Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Power of Off
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://nancycolier.com/
CITY: New York
STATE: NY
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://nancycolier.com/about-me/ * https://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/nancy-colier-lcsw-rev
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2012034286
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2012034286
HEADING: Colier, Nancy
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100 1_ |a Colier, Nancy
670 __ |a Inviting a monkey to tea, c2012: |b eCIP t.p. (Nancy Colier) data view screen (psychotherapist, interfaith minister, author and public speaker; a long time student of eastern spirituality, Nancy also spent 20 years as a nationally recognized, top-level equestrian, and has vast training in performance psychology and flow states; her writing has been featured in numerous publications; she writes a regular blog for The Huffington Post and offers talks and workshops regularly)
953 __ |a xj13
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:Graduate of University of Virginia, Columbia University School of Social Work, Focusing Institute, and One Spirit Interfaith Seminary.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Psychotherapist, minister, educator, and writer. Former competitive equestrian; works as interfaith minister, mindfulness teacher, and relationship coach.
WRITINGS
Blogs at Psychology Today and Huffington Post.
SIDELIGHTS
Psychotherapist, mindfulness teacher. and interfaith minister Nancy Colier advises clients on how to “uncover the awareness, joy and presence that is the ground of well-being,” according to her home page. In her book The Power of Off: The Mindful Way to Stay Sane in a Virtual World, she posits that part of this process is disconnecting from electronic devices, such as personal computers and smartphones, at least part of the time. She details the omnipresence of electronics in modern life. “Most people now check their smartphones 150 times per day, or every six minutes,” she writes. “And young adults are now sending an average of 110 texts per day.” She tells of one client who receives a thousand e-mails a day; responding to them all would leave her no time for any other task. She points out that children spend so much time playing video games that it can be characterized as an addiction—and among many problems and negative effects, this is a sedentary activity.
She does not suggest giving up electronic devices; rather, she proposes setting aside time to be without them, to interact with people in the real world or to be alone and think about what really matters in life. “It’s connections to other human beings—real-life connections, not digital ones—that nourish us and make us feel like we count,” she told New York Times interviewer Jane Brody. “Our presence, our full attention is the most important thing we can give each other. Digital communications don’t result in deeper connections, in feeling loved and supported.” Colier further noted: “Without open spaces and downtime, the nervous system never shuts down—it’s in constant fight-or-flight mode. We’re wired and tired all the time. Even computers reboot, but we’re not doing it.” In the book, she offers incremental steps for reducing use of electronic communications: recognizing how much of this communication is necessary versus how much is merely a distraction; avoiding use of smartphones or other electronics during meals or visits with friends; and becoming conscious of other activities that may be more satisfying, and then engaging in them. She conveys her message with numerous anecdotes and bits of humor.
Several critics found The Power of Off a common-sense, accessible guide to decreasing dependence on technology. Colier “paints a vivid picture of how addicted we have become to our electronic devices,” observed a Publishers Weekly contributor, adding that Colier has a “thought-provoking viewpoint on the subject.” MBR Bookwatch reviewer Mary Cowper termed the book “timely and potentially life-changing” as well as “thoroughly ‘reader friendly.'” Brody summed it up as “enlightening.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
MBR Bookwatch, March, 2017, Mary Cowper, review of The Power of Off: The Mindful Way to Stay Sane in a Virtual World.
New York Times, January 10, 2017, Jane Brody, “Curbing Our Digital Dependence,” p. D5.
Publishers Weekly, August 29, 2016, review of The Power of Off, p. 79.
ONLINE
Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ (June 7, 2017), author profile.
Nancy Colier Home Page, http://nancycolier.com (June 7, 2017).
Psychology Today Online, https://www.psychologytoday.com/ (June 7, 2017), author profile.
