Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
🎙️ Episode 24 – How to Reduce Screen Time (Without Hating Your Life)
👉 Ready for the next step? SCHEDULE A FREE, 30-MINUTE CONSULT with Mark or Zack at: https://escapethecagenow.com/call/ to see if you’re a good fit to work with them one-on-one. Space is limited.
In this episode of The Lion Counseling Podcast, Mark Odland (Certified EMDR Therapist) and Zack Carter (Counselor & Coach) explore how to take back your time and attention from endless scrolling, dopamine overload, and screen addiction. Using humor, real talk, and the 8 Dimensions of Wellness, they break down how to replace screen time with purpose-driven habits that actually make your life better.
This isn’t about guilt-tripping you for binging YouTube. It’s about giving you a simple, realistic path out of mental fog and into a life that feels energized, focused, and meaningful.
🔍 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
- Why just saying “I need to use my phone less” never works
- How billion-dollar algorithms are hacking your mind—and what to do about it
- What the Wellness Wheel is (and how to use it like a man)
- Why your life feels stuck—and how 15 minutes outside might fix it
- How David Goggins would probably redesign the Wellness Wheel (blood, cussing, and all)
- How to identify the area of your life most out of balance—and where to start rebuilding
- Why tiny wins matter more than big plans
- A ridiculously simple strategy to reset your habits (even if you're exhausted)
Whether you’re crushing it at work but feel off at home, or you’re tired of living behind a screen and want to get your edge back, this episode will give you the tools and motivation to move forward—without shame, without fluff, and without wasting your time.
đź’Ą Your first step? Identify the easiest wellness domain to improve (physical, financial, emotional, spiritual, etc.), and start with the smallest win you can commit to this week.
🎯 Small wins. Daily reps. Long-term growth. That’s how lions are built.
About the Show:
The Lion Counseling Podcast helps men escape the cages that hold them back and become the lions they were created to be. Hosted by Mark Odland, Certified EMDR Therapist, and Zack Carter, Counselor & Coach, we tackle real issues—masculinity, trauma, anxiety, relationships, purpose, faith, and personal development—with honesty, clarity, and courage.
Click here to watch a video of this episode.’
Click here to watch a video of this episode.’
👉 Ready for change? Visit www.escapethecagenow.com to schedule a free consultation for coaching or counseling.
➡️ Which area of the wellness wheel are YOU working on first?
Creators and Guests
What is Lion Counseling Podcast?
The Lion Counseling Podcast helps men escape the cages that hold them back and become the Lions they were created to be. It exists to help men obtain success, purpose, happiness, and peace in their career and personal lives. The podcast is hosted by the founder of Lion Counseling, Mark Odland (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified EMDR Therapist), and Zack Carter (Counselor and Coach with Lion Counseling). In their podcasts, they address a variety of topics relevant to men, including: mental health, relationships, masculinity, faith, success, business, and self-improvement.
And and maybe we could build on that but yeah, where did you wanna go next with that, Zach? Is this I think this is so good for our guys to hear because I mean, maybe if the wellness wheel had more masculine colors, I would identify with it more. I'm not sure about all these pastels, Zach. So
Zack Carter:Oh, that's my bad.
Zack Carter:I'll I'll go with it.
Mark Odland:I'll go with it. It's fine. We'll
Zack Carter:Next time next time, we'll go with the the Terminator wellness wheel for the men out there and, like, just really, like, dark brooding colors, and there'll be some blood on the side of it. Just a Little blood? Just a little blood. Not too much. Right?
Zack Carter:This is a this is a Christian organization.
Mark Odland:The wellness wheel is actually just David Goggins' face.
Zack Carter:And then you you, like, push a button and
Mark Odland:then he swears at you.
Zack Carter:He just cusses at you. He just tells you how terrible you are as a human being. You're like, you're right, David Goggins. You're right.
Mark Odland:Welcome everyone to the Lion Counseling Podcast. I'm Mark Godland, founder of Lion Counseling and certified EMDR therapist.
Zack Carter:And I'm Zach Carter, counselor and coach.
Mark Odland:And our mission is to help men to break free, to heal deep, and become the lions they were created to be. And today we're exploring how to reduce screen time to healthy levels by introducing the eight dimensions of wellness and showing you how to use them to replace the screen time with more meaningful life giving activities. Make sure to hang on till the end because we've got, some practical ideas for you to put these into action right away. And since you guys are already here, if you don't mind, if you could hit that subscribe button down below, we'd really appreciate it. It helps us to get the word out to more men.
