The Link Between Smartphones and Leopards Life

Let’s talk about evolution Leopard!

For the last few years I've found myself talking about two subjects more than any others.

The first is children's smartphone use.

The second is Leopards Life – a business that grew from a question I spent years trying to answer myself:

"What do I need to do to become the healthiest version of me?"

Like many people, I went searching for answers and quickly became overwhelmed. There was no shortage of advice. Move more. Eat differently. Sleep better. Meditate. Journal. Lift weights. Walk. Take supplements. Reduce stress.

The problem wasn't a lack of information. It was figuring out what mattered most and what was right for me.

Eventually I stopped looking at health as a collection of separate topics and started looking at the human being as a system.

Every system has inputs, outputs, variables and controls.

The human system is perhaps the most extraordinary design ever created. Over hundreds of thousands of years, evolution shaped us to thrive in certain environments and under certain conditions.

We are designed for movement.

We are designed for daylight.

We are designed for face-to-face connection.

We are designed for purpose, challenge and recovery.

We are designed for periods of focus and, occasionally, even boredom.

When I started looking at health through this lens, something became obvious.

Many of the challenges we face today are not because humans are broken. They're because the environment around us has changed faster than we can adapt.

And that brings me to smartphones.

People sometimes ask why someone running a wellbeing business spends so much time campaigning around children's smartphone use.

The answer is simple.

Because smartphones are not just a technology issue. They are a wellbeing issue.

In little more than a decade, we've introduced a device that influences how we sleep, move, connect, communicate, learn, relax and spend our attention.

For adults this can be challenging.

For children, whose brains are still developing, the impact may be even greater.

This isn't about being anti-technology. I use technology every day and I'm grateful for what it allows us to do.

It's about making sure technology remains a tool that serves us, rather than something that quietly begins to shape our lives without us noticing.

In many ways, that's exactly what Leopards Life is about.

Leopards Life helps people strengthen the habits and environments that support human health and wellbeing – movement, daylight, sleep, connection, purpose and recovery.

That's why many of the personalised daily habits within Leopards Life include some form of technology awareness. Not because phones are bad, but because attention is one of our most valuable resources.

The goal is not to reject modern life.

The goal is to live well within it.

If adults sometimes struggle to manage their relationship with technology, it shouldn't surprise us that children need support too.

That's why I've become involved with Smartphone Free Childhood and why I've worked hard to keep my own three children as free from smartphones as possible during their early years.

At first glance, campaigning for children and running a wellbeing business might seem like two separate things.

To me, they're not.

Both come from the same belief:

Human beings thrive when the environments around them support the way they were designed to live.