“The emotional benefits of taking breaks from technology are…significant. Research has found that taking breaks from technology can lower anxiety levels; the American Psychological Association even provided evidence that disconnection can result in lowered (and lessened) stress and relaxing emotionality.”
– Green Calm Vibes (Online Magazine, September 24, 2025)
By virtue of our business coaching, VIM Executive Coaching must keep abreast of the latest trends in the workplace. It isn’t often that we get to report good news, but the latest trend may also be the oldest and best. We will join the chorus of those who are being urged to “touch grass.”
Writer and social media expert Catriona Morton recently stated, “To be told to touch grass is intended as an insult for people who spend too much time online, disconnected from the reality outside their pixelated screens.”
How did society and executive leaders in particular, get to the point where the digital and the technological become more real than the actual? If you have been following our VIM blogs (we hope you are), you will understand our emphasis on mindfulness and authenticity.
The importance of mindfulness, the awareness of being in the moment, acting and understanding the moment cannot be overstated. Yet, many executive leaders spend so much of their days pursuing the digital, they remove themselves from genuine interaction.
The price for an over-emphasis on the digital are increased anxiety levels, higher stress, less relaxation and a decline in effectiveness.
The Trend
The new trend many aware executives are following in their workplaces as well as in their homes and personal lives is a conscious unplugging and a rejection of the digital. Real is good. Real is empowering. In fact, huge workplace and personal “touch grass” parties are blossoming where cell phones are not allowed.
While the “touch grass” idea is appealing our fear is that it is but another trend. We are a national of trend followers. Writer and social commentator Lottie Bisou, commenting for Direction (January 7, 2025) stated:
“Trends offer us a kind of shorthand for coolness and acceptance. When we see something spreading like wildfire, our brains take it as a cue: This is what’s in. This is what will make you part of the group.”
The problem, of course, is the short, societal knack for picking up on a trend and then letting it go. We should be “touching grass” more, and getting more real and aware, especially in workplace interactions, but how long before modern day society reverts and claims that grass touching is over-rated, that executive leaders need only consult AI or an algorithm or a management podcast in order to make a leadership decision?
Mindfulness is not a trend
The mindful have been “touching grass” since the dawn of time. In fact, mindfulness asks of all of us, particularly those in executive leadership roles, to be real. We all need to break and disconnect from the world of technology and to become more responsive and less reactive. However, unless the act of disconnection is less of a fad and more of an intention, we are skeptical that lest the emotional break is a mindful break, society will loop to the original jumping-off point.
It does not take expensive equipment to become more authentic, but it does take a sense of mindful intention. It is more than touching grass that executive leaders require, but an embracing of what most of executives truly and instinctively know: the digital world is infinite, but co-workers aren’t. There are real problems that need real solving in real life. Mindfulness is what makes the grass hold color and feel and life.