Mark Odland:Alright. Let's jump in.
Intro Music:Be the lion you was destined to be. Born ready for the war, now my effort is free. The level's been set, time to wrestle the beast. Testing my g is getting heavy indeed. The struggle I embrace now, never retreat.
Intro Music:I see the test as a blessing indeed. I'm taking steps on the treacherous peak. Now it's just gonna be Look at my destiny's feet. Shine with
Zack Carter:the one piece. The one piece. The one piece.
Mark Odland:The Zach, I thought, well, let me ask you this. For me watching screen time, like, say, maybe twenty two point five hours a day, that that's within normal limits. Right?
Zack Carter:We would say twenty two point three. So you're really close. But Alright. So you got a little bit of work to do there, Mark.
Mark Odland:Okay. I'm I'm kidding. I only let my kids do that all day. No. Seriousness, I think even as a therapist, I have gotten sucked in.
Mark Odland:Philosophically, I get it. Like, it's not good. It's not good for my brain. It's not good for my health. And yet, we've got these billion dollar companies who are using every psychological and marketing trick in the book to hook us right to hook us and to feed us the things that they know will hook us and I guess I'm just thinking about all the guys listening to this podcast who either are high achievers or want to be who are who are on that path and and let's be honest I think the screen time I mean technology can be a blessing but man it can also not be good and so I'm so fascinated to hear about how how we can think about this in a different way.
Mark Odland:Where do we start? Like, I wanna kick it to you, Zach, and just kinda get your thoughts on all this.
Zack Carter:It's so hard. You know, I I grew up on TV. I grew up on video games. And so when I'm like, alright, I'm gonna do better about watching TV. I'm gonna do better about video games, and I get hooked on YouTube.
Zack Carter:You know, I don't wanna make the YouTube gods angry because we want this video to do well. But, yeah, YouTube could be a problem. Right? It's like it that algorithm sucks you in and it's hard to hard to hop off. So like, what the heck do you do, man?
Zack Carter:Like, how do you decrease screen time? And so whenever I'm working with clients, whether it's with porn, eating, TV use, whatever unhealthy habit they have, where we start is is is not a good way to set a goal is not to say like, okay. I'm gonna do less of this Like, I'm I'm I'm doing five hours of screen time a day. I wanna do four. There's actually there's actually a better way to go about it.
Zack Carter:I'm not saying it's that's a terrible way to go about it, but I think there's a better way to go about it. And usually it's positive goals. Like, what are you gonna replace it with? Right? So instead of focusing on the elimination, you're focusing on the replacement.
Zack Carter:So famously, we've got the don't think about the purple elephant example. Right? And so, like, the moment you talk about it, you're thinking about the perfect elephant. So if you're thinking through your day, man, how much time have I been front of the phone? How much time have I been front of the screen?
Mark Odland:Right.
Zack Carter:You're thinking about it, you're tempted to go back. Instead, like what are you gonna do instead? And so when I have clients in front of me, I have a list of the things that we're about to go through, and I'll cover these things with my clients and say, like, okay. Of these categories, where do you wanna start? Like Mhmm.
Zack Carter:What do you what would be better in your life? Like, if this is not good for your life, like, what would be better? What do you actually want to do? And that's where we start. And so I figured today we would share these eight different categories with our audience, and maybe they can begin to think through, like, okay.
Zack Carter:If I wanna decrease my screen time, what am I doing instead? So before I show it, Mark, did did you have any other thoughts or comments?
Mark Odland:Well, the only thing would be I know we might have some guys out there who are like, how do I decrease my TikTok time but increase my line counseling podcast time?
Zack Carter:And That's a good that's a good call.
Mark Odland:That's a different podcast. And that that puts us in a in a rough spot, Zach, about whether we stick to our principles or not. But
Zack Carter:Which we won't.
Mark Odland:No. No integrity here.
Zack Carter:No.
Mark Odland:We're just it's just yeah. Man. But well, I was intrigued when I saw the graphics you sent my way with this wellness wheel. And I will not say I'm an expert of the wellness wheel, but I'm familiar with it because my wife Rachel is a wellness coach and a life coach.
