In this episode, we sit down with the co-founders of The Offline Club to talk about the growing importance of community, the power of being present, and the silent cost of our ever-increasing screen time.
We explore the concept of a digital declutter and how it can help you achieve wellness. Discover how to reclaim your time and practice digital self-care to combat feeling overwhelmed by technology. It's time to take control of your digital habits!
The Offline Club is part of a global movement to reconnect people with each other in a more meaningful and human way, one event, one moment, one conversation at a time. People who attend these events embrace simplicity and find joy in living a minimalist lifestyle. Discover how to live intentionally and foster mental wellness through slow living. Prioritise mindfulness and savour life one moment at a time for a more fulfilling existence.
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(Dramatic Music)
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(Applause)
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Ilya, thank you so much for having me at this amazing location where
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you guys are working.
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I want to know how you met your co-founders and the story behind how you guys got together and thought this was something that could benefit people in the real world.
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It started with Jordi and I. We did the same matters of social
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entrepreneurship. We happened to be a member of the same
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tennis club as well. And then we applied for the same internship and we did that internship together and ended up as
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colleagues.
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So that's how we met.
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And at that time Jordi went offline for four days for the first time.
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Inspired me to
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do the same thing.
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Four days unplugged seems like heaven to me. And
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a fun experiment as well without having any
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expectations going into it.
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I did that, loved it and told Jordi let's organize this for other
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people. And
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that's where Valentine came in, who was a friend of a friend. I knew him from some parties and he was a chef. So he would be
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able to cook for our guests at the offline getaways. So that's how
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the three of us met. There was a match between the three of us from the start. We were all fully into the concept,
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saw the impact
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we were making on people's lives. The real life impact.
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But it was just four retreats
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basically per year.
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So 40 people each
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year. Quite a high financial
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investment. Big step for some people
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to go offline for a whole weekend. So we were fantasizing with ideas about making
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impact at a larger
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skill for more people. And make digital detoxing more of a day-to-day thing. And that's how we came up with the idea for the offline club. And why? Because there are a couple of things we observed within
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us and society.
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Within us when we go offline we feel more relaxed,
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more creative, more productive.
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We just feel better. And around us
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we saw that we live in a burnout society. In a lonely society.
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So by combining basically a solution for those two things, that's how we came up with the offline club.
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It feels like it's almost rude nowadays to talk to strangers.
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But when I attended the
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event it didn't feel rude at all. It was actually very infectious to sit next to someone and be like, "Hunt, there's another human being here." And you just strike up a conversation. What is it about having people in the same space without their devices that encourages this type of connection?
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The lack of distractions. First of all, you cannot escape behind your device when the person opposite gets up to go to the bathroom or when you feel uncomfortable. Secondly,
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the offline club is
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also a perfect place to meet people.
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So it attracts people who are open-minded and who are willing
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to connect with others.
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So what we always say is the offline club is a space where talking to strangers is the norm. We want to change the way people interact with technology but also with each other. So we just facilitate that atmosphere and locking up the phones is the easiest way to do that.
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And what's your relationship with technology today?
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So it's in progress. It's evolving. I think I'm 27 now when I was about 21 years old. I deleted Snapchat very consciously. So that was I think my first step to becoming more aware of how I consume media and how I interact with technology. And then especially after I went four days offline as an experiment, that's when something sparked in me to change my tech habits and spend more time offline. So right now I would say I'm still experimenting with different ways and tools and tactics to spend less time online as I feel like it really helps me in feeling better and also becoming more successful. But yeah, it's a process. You cannot just change your habits from one day to the other.
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Absolutely. And what was it about Snapchat in particular that made you think that that wasn't something that's beneficial for you?
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I was in New York City at the time and I was sitting at a rooftop, which is quite a nice place to be very privileged. And I was on Snapchat and I saw all these other posts and friends in Indonesia or whatever at the beach. And I was like, "Damn, I want to be on Snapchat." And then I realized that. And I also realized that every Snapchat I was taking was pretty much to just show off my life, which didn't really align with my values and kind of just fooling myself into, yeah, trying to portray myself as someone that I'm really not.
