The Spark Can Come From Anywhere — Even Your Phone at 11pm

Let's just say it out loud: we all doom scroll. You, me, the person who's going to post something on Instagram about digital detoxes tomorrow. All of us. Especially at the end of a hard day, or in the middle of a season that feels like too much.

I'm not here to shame anyone for it. I'm also not here to tell you it's always fine. But I want to offer a different way to look at what's actually happening when we reach for our phones at 10pm and don't put them down until midnight.

Sometimes we scroll to numb. Sometimes we're avoiding something. I think we can all admit that. But sometimes — and I think this gets overlooked — we scroll because we are genuinely looking for something. We're depleted, overstimulated, running on empty, and our nervous system is quietly searching for a signal. Something that feels good. Something that feels like us.

The problem is we dismiss it. We scroll past the thing that made us stop, tell ourselves it's not practical, and go back to doing the thing that's draining us.

What if we didn't?

I'm not saying every TikTok rabbit hole is a calling. It's not. Most of them are just rabbit holes. But I do think there's something worth paying attention to when you notice what makes you stop. What you keep coming back to. What makes the noise in your head go quiet, even for a minute.

Because the spark can come from anywhere.

I've seen it in my own life — that moment when something outside your normal world catches your attention and something inside you goes: wait. More of that. It doesn't always make logical sense. It doesn't come with a business plan. It just shows up, usually when you're tired and overwhelmed and absolutely not looking for it.

My guest this week knows this firsthand. She was buried — and I mean buried — in one of the most stressful seasons of her life. She wasn't looking for a sign. She was looking for twenty minutes of peace. What she found instead changed the whole trajectory of where she thought she was going.

That's the thing about the funk: sometimes the way out doesn't announce itself. Sometimes it just flickers.

Two questions to sit with:

• What do you keep coming back to — even when you tell yourself it's just a distraction?

• What would it look like to take that thing even 10% more seriously?

Go listen to this week's episode. It'll make you think twice the next time you pick up your phone.