Step Outside the Algorithm

Why Changing Your Scenery Changes Everything

Jul 22, 2025

We all know the days when we are tired, exhausted, & unmotivated to accomplish even small tasks. We chase dopamine through our phones & the endless scroll of social media. Staying locked into the couch, chair, or bed & watching other people live their lives to the fullest. We’ve all experienced those days & that’s ok. We don’t have to live a fulfulling life every moment or second of every day. We are allowed days to rest & relax. We’re allowed to be lazy & sit back while the world goes on around us. But imagine you’re standing in front of a waterfall on a warm summer morning with the sun kissing your cheeks & the bugs surprisingly leaving you alone. Those moments are cherished & loved more than watching someone else chasing waterfalls.

What are we doing with our lives? Chasing likes, follows, & comments? Or are we chasing more life?

Being born & raised in the hustle of a city makes nature & adventures all the more fun. When you can change your scenery, even for a few hours, you might notice subtle changes in your attitude & outlook on life. You may feel more at peace standing with your feet in a river than with your feet locked in an upward position sitting on a comfy couch. Have you ever felt like you had mental blocks & unable to think of something creative? It may be because you’re lacking the necessary inspiration from the world around you. Nature for example is beautiful & a lot of artists dedicate their entire lives to capturing & painting realistic paintings of some of the more gorgeous looking places on the planet. The simple act of walking in nature can reset your mind & cause sparks of creativity to fly. Being around the sounds of birds chirping & crickets is a vast change in the everyday sounds of a city. The horns from buses & cars, the sounds of construction on what feels like every corner, & the sirens from different local emergency organizations rushing to perform their duties to the best of their abilities, most of the time.

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Chasing validation from people on the internet can only harm your creative process & force you to make decisions based on what other people may want from you. I have to remind myself that I hardly know the large majority of people that I follow online & we may never actually meet in person. Why would I let someone who I don’t know dictate my actions & thoughts? I find it unhealthy to cater to those strangers. Of course the likes & comments are nice to see pop up on your phone from time to time, but the raw beauty & dopamine rush from standing on a cliff or climbing a mountain is incomparable. One is a real world experience, while the other is metric shown to you to in hopes of keeping you engaged on their website or app just a few minutes longer. Have you ever noticed when you’re on your phone for a little while, the moment you put it down, you get a notification from something completely random? I used to think that they had impeccable timing & knew just how to hook me back in. That’s true, they really are trying to hook you back in by making you pick your phone back up.

If you have an iPhone you may check on your screen time every Sunday when the notification is defaulted to go off. But within that app, you can see the amount of times you picked up your phone. An actual counter to the amount of times you picked up your phone & unlocked it. It’s scary to know that your phone is tracking data that seems so irrelevant at first-glance, but the trends in that graph can tell your phone the best ways & times to get you attracted to your phone.

We’ve all seen dozens of people walking down a crowed & busy main street with their heads buried into their phones so deep they can barely seen a few feet in front of them. Or what about those people who are sitting at an event & their faces glued to their phone screens instead of the world around them. My aunt, bless her heart, hosts all of the family events at her house because of the abundance of space. She has a rule for family outings, NO PHONES! Of course you can take pictures & videos or take phone calls & facetimes from people. But if you’re sitting at a table or poolside, you better not be seen with your phone in your hand. Nothing serious ever happens, but it’s a gentle reminder to focus on your loved ones & the world around you.

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If you’ve made it this far into the article, I have a challenge for you. I want to see if you can find 3 things this week. Running water in nature, a fallen tree, & any variety of flowers. Take a picture of them, the best way you can. After you’ve done that, I want you to reflect on the hunt you just accomplished made you feel. Were you tired of it? Did you find it challenging? Where did you have to go to find all of those things? Will you encourage someone else to spend more time outside instead of on their phones?

If you’ve reflected on those things & felt like they had a positive impact on your life, you should think about spending more time finding beauty in the world around you, instead of looking at the beauty other people are finding online. Hell, you might not even like the challenge at the end of it & it will have served you no purpose. But you can say you tried & gave it your best effort. There is no shame in finding no pleasure in the outdoors, it’s not for everyone. But I will reiterate that it’s comforting to many & helps provide mental clarity.

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Searching for mycology gives me a reason to be in the woods. It helps give me a purpose for wondering the thick brush of trees, leaves, & streams. I feel like I’m on a scavenger hunt & the reward is the picture. Mushrooms are very common in New England & escpially in the Western Part of MA. It’s home to a wide variety of different cultivars that can be viewed, eaten, & experienced by anyone with a set of eyes & legs. I hardely ever pick mushrooms because they are living organisms & I don’t need to disturb their eco-system to enjoy their beauty. I did however find this one mushroom that was partially knocked over & appeared to be the Northeast version of the Amanita muscaria. I took a bunch of images & uploaded them to Google, every time it came back as a version of Amanita muscaria. After it dried up on the kitchen counter a few days later, I had second-thoughts about the origin of it’s species & decided not to consume the wild mushroom. Probably for the better. I heard the Amanita muscaria varieties of psychedelic mushrooms weren’t pleasant & can sometimes cause the large loss of stomach fluids.

I’m no life coach & I don’t think I’m qualified to give any advice on how to live a better life. With that being said, here are some tips I use to Log Out & Tune In.

Going to a new location
1. Look at google maps or Apple maps & find a place that looks interesting but you’ve never explored before. It could be a fancy restaurant, or a new park a few miles down the road. Just scroll through the map & find a random coordinate, you’d be surprised where you end up
Put your phone down
1. Hide your phone somewhere. Ask your loved one or family members to keep track of your phone for an hour per day. Start small & work your way up to more time away from your phone. Even with just an hour, you can come up with new ways to fill your time & life your life. Might even think of new ways to make money & supplement your lifestyle.
Take pictures & videos
1. This one may seem counterproductive, but take pictures for yourself & the memories. Don’t do it because you saw someone else do it on Instagram or you want to make a cool post on Reddit. I bring my DJI Mavic Mini 2 Drone everywhere now & can’t wait to fly it in undiscovered locations. You don’t need fancy equipment either. Take pictures for yourself, print them out, & hang them up in your homes. Now when someone stops over & asks what this picture about, you have a short story about the time you took an adventure & seen beautiful things.
Carry a journal or sketchbook
1. Make it pocket-sized & use it whenever you get the urge to take out your phone. This technique has helped me seriuosuly reduce the amount of screen time weekly & make me more creative. I find myself jotting down thoughts & ideas for my Substack or drawing concepts to paint or sketch. I’m a lover of the Canson XL Mix Media sketchbooks from Michaels. They come in a wide variety of sizes & the pages are perfect for posca paint makers, pencils, watercolors, & ink pens. If you’re reading this in July of 2025, they are currently on sale & you can save 25% off of one! Or if you’re in the mood, they have Buy One, Get One 50% off. Best offer for the artist or writer in your family or life.