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So a friend of mine deleted it for the same reasons and that sparked my thinking to also delete it. And I didn't miss it a single
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day. Amazing. Yeah, that's super cool that you had that experience quite young. I think a lot of people go for a long time without before realizing that. Actually, this thing probably isn't very good for me. I had a similar situation with Instagram quite early on. I just got the app and I noticed that because I was really into photography. I noticed that I started taking photos, not for myself, not for the love of taking photos, but for the reaction that I'm going to get when I post it. And slowly but surely the type of photos that I started taking ended up just being like Instagram photos rather than the style that I've been developing
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for a long time. So it's weird how
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the psychology changes in a really subtle way. You go from like, "Oh, this is cool." I'm connecting with friends to like, "Okay, I need to keep posting to keep getting whatever it is that I'm getting from it."
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Yeah, I agree. It's really the psychology of it that changes the way you experience your own life when
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you're thinking about how will others perceive this experience that I'm living in right now. So you're not really in the moment anymore.
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What's the most surprising
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thing about the offline
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club that you learned when you first started?
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I think we mainly started with the idea of the benefits of digital detoxing and slowing down and taking a break from technology and the rushed city life.
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But having organized a lot of events and getting to know our community better, what we've also really found is that there is
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a genuine urge of more genuine human connection. So people really want to
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meet others. They want to
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speak to people outside of their
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algorithms and out of their social bubbles.
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I think
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there's a consequence of our phones and social media that isolate us and polarize the society.
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And it's actually something we didn't expect. It was quite surprising about the whole offline club. Yeah, it's
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almost as if we were sold one big fat massive lie that all the social channels that we have today were meant to connect us
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and make the
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world smaller because everyone is interconnected and they can talk to each other. But yeah, you're absolutely right. Quite the opposite
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is true nowadays.
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you could also call it anti-social media. I do think that it's good to also look at the benefits of social media. It's not bad in itself, but I've read somewhere and what really stuck to me is social
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media and our phones make us ever more connected to everyone around the world, except to the people we're actually with.
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And I thought that was striking because as the example you give,
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there's a family, they're on their phones, they're not with each other, but they're with everyone else
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outside of that room.
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So I think with every technological advancement, we have to ask ourselves at what cost does it come? Because right now it's come to a point where
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social media and the advancements in the algorithms and also in phone use are coming at a cost of what I believe is most important in our lives. And that's mental health, that's contact with others, that's a feeling of
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belonging.
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And right now we're losing
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that and we're getting polarized,
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not only with others, but also within ourselves. So yeah, that's why I think
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let's
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rethink that the way we use technology.
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So I was curious,
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what are the small hacks and workarounds have you figured out to balance your digital life with your non-digital
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life?
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So yeah, offline space is within my home. So in the bedroom, I have no phone. I bought an analog alarm clock to wake me up
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because that's quite important.
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I have no
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notifications for years and years already.
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So I'm the one to choose when to use my phone instead of the phone choosing when I use the device, which allows me to have more focus and
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be more present. I
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just train myself
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independently from my phone.
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So when I go to my tennis practice, which is just for two hours at night, or when I go do groceries, I just don't bring it with me, which makes you realize even though it's a small amount of time that you don't
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need your phone, that people can wait, you
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don't miss anything, you're not as important as you think you are.
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And some nights I just turn it off to kind of create my own offline club. When I just read or draw, and I can just feel my breathing slow down and feel better. I just feel way more fulfilled after a night of some offline time. So it's just small changes in your day-to-day. And there are so many tools out there, like screen time management apps, like Opal, for example,
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but also like phone lockers where you lock up your phone. So it's out of sight, out of mind.
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But if you don't have access to these devices, just try to do it at home, small steps.