Quoted in Sidelights: uncover the awareness, joy and presence that is the ground of well-being
Nancy Colier is a psychotherapist in private practice, an ordained interfaith minister, mindfulness teacher, relationship coach, author and blogger. She graduated from the University of Virginia, Columbia University School of Social Work, the Focusing Institute and One Spirit Interfaith Seminary. Mindfulness and Buddhist practices form the ground of her psychotherapy and spiritual counseling practice. A long time student of eastern spirituality and non-duality, Nancy helps to uncover the awareness, joy and presence that is the ground of well-being. Her work serves to connect clients with their authentic truth, remember their body’s wisdom. and know for themselves that they are spiritual beings on a human journey.
BK04934-Power-of-Off-frontlist-cover
In addition to offering workshops and ongoing groups, Nancy is a regular blogger for Huffington Post and Psychology Today, and also the author of “Getting Out of Your Own Way: Unlocking Your True Performance Potential” (Luminous Press, 2001), “Inviting a Monkey to Tea: Befriending Your Mind and Discovering Lasting Contentment” (Hohm Press, 2012) and her upcoming book: “The Power of Off: The Mindful Way to Stay Sane in a Virtual World” (Sounds True Publishing, November, 2016). Publishers Weekly review for The Power of Off.
Nancy also spent 20 years as a top-level equestrian, showing horses on the national horse show circuit. In addition to her own vast experience in sport, she has extensive training in the field of performance psychology. Her specialties include performing artists, athletes, musicians and singers.
Nancy Colier is a psychotherapist, interfaith minister, author and public speaker. A longtime student and practitioner of Eastern spirituality, she teaches classes in mindfulness, meditation, and non-dual awareness. Nancy writes a regular blog for the Huffington Post and Psychology Today, and is the author of The Power of Off: The Mindful Way to Stay Sane in a Virtual World, 2016 (Sounds True Publishing), Inviting a Monkey to Tea: Befriending Your Mind and Discovering Lasting Contentment, 2012 (Hohm Press) and also, Getting Out of Your Own Way: Unlocking Your True Performance Potential, 2001 (Luminous Press). In addition, Nancy spent 25 years as a top-ranked equestrian on the national horse show circuit and serves as a performance consultant to competitive athletes and professional artists.
Nancy Colier is a psychotherapist, interfaith minister, author, public speaker, and workshop leader. A longtime student of Eastern spirituality, awareness, meditation and mindfulness practices form the ground of her work. She is a regular blogger for Psychology Today and the Huffington Post. She is the author of The Power of Off: The Mindful Way to Stay Sane in a Virtual World (Sounds True Publishing, Nov, 2016), Inviting a Monkey to Tea: Befriending Your Mind and Discovering Lasting Contentment (Hohm Press, 2012) and also, Getting Out of Your Own Way: Unlocking Your True Performance Potential (Luminous Press, 2001). In addition, Nancy spent 25 years as a top-ranked equestrian on the national horse show circuit and serves as a performance consultant to competitive athletes and professional artists. She is available for individual psychotherapy, mindfulness training, spiritual counseling, public speaking and group workshops. She also works with clients via Skype around the world.
The Power of Off
Mary Cowper
MBR Bookwatch.
(Mar. 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
The Power of Off
Nancy Colier
Sounds True
413 South Arthur Avenue, Louisville, CO 80027
www.soundstrue.com
9781622037957, $16.95, PB, 256pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: In just the last twenty years our reliance on technology has rapidly changed how each of us experiences life. And this rate of change is
accelerating.
We're facing new issues and difficulties, we're encountering new emotional triggers, and we're relating to each other in new ways. The promise of
technology is that it will make our lives easier; yet to realize that promise, we cannot be passive users--we must bring awareness and mindfulness
to our relationships with our devices.
"The Power of Off: The Mindful Way to Stay Sane in a Virtual World" explores: How and why today's devices push our buttons so effectively,
and what you can do to take back control of your life; Tips for navigating the increasingly complex ways in which technology is affecting our
relationships with ourselves, others, and our devices themselves; Self-evaluation tools for bringing greater awareness to your use of technology;
5/14/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1494794038211 2/3
Mindfulness practices for helping you interact with your devices in more conscious ways; A 30-day digital detox program to kick-start a new
healthier relationship with technology.
