How I stopped biting my nails and cut down my phone use in six weeks

[@andreagraham9339]

Lifelong nail biter here....changed this not with willpower too...I was late diagnosed Autistic and discovered that nailbiting is a common female autistic stim to manage masking. I manage this now by recognising and managing stress (self awareness, Qigong, quieting down, walks, etc). Unfortunately this also included having to give up my career and loss of income to regain health. I also monitor my phone apps and usage to manage stress. Hope this admission may help someone else.

[@AlisonGreenValleyCrone]

Oh my goodness - your tale of reading leading to looking up something really struck a chord …

[@snapdragonlife]

It’s a gateway activity! Something that seems rational and indeed beneficial but somehow leads to all kinds of nonsense.

[@deebowker768]

Me too! 🤦‍♀️

[@ArtyMpaints]

Funny I just started this week limiting myself to going on my laptop just from 8pm. I'm not too bad with my phone and use it minimally as a phone only as much as I can. I paint, craft, do needle work and crochet. For a long while now I feel I'm lacking creativity, lacking determination and so easily distracted by youtube or google, pintrest etc. I felt I was bombarding myself with too many choices. I work one week on and one week off - this is my week I'm off and what a difference I've found already - creativity has already improved just within few days of mental freedom and the space for peacefulness within my mind. I've painted, drawn thumb nails and contrast sheets and been crocheting. The lack of constant high speed imagery and the high speed taking in of so much contrasting info has brought a peaceful clarity to my mind. In fact I normally come on here just for an hour and a half at 8pm but I was late coming on my laptop because I was engrossed in my painting!!! Love your channel 😃

[@snapdragonlife]

Thank you. How great to hear this. X

[@liz_emf]

Have used the same strategy for nails Jane, you are sooooo right on the willpower stuff, clearly well cared for hands are a game changer.

[@snapdragonlife]

All the colours …..

[@maureenmcgreevy3866]

Habits, I had 3 bad habits, nail biting,smoking & over eating. I managed to stop the first two no bother. I just can't seem to engage the brain as regards food. 😟🙏🤔

[@sunitashastry5270]

You have addressed a very important topic. I think we all have struggled with some of these issues. I have a problem of tossing my clothes on a “ cloth horse “ and making them pile on til I do laundry. My solution: everyday I have to put away two items - every day, just before taking a shower. It has worked - at least it looks slightly better. The motto for me is break it up into a simple step or rule that you can remember and follow. Hope this helps someone out there who reads this.

[@snapdragonlife]

Thanks Sunita x

[@catherineferguson5850]

Jane, I really enjoyed your chatty video. I have been trying to change my circadian rhythm- trying to get earlier and getting up earlier especially since daylight will getting shorter and I think in the winter it’s really good to get outside to get the health benefits of the light. Looking at computer didn’t help and of course as you say you can be looking for information and go down a rabbit hole. Anyway so far I have been getting to bed earlier, getting up earlier and enjoying changing my circadian rhythm. Sorry for the ramble but it definitely good to change a habit.

[@snapdragonlife]

That’s really interesting Catherine x

[@mojow9841]

Thank you, so glad you managed to stop biting your nails. I too was a nail biter and thumb sucker and think that asking myself what purpose does this serve for me helped in quitting ( one day at a time though, there is still the occasional nail that gets bitten) and then finding a different way to manage the emotion. I would agree that it’s so important not to beat yourself up.

[@snapdragonlife]

I’m personally wondering whether I will get a keratin withdrawal having ingested it daily for 50 years!

[@mojow9841]

@@snapdragonlife I hadn’t thought about that !

[@rosea570]

I've just discovered your channel via the YT algorithm, and this was the perfect video to land on! I am a chocoholic - well and truly - to the point that, this week, my doctor told I am now pre-diabetic. My conundrum since then has been: how on earth do I find the willpower to quite chocolate and most other carbs overnight? This video has given my some food for thought about how to approach that. Thank you!

[@snapdragonlife]

Thanks Rose. What a frightening thing to be told - but I do believe that it is reversible and that you can do this. One thing to realise is that you can train out that sweet tooth in a relatively short time - but until you get there you need to have tactics rather than willpower. I eat all chocolate with a side of pistachios now (& only eat 70% plus cocoa chocolate) having read something by Jessie Inchauspe (the glucose goddess) about how that stops the craving cycle. Her book which is called The Glucose Revolution is very good and she has lots of free resources too. Good luck. J x

[@rosea570]

@@snapdragonlife Thank you for the resources and encouragement!

