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GRATEFUL | Wellness for Makers: Cell Phone Ergonomics/Self-Care Tips

GRATEFUL | Wellness for Makers: Cell Phone Ergonomics/Self-Care Tips

This holiday season, many of us makers will be glued to our phones, tablets, and computers. We will be making sales, promoting ourselves, and supporting other artists. Even though the amount of time we spend on our phones may increase during the holiday season, our bodies don’t have to suffer. Next time you’re on your phone (maybe it’s right now), take a moment to examine your posture. Are you hunched over? Is your neck jutting forward? Do you look/feel more like the person in the image on the left or the image on the right? As a movement instructor, I spend a lot of time considering how others are using their bodies, and most of the people I see using their phones look more like the image on the left.

Here are a few tips to help get you closer to an anatomically neutral position!

TIp #1: Lift your phone out in front of you.

It is a common tendency to hold our phones down by our waists. This adds a lot of strain to the neck since the head has to drop forward to read what is on the screen. Hold your phone higher and straighten your neck. 

Photo credit: Tofros.com from Pexels 

Tip #2: Use your thumbs less!

Most of us depend on our thumbs to type and scroll through social media. Try alternating between using your thumbs and your fingers. Your hands will thank you!

Tip #3: Massage your hands and fingers.

Wellness for Makers created Health Hands kits that include a mini foam ball for massaging your hands, and an acupressure ring to stimulate the acupressure points in your fingers. Use tools like these to increase blood flow and circulation, and alleviate strain.

Tip #4: Relax your eyes!

Take breaks from looking at your screens. If you know you are going to be looking at a screen for an extended amount of time, set a timer to remind yourself to take a one minute break every half hour. During this break, close your eyes and lightly massage your temples, then focus on a point out in the distance. This will help your eyes relax and regain strength.

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The mission of Wellness for Makers is to motivate and empower artists through education and mindful living. Wellness for Makers was created to make self-care, stretching, and massage techniques more accessible to artists everywhere. We strive to make it easy to find good resources, including interviews, articles, videos, and links to valuable organizations. Our workshops provide hands-on training in stretching and massage techniques that are easy to incorporate into an artist’s daily studio routine. These techniques are designed to help boost energy levels, alleviate pain, reduce the risk of injury, and improve posture. We collaborate with artists who have professional backgrounds in yoga, ergonomics, massage therapy, occupational therapy, and more, to provide a range of perspectives. We believe that by working together as a community, we can create more productive and sustainable studio practices that improve the longevity of our hands and bodies.

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