Intro Music:Mhmm.
Mark Odland:And so she uses it a lot. So And kind of through her, I've I've I've seen it before, and I'm like, man, this is just intuitively. It looks like it could be a good thing. It looks like it could make a lot of sense. So I I'd love I'm I'm excited to dive into it with you.
Mark Odland:Yeah. And yeah.
Zack Carter:Yeah. Let's do it. Okay. So I'm pulling it up on the screen right now. Ba bam.
Zack Carter:Alright, everybody. This is the wellness wheel from the Calm app. Definitely didn't just Google wellness wheel and download the first thing that looked the prettiest. That's definitely not what just happened. So we're getting called the Calm app.
Zack Carter:I've never used I the Calm was so worried.
Mark Odland:I was so worried you're gonna use the destruction app or the
Zack Carter:The destruction app.
Mark Odland:Or something. The the wheel of death or something and like, I'm glad it's the wellness wheel.
Zack Carter:That's right. This this podcast is brought to you by Calm, but it's but it's not. Some people are like, that's how they're making their money. Nope. Just I was on the internet.
Zack Carter:No. But like there's like lots of examples. And so this one was the most intuitive. And so, you know, I basically, when I'm working with clients, just like have these categories listed out and this one looked nice. So, like, let's go Like, through what what do we have here?
Zack Carter:So let's start on the right side. On the right side, we have physical. And so physical is things like working out, eating right, sleep. Right? So these are the kinds of things that you can replace your screen time by physical activity, super helpful, super good for your brain, super good for your mental health.
Zack Carter:We have financial. So these are gonna be things like working on your debt, saving for retirement, saving money in general. Right? Budgeting. Got spiritual.
Zack Carter:So these practices are things like prayer, reading your bible. Right? Meditation. Mhmm. These kinds of things.
Zack Carter:Occupational. So occupational is how do I further myself in my current career? Or if you hate your career, what are you doing to work on a future career that you could actually enjoy that you actually care about? Environmental is going to be a couple things. It's your immediate environment, so your home.
Zack Carter:Is your home messy? Right? Is it is it clean? Is it safe? Is it dangerous?
Zack Carter:You then also have getting out into the environment. Right? So it's really great on your brains, gives you serotonin, dopamine, all the good stuff. And you go out into nature, you get in the sun, really, really helps your mental health. Intellectual is learning.
Zack Carter:Are you spending time learning? You know, whether it's reading, listening to podcasts like this. Emotional. We've talked a lot about emotions. Right?
Zack Carter:So the emotion wheel, like, hey, what are you feeling? Can we name it to tame it? Are you sharing those emotions with other people to help process? Are you journaling them if you don't have someone else to share it with? Right?
Zack Carter:And so that's emotional. And lastly, we've got social. So social is, you know, do you have a spouse or significant other? Do you have friends? Do you have family you're reaching out to?
Zack Carter:Are you making a connection? One of my favorite authors around sobriety, especially around pornography, is a guy named doctor Douglas Weiss. And he has a phrase that I love that the opposite of addiction is connection. Right? Yeah.
Zack Carter:So in your life, if you want to improve your life, man, connect. Right? So when you look at this wheel and you're working with a client, Mark, and they're like, okay. I wanna decrease my screen time. Is there any that stick out to you that's like, oh, this might be a good place to start?
Zack Carter:Like, how would you how would you go about talking with the client through it?
Mark Odland:Yeah. That's that's a great question, Zach. I mean, I think a lot of times when guys seek me out for counseling Mhmm. They're already doing pretty well off I mean, that's just some patterns I've recognized. They might be doing well in a few areas.
Mark Odland:Mhmm. But then some other areas have really been put on the back burner, been really neglected. Like, so maybe there's a guy. He's like, he's hitting the gym. He's working out.
Mark Odland:He's doing pretty well in his business through the ups and downs of the big stressors that inevitably come your way. Maybe doing okay on the financial front, you know, and but then there's something that's really neglected. Right? Mhmm. And and I think I'd I mean, I just look at my own life, and it's like I could be doing well in a lot of areas.