[@janmccann9471]

I love your rambling videos more than anything! Thanks for sharing and encouraging . I agree on the phone topic especially , they are making us lazy and dumb.

[@snapdragonlife]

Thanks so much Jan. I love making them best too ….

[@judybelight8041]

things that help me: keto eating plan, dr. Peter Litchfield for breathing correctly, castor oil on pain areas, sitting still for 5 minutes at a time, forgiving everyone, letting go of the past...

[@snapdragonlife]

Thanks Judy Xx

[@alison64able]

I think you are so right. As human kind just look at people who are waiting or on a bus. We have forgotten the art of making conversation eye to eye 😢

[@snapdragonlife]

I do wonder how much we miss. X

[@TreezaSodah]

Deffo going to try the phone idea cos I’d dearly love my brain back. Thank you so much. Adore the dogs engaging too. Cheers Jane.

[@snapdragonlife]

It’s amazing what an effect it has isn’t it? J x

[@shirley1413]

Great chat I don’t bite my nails however I pick at my cuticles causing a mess. I believe I am autistic, I like the idea of getting your manicure,,and the purple ish color is cool. I have a dumb phone, and I hardly ever look at it,, and lots of time I don’t know where it is. I do spend a lot of time scrolling,, on my iPad,,and I m trying to limit that to useful encouraging and interesting you tubers, such as yourself Jane! Cheers everyone!

[@snapdragonlife]

Thanks Shirley x

[@bettyereece1951]

Happy New Year, Jane! Thank you for this video especially about phone usage behavior! Going to try your approach come January 1! So need to limit much of the time i spend on useless information. So glaf i found you and your work. ❤

[@snapdragonlife]

Thank you Betty. Happy New Year. J x

[@rayanneedwards8542]

Thank you Jane..lots to think about.

[@snapdragonlife]

You are so welcome xx

[@sheenastapleton3828]

Tell us about your table top! I’m fascinated by the pattern/colour . What on earth is the surface made of? Love it! ❤️

[@snapdragonlife]

My parents in law holidayed in Provence for maybe 50 years - keeping a caravan in a campsite there. After they died we took a road trip to sort out the caravan and we wanted to get something to remember them and the place by. We found this very old and battered cafe table in an antique shop. It is too fragile to be outside in Scotland but is perfect for the sitooterie.

[@sheilaslater4439]

Thought provoking and good advice Jane. Enjoying your chat. Sheila x

[@sarahhamblin1939]

Love this Jane!! And I love your dogs ❤😂 I agree about willpower...and I struggle with my phone too - like you on holiday I manage to really restrict it and absolutely love it but somehow it creeps in again when normal life resumes. I have a smart watch now and that does help - it means I can leave my phone in a different room, but I still know if there's an important call/message and I can decide if it needs an instant response...or usually not! And I still get to track my steps, see the time etc - I was finding I would pull out my phone literally to check the time then start checking social media 🙈😫 it's a constant battle for me...Will persevere!!!xx

[@snapdragonlife]

I also find that a smart watch is useful - especially with maps - in Naples I had been worried that I would look ‘like a tourist’ too much and I had recently seen a Japanese couple mugged in London while looking at a map on their phone. The watch just buzzes and lets me know when and which direction to turn. I have a very bad sense of direction.

[@ursulaclark287]

I really enjoyed this video. It resonated with me on so many levels, even down to the barking dogs! I credit you with breaking my nail biting habit of more than 5 decades. Thank you! I hated my bitten nails but couldn't break the habit. Then, having watched you and having read the comments I just went out and bought some nail varnish in a beautiful deep red, plus a manicure set. I gave myself a few days to let my nails grow a little bit then painted them (the right hand is tidier than the left, being left-handed but a man on a galloping horse wouldn't notice, as my late mother-in-law would say) and I haven't looked back. I am more conscious of my hands now but in a good way so that I want to keep them looking nice and I'm prepared to set aside some time to do that for myself. Now let's see about tackling the distracting phone... 😂

[@snapdragonlife]

This makes me so happy Ursula. Xxx

[@andreagraham9339]

PS when I am reading or out for a walk and think of something I want to "google" for more info, I now jot it down in a notebook and look it up later online, or usually in a book.

