You can book my events – several are FREE. There’s also a Library, Podcast page and Wise Women Retreats page.
Ask Miriam – Reflections by me are available for anonymous posted questions.
Pause Reminders – Set a chime (or other sound, you choose) to go off at intervals (you choose how often and how loud) through your work day. You’ll be reminded to connect with yourself, your body and to self care for a moment.

Other Products for Digital Wellness:

• Stand for tablets/iPad and mobile phone

  Use a stand that allows for hands-free, intentional use in specific areas like the kitchen or office, discouraging the “slumped” posture often associated with mindless scrolling.

• Light Phone

  For a more drastic “digital detox,” this minimalist phone has no social media or browser, focusing only on essential communication!

• Sunrise Alarm Clock
  Leave your phone in another room overnight and use an alarm clock, eliminating the “first thing in the morning” and “last thing at night” scrolling habit.

Sage & Circle

is FREE for the first month and a voluntary contribution of 99 pence (less than $1.50 dollars) per month is then requested. I’ve capped app members at 60 members for 2026 so that I can respond personally and  keep the app about real engagement. I don’t want lots of followers like I have on social media, I want the people who want to engage to be able to access my courses and little circles of safe community.

Why am I asking you to login via gmail accounts and Google?

I apologise that all apps have to verify users and that you have to be verified by Google to join. You’ll see this on Etsy, YouTube, Zoom and all sort of apps which normally have an option to verify via google or facebook etc. My app uses Google and this means that only your device protected by your fingerprint, facial recognition or password, can use your Sage & Circle profile. There are no options for this verification. Once you’re verified, you then keep the app on your phone or tablet or laptop and won’t need to verify again.
No one can read your data, not even me, the admin.

News
The app is ready to go on the App Store and Google Play, I want to know whether my users have iPhones or Android so I can launch on one first to see if it justifies the costs. Let me know!

For now you can download and explore for free and there will be no price increase for 12 months (see above and email me miriam@blue-skies.org.uk)