Mark Odland:But one thing, like, if I literally just like, oh, I'm just gonna stay up a little later and knock this out, and then I get six hours of sleep instead of eight or seven and a half for a couple nights in a row, or I I go for a whole week without, like, going to the gym, everything starts to suffer. I just feel drained. I feel stressed. It's it's out of balance, I start to feel it. And and so there is something to be said for kind of having a radical commitment to your own self care, and I think that ties into this somewhat.
Mark Odland:And I think sometime, you know, a lot of our clients do come to us from a place of faith too. And, you know, you think about these passages, like, you know, love God with all your heart and your soul and your mind and your strength. So, okay, that seems like pretty much all of me. Alright. Just like with everything I am, I'm supposed to love God, love people, do my thing.
Mark Odland:But I love this wellness wheel because it gets really specific. Like, it breaks down these multidimensional, you know, way of thinking about our lives because I think sometimes things can be almost too abstract. They can not be specific enough. And so I I like how this can be kind of a visual representation of kind of assessing almost, like Mhmm. Where am I at?
Mark Odland:So that those are my thoughts initially, Zach. What what's what's, you know, coming up for you when as we're talking through this?
Zack Carter:Yeah. So it sounds like on your end, you you're the one that you pick is kind of the one that they need the most help with, and that sounds like a a a good place to approach. So for me, it would be probably be similar. I think it I think it is good because to to look through these different categories and say, you know, hey. I have certain things I'm doing well and what I'm not doing well in.
Zack Carter:And so my tendency with clients is usually to start with the easiest one. So if you've got
Mark Odland:Yeah.
Zack Carter:Five of the eight that you're doing well in, but you have three things, it's like, alright, dude, like, what's the what's the easiest place to start? Mhmm. What would be the easiest? And so if it's like, you know, I'm working hard by never getting out in nature, it's like, alright, man. Well, what the study show is fifteen to twenty minutes in the sun is gonna improve your mental health.
Zack Carter:So can we start by having you take walks three days a week for fifteen minutes in the sun? Right? Yeah. And so that's kinda that's kinda where I'm gonna go with a client as I'm like looking through the things. Obviously, it's, like, whatever wherever they prioritize.
Zack Carter:But, you know, maybe this is my bias. I like to start where easy and then get hard. I do know there are some people that like to start hard and then get easy, and so I would talk through with the client, like, Which way are you? Are you usually start hard, go easy, go downhill, or you usually start easy, go hard? But my my tendency is usually to start with the easy ones and and then build that
Mark Odland:Yeah. Yeah. That gives I mean, that reminds me a little bit of you know, we'd sometimes bring up, like, Dave Ramsey, you know, with his baby steps. It's like, it's counterintuitive from a financial perspective that to knock out the smallest debts first even if they're highest interest rate. But there's this feeling of knock out the easy stuff, get some momentum, feel some success.
Mark Odland:And I feel like there might be something to that with this this wellness wheel too. Mean, makes me think of what I've learned from my wife Rachel again who's who's using this a lot with clients and she had this this beautiful metaphor that she uses where she compares the wellness wheel to like the wheel of a bicycle.
Zack Carter:Mhmm.
Mark Odland:And and then within each wheel, she kind of has people plot on a, like, a kind of a zero to 10 scale how good they feel about their health in this in their different areas. Mhmm. And then, like, kid's coloring book, then you connect the dots. Mhmm. And usually, it's not a perfect circle.
Mark Odland:Right? It's like a half circle, and then it's, like, dented. And then it's, like, all smooth, and then it's, like, jagged. Mhmm. And then with that metaphor of the bicycle wheel again, if you try to actually use that wheel to ride a bike, you would be going nowhere fast.
Mark Odland:Right? It'd be clunky. It'd be you know, you'd be you'd be crashing. Right? So it's this it's this idea of, like, man.
Mark Odland:Oh, that's one visual representation of a couple areas where, like, a quick and easy and kind of fun way to assess, like, what are the what are the, like you said, two or three areas that I'm struggling a little bit. And maybe you're gonna get to this, Zach, but that idea of not necessarily beating yourself up about it because deep down, you're probably already feeling not so good about it. Yeah. But it's saying, what do I want more of in my life? Right?
Mark Odland:And and maybe we could build on that. But, yeah, where did you wanna go next with that, Zach? Because this I I I think this is so good for our guys to hear because, I mean, maybe if the wellness wheel had more masculine colors, I would identify with it more. I'm not sure about all these pastels, Zach.
Zack Carter:So Oh, that's my bad.