[@snapdragonlife]

That’s a great idea x

[@melindawycoff5627]

You are so correct about email and for me, even text messages. When I answer on the fly, I don’t have all the information I need and my spelling is atrocious because I sometimes am in the car on the side of the road or don’t have my glasses on.

[@snapdragonlife]

Exactly! It’s such a bad habit to get into for all kinds of reasons x

[@Kumal7]

So impressed that you read 13 books on holiday! I find it hard to read as much as I used to and only get through about one book a week. I don't spend a lot of time reading stuff on my phone but I do listen to a lot of podcasts now.

[@sunitashastry5270]

If you want to read more, set up a block of time for it. Ie an alarm on your phone for say 1 hour. Then sit and decide you won’t get up for that one hour. You may get so engrossed in the book that you keep on beyond the one hour. Or you find, you cannot read for one hour. Both are useful information - you then adjust accordingly. Ie if you move something from a habit into the rational realm, you are more likely to control it.

[@snapdragonlife]

I love reading - and am admittedly a very fast reader, though not when I’m distracted by my phone! X

[@bertiebloobell3285]

I really enjoyed this chatty video!! I absolutely agree regarding the phones. I can be looking at Instagram and suddenly think….why am I staring at all this and just scrolling and scrolling! 😮 And I have seen myself doing exactly the same thing whilst reading my book too. Certainly food for thought! Anyways, off to paint my nails now! 😆 You’ve inspired me to go pretty up my rather dry and rough polytunneling hands! x

[@snapdragonlife]

Creativity & joy is so much about colour for me - so adding nails to the list of things that I can ‘colour in’ is wonderful. X

[@mollieanne]

Oh my, I can relate to the nail biting. I finally stopped in my 40's but when anxious I do it and tell myself to stop. Also, for me when I video I do want my nails to look okay. I think it is an anxious habit. I had been a nail biter since a child too and my mom would put the ucky tasting stuff on them so I would quit, but that never worked. I was a very anxious child and always will be an anxious person. But now I have learned to live with it, but do have flareups with anxiety at times now even at 55. I was glad my children did not bite their nails. I know it actually worried my mom. I am glad you were able to stop also. I am post-menopause now, but peri-menopause was even worse with the hormonal ups and downs. However, yes more tired than I ever had been in my life now. I suppose it will be like this so acceptance is huge when we are getting older. Sometimes hard to accept and then I push myself too much. I try to use humor though which helps also with aging. Thanks for this video Jane!

[@snapdragonlife]

Thanks Mollie Anne. I think that bitter nail biting deterrent wasn’t a great success for anyone! X

[@sherryallen4537]

Hello Jane, I too am a life long nail biter! I am nearly 60 and have never stopped for more than a week. My mom and 3 sisters always had beautiful long nails they would polish. I never did, only for my wedding did I get fake nails and one of them lasted only 1 day! It seemed to bother other people more than myself. I do it unconciously when I am nervous or worried. As for the phone, I never was a big phone person before cell phones so now I only use it for important calls, text my husband and sisters. I don't have any apps. The computer can draw me in sometimes to browse shopping channels that I should stop!! All the best to from Massachusetts! 😊🌲🌳

[@snapdragonlife]

Thanks Sherry. X

[@JulieVann-tq7rk]

This was great, Jane. Love those nails and totally agree that keeping emails off your phone is wise. I have never had them on my phone dating back to when I ran my own garden design business and wanted to keep my emails for office time only, not when I was out and about. My question is, how do your keep those nails so perfect when you are gardening?! I gave up on that a long time ago!!😅Julie

[@snapdragonlife]

I’m wearing gloves for the first time. A secondary thing that I wanted was to be much more disciplined in wearing gloves when dyeing - I’m increasingly aware that I don’t know what is absorbed through my hands and I think that I have been foolish about that because I don’t like gloves. I always claimed that I couldn’t garden in gloves but in reality I got used to them very quickly!

[@JulieVann-tq7rk]

@@snapdragonlife Right, I did wonder if you wore gloves. Thanks!

[@margaretmcgregor5686]

Enjoyed the chat very much. I recently got a new phone and I am not as techy as you obviously are and I went armed with a list - a short one 😊 of the Apps i wanted and the lovely guy in the shop sorted it out for me - and yet..... it's email that needs more attention - i don't drive and shop online a lot and I subscrbe to some KZbin channel newsletters - so a bit more work on that aspect is needed and not having newsfeed popping up. You are a delight and part of my week and not going anywhere ❤️ but a cull of news is a good idea i think. Big love from the East of Scotland ❤

[@snapdragonlife]

Thanks Margaret - which bit of the East? I’m headed over to East Lothian on Monday, hoping to fit in a dog walk on a beach.