"The Power of Off" sounds the call for wakefulness, reminding us that we can use technology in a way that promotes, rather than detracts from,
our well-being. "The Power of Off" provides an essential resource for anyone wanting to create a more empowered relationship with technology
in the digital age.
Critique: Nancy Colier is a psychotherapist, interfaith minister, author, and veteran mediator who draws upon her years of experience and
expertise to write a timely and potentially life-changing self-help instructional guide that is thoroughly 'reader friendly' in tone, organization and
presentation. While very highly recommended for both community, college, and university library collections, it should be noted for personal
reading lists that "The Power Is Off" is also available in a Kindle format ($9.99).
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Cowper, Mary. "The Power of Off." MBR Bookwatch, Mar. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA491086777&it=r&asid=69791c1a9bfb769ac830974184020290. Accessed 14 May
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491086777
---
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The Power of Off: The Mindful Way to Stay Sane in a
Virtual World
Publishers Weekly.
263.35 (Aug. 29, 2016): p79.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Power of Off: The Mindful Way to Stay Sane in a Virtual World
Nancy Colier. Sounds True, $16.95 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-62203-795-7
Psychotherapist Colier (Inviting a Monkey to Tea) paints a vivid picture of how addicted we have become to our electronic devices, checking
emails and sending text messages to the point of neglecting what is truly important. To illustrate the overwhelming nature of modern
communications, Colier reports that one of her high-powered clients receives more than 1,000 emails every day, and if she responded to every
one, she wouldn't have any time left. Colier suggests powering off regularly and pondering such questions as "What really matters?" and "What is
my heart's longing?" while at the same time engaging in a healthy, less obsessive relationship with technology. The majority of the book focuses
on how people relate to each other online, while the last part, which could be a book of its own, presents a toolkit for practicing mindfulness as a
means of unplugging from digital media. Sprinkled throughout are amusing anecdotes of technology obsessions and lists of questions to ponder.
Readers fascinated by how digital technology has changed the world, particularly everyday human interaction, will appreciate the author's
thought-provoking viewpoint. (Nov.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Power of Off: The Mindful Way to Stay Sane in a Virtual World." Publishers Weekly, 29 Aug. 2016, p. 79+. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA462236481&it=r&asid=3bc60e52a1422159fcee7963d17c94cd. Accessed 14 May
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A462236481
Hooked on Our Smartphones
Personal Health
By JANE E. BRODY JAN. 9, 2017
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The many men, women and children who spend their days glued to their smartphones and social media accounts might learn something from Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the groundbreaking megahit “Hamilton.” Asked in an interview with Delta Sky magazine when and where he finds time to be creative, Mr. Miranda, an avid reader of books and enthusiast for unfettered downtime, replied: “The good idea comes in the moment of rest. It comes in the shower. It comes when you’re doodling or playing trains with your son. ‘Hamilton’ forced me to double down on being awake to the inspirations of just living my life.”
Mr. Miranda’s observation bodes ill for the future, not just of creativity but also of healthy bodies, minds and relationships. No doubt you’ve seen the following scenarios, probably many times:
• Young couples out to dinner pull out their smartphones to check messages, emails and social networks even before scanning the menu, and check their phones repeatedly throughout the meal.
• Shoppers and commuters standing in line, people crossing busy streets, even cyclists and drivers whose eyes are on their phones instead of their surroundings.
• Toddlers in strollers playing with a digital device — a parent’s or perhaps even their own — instead of observing and learning from the world around them.
Continue reading the main story
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RECENT COMMENTS
improv58 April 20, 2017
I kicked the social media habit but still use the smartphone as an iPod for listening to streaming music, for writing ideas or lyrics or...
Janet March 20, 2017
I would like Joan Didion or other philosophy writers to analyze this "addiction." What does it mean that people are glued to their devices?...
M January 26, 2017
When I was 15 and, ahem, very rabidly "curious" about the opposite sex, I somehow convinced another 15 year old female to disrobe with me...
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• People walking down the street with eyes on their phones, bumping into others, tripping over or crashing into obstacles.