Zack Carter:I'll I'll go with it.
Mark Odland:I'll go with it. That's fine.
Zack Carter:Next time next time, we'll go with the the Terminator wellness wheel for the men out there and, like, just really, like, dark brooding colors, and there'll be some blood on the side of it. Just a
Mark Odland:A little blood?
Zack Carter:Just a little blood. Not too much. Right? This is a this is a Christian organization.
Mark Odland:The wellness wheel is actually just David Goggins' face.
Zack Carter:And then you you, like, push a button
Mark Odland:and he swears at you?
Zack Carter:He just cusses at you. He just tells you how terrible you are as a human being. You're like, you're right, David Goggins. You're right. Yeah.
Zack Carter:I mean, my main thing with the wellness wheel here is that, like, mean, I it's pretty self ex it feels pretty self explanatory, you know, where here are the categories. And so here's my encouragement to people listening out there. Like, it doesn't need you know, we don't need to get super complicated with this. You see the wheel. You've got the different categories, the eight categories.
Zack Carter:My encouragement to you if you're looking for an action step right now as we're coming to a close is pick the area you know you're struggling in, and then pick the easiest place to start. Right? And so sometimes we gotta humble ourselves and so if it's physical and you're like, I've been trying to get into the gym for months, years, it's like, alright, man. Humble yourself. Say, okay.
Zack Carter:I'm gonna walk for fifteen minutes three days a week. If you set that goal for yourself and next week you haven't walked at all, goal was probably too hard. Alright. Yeah. Ten minutes two days a week.
Zack Carter:Right? And then if you still don't do it, okay, I'm gonna walk outside once for like five minutes. If you still don't do it, okay, I'm going to leave my home, get in the sun, turn around and walk back in. Right? And at least get the process started and then improve from there.
Zack Carter:Right? A lot of times where we do is where we start too hard and then quit. We need to do the reverse. Need to start easy and then get harder over time. So pick the pick the category you need to work on, start as easy as possible, and then build over time.
Mark Odland:I love that. I love that, Zach. Yeah. I think that's really good practical advice. I mean, it's interesting because I know a lot of our audience, some people are starting from square one and they're new to the mental health space.
Mark Odland:And other guys have been kind of in this, like, performance optimization, bro science, like YouTube world that I sometimes, like, enjoy listening to as well. Right? Like, hacks to, like, perform better, be more optimized, all this stuff. But it can honestly be a little overwhelming at times. There's so much research, so many studies, so many competing voices, about what what success looks like, what health looks like.
Mark Odland:If you could take a deep breath, guys, and just be like, alright. Just gonna check out this, like, basic idea of a wellness wheel, take an honest look, at, you know, what's what's lacking, what is not quite where I'd like it to be. And with some easy steps, like you said, just, you know, small goals that you can build on, just kinda smoothing out that wheel, making life turn, making life run just a little bit better overall. That can be such a gift. You know?
Mark Odland:It it's gonna make make you a better dad, better husband, better better leader. And, you know, at the end of the day, that's that's what we we're we're trying to stay in the game. Right? We're trying to just imperfect as we might be. We're trying to you know, once we get knocked down, we get back up, we keep moving forward.
Mark Odland:And that's that's something that we can do as men and and just try to be try to be faithful, try to stay in the game. And so I appreciate you sharing all this, Zach. And Mhmm. And, guys, if you're listening out there, you could throw in the comments section what you think about the wellness wheel. If you kind of take a look at it and think to yourself, here's an area I need to improve.
Mark Odland:What what's your first step? You know, what would your first step be? And, and and how we can be, encouraging you guys, praying for you guys on the sidelines as you're taking these steps. But as always, thanks for listening. And, if you haven't subscribed already, it we'd really appreciate it.
Mark Odland:Helps us get the word out to more guys.
Intro Music:So Mhmm.
Mark Odland:Unless any you have any closing thoughts, Zach?
Zack Carter:Yeah. And lastly, if you're looking for help with one on one counseling or coaching, reach out to us at escapethecagenow.com or in the link in the description box. And so we're here to help. So we appreciate you guys listening this far, and I hope we hope you found found it helpful.
Mark Odland:Awesome. Thanks, Zach.
Zack Carter:Thanks, guys. Everybody.
Mark Odland:Alright. Bye.