[@margaretmcgregor5686]

​@snapdragonlife a bit further north east - Broughty Ferry nowadays a suburb of Dundee really although it has it's own shops, cafes etc. And the esplanade is very nice after a revamp - it extends to Monifieth, a little town further on up the coast and Carnoustie, where I was brought up just a bit further on. 😊

[@catherinewalker4526]

Hi Jane! I’ve just given up on a habit tracking system after just one week ( I thought ticking little boxes every day would help!) How timely your videos always are… Thank you!

[@snapdragonlife]

Ah habit tracking tick boxes! I think they work for a very particular type of brain - but they don’t work for me either, I have always lost the sheet of paper or forgotten about it and realistically I don’t care enough about consistency or neatness for it to be an incentive.

[@jenhanlon3840]

I totally agree with the phone issues. I go down various rabbit holes daily…How many people have you bumped into in the shops, street etc, too, who are looking at the phone and not where they are going? It’s quite disturbing 😳 I think I might take a leaf out of your book and be braver pressing that delete button 😊

[@snapdragonlife]

I just feel I miss out on so much - if I have my phone in a cafe I will faff about on that, if I don’t, or if my phone is hobbled enough to become demagnetised, then I watch people and I love doing that, it’s so entertaining and you learn so much and if I’ve remembered my notebook I also write and plan x

[@jenhanlon3840]

@@snapdragonlife exactly. You see so many people together not even talking to each other too. I try and get one solo cafe trip maybe once a week to sit with myself! I like her company and wouldn’t it be rude if you took your phone out and ignored her 😂

[@mrsrabbitsmoments8854]

Hello Jane...i love your chatty video's and im adopting a chatty response/comment.❤ Love that you're reclaiming your nails...they do look wonderful. Occasionally i have mine "done" but Im not anymore..well since learning what damage the UV curing machine does😱 ill be painting my own (it doesn't last as well of course but nevermind) I want to walk more...its a bit of a thing....since lockdown etc not walking as i did before. So changing my habits...I've volunteered at the local primary schools after school art club and im walking there and back 😅 Please share your gorgeous blouse info...since ive stopped dyeing my hair... and gone white...im drawn to wearing all the blues. Completely agree about phone...re Google...im looking stuff up all the time...i should be some sort of Oracle ...instead i simply have zero concentration and cant read a book. Anyway thats enough....take care xx

[@snapdragonlife]

Thank you. The blouse is actually a man’s shirt by Anokhi - I bought it second hand. X

[@sheilaslater4439]

Ps is your pot plant amarilis?

[@snapdragonlife]

The pot plant is an amaryllis- blooming out of season. I planted it hoping it would flower January/February and it decided to bloom in March when I was out of the country. So I came back to shrivelled flowers, cut them off and relegated it to under the sitooterie table. Then a couple of weeks ago I noticed it had a shoot and gave the poor thing a drink and here we are - an amaryllis flower in October. It’s very elegant and I’m delighted to see it in flower!

[@mollieanne]

@@snapdragonlife Awe, love that

[@romanaannanova]

Nail biting is a form of addiction, just like the phone use or smoking, and addictions are driven by the subconscious. Consciously we don't want to do any of the things that sabotage our life but the subconscious is stronger. I think the conscious mind controls only about 5 or 10% of our thoughts and actions, so it's tiny and weak compared to what is going on under the radar. So no, will power has nothing to do with overcoming habits, not unless it can reach the subconscious levels where the habitual patterns originate from, and that happens very rarely imho.

[@snapdragonlife]

I think that the idea of willpower has been a very damaging one - a very powerful idea promoted by society to blame people for various things rather than having to shift the cultural norms.

[@mollieanne]

Jane I agree. Great insight on it @romanaannanova

[@romanaannanova]

@@snapdragonlife Precisely so. If all the industries that are supposedly dealing with mental health and addiction were to admit what the true source of it is, they'd have to unleash the truth that we live in a backwards self-destructive society, and the corporations who fund the academia to push their profitable narrative of what health supposedly is would not like that...