Observations like these have prompted a New York psychotherapist to ask, “What really matters?” in life. In her enlightening new book, “The Power of Off,” Nancy Colier observes that “we are spending far too much of our time doing things that don’t really matter to us.” Both in and outside her practice, she has encountered many people who have become “disconnected from what really matters, from what makes us feel nourished and grounded as human beings.”
The near-universal access to digital technology, starting at ever younger ages, is transforming modern society in ways that can have negative effects on physical and mental health, neurological development and personal relationships, not to mention safety on our roads and sidewalks.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m no Luddite. I love technology. I love the convenience and assistance afforded by the myriad apps on my cellphone, a pocket-size information bank. I remember being amazed, as a Times reporter back in the early 1980s, when I started using word processing and realized how much faster I could write an article. Now computers save tons of time and effort and avert countless embarrassing errors because I can look up facts, figures, spelling, definitions and scholarly publications without leaving my ergonomic chair.
But I also love putting my computer in sleep mode and going for a walk with my dog, meeting and chatting with friends, acquaintances and strangers, some of whom have become friends.
As with so much else in life, moderation in our digital world should be the hallmark of a healthy relationship with technology. Too many of us have become slaves to the devices that were supposed to free us, giving us more time to experience life and the people we love. Instead, we’re constantly bombarded by bells, buzzes and chimes that alert us to messages we feel compelled to view and respond to immediately.
“Most people now check their smartphones 150 times per day, or every six minutes,” Ms. Colier wrote. “And young adults are now sending an average of 110 texts per day.” Furthermore, she added, “46 percent of smartphone users now say that their devices are something they ‘couldn’t live without.’”
In “The World Unplugged Project,” investigators at the University of Maryland reported that “a clear majority” of students in the 10 countries studied experienced distress when they tried to go without their devices for 24 hours. One in three people admitted they’d rather give up sex than their smartphones.
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SEE SAMPLE PRIVACY POLICY
I fear we are turning into digital robots. Will future generations know how to converse with one another face to face? Will they notice the birds, trees, sunrise and the people with whom they share the planet?
Instead of visiting art galleries, attending concerts or walking on picturesque wooded paths, one woman I know who came to Woodstock, N.Y., last summer spent the weekend on her iPad communing with her many “friends” on Facebook. All I could think was “What a waste!”
Why, you may ask, is it so important to limit our digital lives? “Without open spaces and downtime, the nervous system never shuts down — it’s in constant fight-or-flight mode,” Ms. Colier said in an interview. “We’re wired and tired all the time. Even computers reboot, but we’re not doing it.”
She continued, “It’s connections to other human beings — real-life connections, not digital ones — that nourish us and make us feel like we count. Our presence, our full attention is the most important thing we can give each other. Digital communications don’t result in deeper connections, in feeling loved and supported.”
How often is your real work interrupted by signals from your smartphone that you find impossible to ignore? Have you ever avoided intimacy with your partner because you’re in the midst of iPhone Scrabble? Is endlessly snapping selfies and posting your every action and thought on social media creating an unhealthy self-centeredness?
As for physical well-being, every hour spent on a device is likely to be an indoor, sedentary one. Screens are stealing time that children and adolescents should be spending on physical activity and sports, reading, or creating and engaging directly with other children, all of which are critical to healthy physical and social development.
“Children who overuse online media are at risk of problematic internet use, and heavy users of video games are at risk of internet gaming disorder” (translation: addiction), the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote in its latest policy statement on media use.
Ms. Colier, a licensed clinical social worker, said, “The only difference between digital addiction and other addictions is that this is a socially condoned behavior.” While her book contains a 30-day digital detox program, in our interview she offered three steps to help curb one’s digital dependence.
1. Start by recognizing how much digital use is really needed, say, for work or navigation or letting family members know you’re O.K., and what is merely a habit of responding, posting and self-distraction.
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2. Make little changes. Refrain from using your device while eating or spending time with friends, and add one thing a day that’s done without the phone.
3. Become very conscious of what is important to you, what really nourishes you, and devote more time and attention to it.
A version of this article appears in print on January 10, 2017, on Page D5 of the New York edition with the headline: Curbing Our Digital Dependence. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe