Phone Detox Day

An experiment in skillful living — 10 AM to 5 PM, no silence required.

Guided live by Dr. Shalini B Bahl, PhD — UMass Amherst professor, MBSR-certified teacher, author of the International Impact Book Award–winning Return to Mindfulness, and one of the Top 10 Women in the Mindfulness Movement in 2025.

What would today feel like without your phone?

Not as deprivation. As inquiry.

What would attention feel like — given fully to a walk, a meal, a person, a book?
How would you relate to yourself when there's no notification to pull you out?
How would you relate to the people you love when nothing is fighting for your attention?

What does freedom feel like?

This day is a chance to find out.

For seven hours, in the company of others choosing the same experiment, we set the phone down — and notice, together, what becomes available underneath the pull.

What this is — and what it isn't

This is not a silent retreat. It is not a day of recovery, rest, or recharging — though any of those may arrive as a by-product.

It is a guided experiment in skillful living. Sama means skillful — and this is one day spent finding out what an ordinary day feels like when it is lived skillfully, with full attention, undivided by a screen.

We meet briefly on Zoom several times during the day for short guided practices, poetry, mindful walking, and reflection. Between those gatherings, you have long stretches of your own time — to walk, cook, garden, write, fold laundry, sit with tea, tend to the people and places you care about. The structure is the container. The content is your day. The phone stays down.

The experiment is simple. The discovery, often, is not.

What "your time" becomes

The unstructured stretches are where the experiment happens. They're the moments you would usually reach for your phone — and the moments you'll discover what was already there, underneath the reach.

Some of what people do with this time:

• Walk without earbuds, and notice what the mind does when it isn't being fed
• Cook something slow, with full attention to every step
• Sit with someone you love and look at them without an interface in your hand
• Write a letter by hand to someone you've been meaning to thank
• Tend a houseplant, a garden, a child, an animal — with care that doesn't get interrupted
• Read something slow that asks for your attention
• Do the dishes as if they mattered (because they do)
• Sit on the porch and let the day come to you

The frame for all of it: attention given to ordinary things reveals their texture. Care given without distraction lands differently. Freedom is not the absence of activity — it is the absence of pull.

What the research suggests

A growing body of evidence — across psychology, neuroscience, and attention research — confirms what many of us already sense: constant device use fragments attention, dysregulates mood, and erodes our sense of presence with ourselves and others. Even brief intentional pauses restore measurable improvements in focus, mood, and the quality of our relationships.

But the research only takes you so far. What this day offers is the experience itself — the felt sense of what your attention, your relationships, and your life are like when you stop being interrupted.

That, no study can give you. Only a day can.

Who this is for

• Anyone who suspects their phone is shaping their life in ways they didn't choose
• People who want to experience skillful living, not just read about it
• Caregivers, parents, professionals, and creatives who want to find out what their attention is like when it is fully their own
• People curious about mindfulness who want a low-commitment, experiential first taste
• Long-time practitioners who want a day of practice in good company
• Anyone willing to sit with the question: what does freedom feel like?

No prior experience required. No special setup required. Only a phone you're willing to put away for seven hours.

Who I am

I'm Dr. Shalini B Bahl. I teach Mindful Marketing at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, and I've spent more than twenty years in formal Vipassana practice, alongside MBSR and Search Inside Yourself certifications. My book Return to Mindfulness received the International Impact Book Award, and in 2025 I was named one of the Top 10 Women in the Mindfulness Movement.

I've spent two decades studying — academically and experientially — how attention shapes what we choose, who we become, and what kind of world we make together. This day is one of the most direct invitations I know into that inquiry, in a form anyone can take part in.

Upcoming dates

Saturday, August 29 — 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET (guided live from the US)

Saturday, [TBD] Fall

All you need is a quiet-ish space and a willingness to step away.

Investment — choose what feels right

You belong in this day regardless of your income. Choose the tier that fits you now. Every tier receives the same day, the same care, the same welcome.

Sustaining — $108 For those who can offer more. Your contribution covers your spot and funds a scholarship for someone else. 

Standard — $75 The fair full cost.

Accessible — $36 A reduction for those navigating financial constraint.

Pay what's possible — any amount, including $0 If even the Accessible tier is out of reach, choose what is possible for you. No application, no questions, no diminished welcome. Your presence is the offering.

A note on belonging

You belong in this day regardless of your meditation experience, your tradition (or lack of one), your job, or your story. You can join from your apartment, your back porch, your parents' kitchen, a borrowed cabin. You don't need a meditation cushion, a special outfit, or any preparation. You need only a phone you're willing to set aside, and a willingness to find out what shows up in its absence.

When you're ready, I'd be honored to spend the day with you.

🪷 Shalini