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What do you think the state of our digital lives is going to look like in the next, let's say, five to 10 years,
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advancement is something we cannot stop, and I also don't think we should stop it, because it can take for good. It's like a massively important development in our
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society. But you
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do see a huge counter movement, counter culture movement even maybe, developing. And I believe that community-first businesses like the offline club are one of the pioneers in that.
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Just last week, analog wellness was named as the primary wellness trend by the Global Wellness Summit.
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So that shows that
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there are
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two things that
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are moving completely the opposite direction, and they complement each other. So whereas we're improving and evolving our life with technology, I think there's also going to be part of something within us to want to step
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away from screens and step away from notifications. It's also good
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to focus on what is already happening. The
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offline movement is already happening everywhere around the world.
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So our goal and dream is that just like
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there are spaces in cities or within buildings where you're allowed to smoke, there's going to be spaces where you're allowed to use your phone.
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So that's a huge cultural shift that we, as the offline club, hope to contribute to.
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What do you feel is the future of the offline club?
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So we have many dreams.
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It's our mission to bring people together offline and inspire them to change the way we interact with technology and with each other. More concretely, we see a worldwide network of local offline clubs. So everywhere where the offline club really
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serves as people's third space, where they can
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come to disconnect, to meet
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other people, to spend time on their
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hobbies. And apart from
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these physical offline clubs where
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people get together, on the side we also want to really create cultural impact. And ignite a cultural shift where phone free spaces become the norm.
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Yeah, that actually, that's just part of our dreams, but those are the two most important ones.
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It was
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really interesting talking to Ilya and learning about his vision for the future of the offline club. I love this idea that someday phone free spaces could become the norm and not the exception. I'm also curious what you guys think about that. So make sure to drop your thoughts in the comment section below.
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To take
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this idea even further, I sat down with Valentin, one of the co-founders of the offline club, to learn about some of the smaller things that we can do to build better relationships with our devices. Let's check it
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Action. What does
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it say about society that we need companies like the offline club to help us do something that really should be fundamental to being a
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human being, which is
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doing your hobbies, spending downtime with other people around you and talking to strangers? Yeah,
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it just shows what we as people want most in life. And it's not only technological evolution or economic advancement. It's also just simple things in life, experience and coming together, being social.
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Social media,
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for example, has really facilitated connections.
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So it's really succeeded
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in quantity, but not really in quality. And I think that's what all these initiatives, new initiatives shows that we really want quality connection with each other.
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we really aim to achieve is to normalize talking to strangers again. So it
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really is something that we tried to create. But it can be
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simple. We set the
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kind of the perimeters for something like that to happen. I think the structure of the program is very much designed to make people feel comfortable and do their own thing together.
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It's clear that it's also
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meant to connect with others. So people come for it as well. And everybody knows that of each other.
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So there's no really no wrongs or rights there. So I think that really helps here. Seeing an
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uprise of more and more slow movements.
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Can you tell me more about that?
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Well, of course, you know about slow cooking movements.
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Yeah,
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I mean, cooking on the ground,
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being mindful
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about everything, basically, in incorporating it in your daily life. I think that's been an uprising because it's more accessible than it was.
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Meditation always had a bit of a stigma,
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I feel.
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Nowadays, mindfulness is a bit more accessible for people to just do that daily.
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Or I
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think the benefits of doing things slowly is you're really able to enjoy it. And you're focusing on the process rather than the
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result. Making a cup
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of coffee is not only about having a cup of coffee and getting your caffeine in so you can get productive on your day. It's also about taking a moment
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to focus
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on what is in your hands and in your coffee. And also a very big benefit leads me to the next benefit.
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You give your brain time to process stimuli. And I think this is a very important point that we have forgotten in our fast-paced society.
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Nice, man. Thank you so much.
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Appreciate it.
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Spending time with the Offline Club really made me value community and human connection. As the world becomes more and more digitized, these spaces where people can come and connect face to face in real life are starting to feel kind of radical. But maybe that's exactly what we need. So if you like this video, you know what to do. Catch you next time.
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