About

As a husband and wife with two young children, we have learned to appreciate the precious time we have together as a small family. Raise Your Gaze is a passion project for us - a definitive line in the sand saying we have had enough with the amount of attention we have allowed our phones to take from us. 

 

Technology can be an amazing tool in our everyday lives: a helpful resource when drafting a paper for school, a portal for DIY project inspiration, and an essential tool for communication and productivity at the office. Despite its benefits in the right situations, we are keenly aware of the negative impact that technology can have on our day-to-day lives. The seemingly satisfying dopamine cycle is a powerful reinforcement mechanism. It is so easy to hand ourselves over to the feeling of fleeting pleasure we experience from mindless doomscrolling. Pleasure in the moment, we have learned, does not equate to satisfaction in the long term. There have been too many needlessly long nights of binge watching shows or evenings spent silently sitting next to each other on the couch attending to our own devices. We can feel frustrated by this vicious cycle, but all too often we find ourselves coming back for more of the same emptiness the very next day.

 

We have since committed ourselves to living an intentional, balanced life and invite you to join us on your own journey. The effects of our transition have been profound: more sleep, less frustration with ourselves, more focused time with our kids and spouse, a renewed sense of self control, free time to pursue meaningful activities, and a life full of meaning we are proud to be living. Thinking back on our most cherished memories growing up, they all involve time with family, not time with electronics. This made us think: what kind of memories do we want to make with our children? What example do we want to set for them when the day comes that they are allowed to have personal devices? It will be much easier to set healthy boundaries and expectations around our kids' electronics use if we are providing strong examples throughout their childhood of a healthy detachment from our own phones.

 

We have seen first hand that attention is sacred. A parent's attention is their children's currency. They are observant from a very young age, and they take note when mom and dad are seemingly more interested in a phone than in interacting with them. Making these changes is not the easy path. It takes incredible effort and willpower to prioritize these ascetic practices. But what many of us need is to reprioritize our life, starting with our attention. Let's gain back control over ourselves and commit to focusing on what is truly important in our lives. Together, let's Raise Our Gaze.