Book Tour ~ Reclaim by Heather Henderson

 

How to Stop Scrolling Through Your Life and Start Living It

Personal Development / Digital Well-Being (Narrative Nonfiction)

Date Published: Tuesday, September 22, 2026

Publisher: Fernlight Books

 You’re not broken. You’re overstimulated.

They sat on the beach with their backs to the ocean, faces in their phones, watching clips of someone else’s vacation. As Heather Henderson stood a few feet away, ready to capture the perfect Cabo moment, she realized we were promised more: more connection, more freedom, more possibility — not a life spent refreshing feeds.

Handed devices before we were taught how to live with them, most of us inherited this algorithmic world. We learned to let notifications and endless recommendations choose for us in small, quiet ways, until the choices no longer felt like choices at all, and we found ourselves scrolling through life instead of living it.

The problem goes beyond casual screen time. It is unconscious time — the moments we surrender without realizing the cost.

Drawing from her years inside major tech companies, including Google and Uber, Heather Henderson invites readers to ask:

Did I choose this, or was it chosen for me?

If you feel wired but tired, connected but lonely, or busy but empty, this book is an honest look at how we lost presence — and a guide to reclaim it.

 

These days, our lives feel more like a game of mental Tetris, one that can never be won. Clear one email, three pop up. No matter how hard we try, the notifications keep stacking.

Right now, I have 33 tabs open on my laptop. Thirty-three. And that's not a metaphor, it's my actual browser. But it might as well be my brain.

Our minds jump from thought to thought, mentally everywhere and yet emotionally nowhere. We're so sucked into our phones that we can't remember the last time we looked up. Let alone what we just scrolled past. Perhaps you're like me; I tried turning off notifications, but I ended up checking my phone more often. A feeling reminiscent of the yo-yo diet culture of the early 2000s, where Special K was sold as the "answer" but only left us hungrier. This isn't distraction, it's deeper. We're fragmented, overstimulated, and always somewhere else.

It's what I call open-tab mind. The mental default of the digital age. But it isn't just a metaphor. It's how technology is impacting our brains and everyday lives. This became impossible to ignore when I learned how the people who built these systems live with them.

Jack Dorsey — the co-founder of Twitter, a platform designed around constant updates and real-time attention — now practices some of the most extreme digital boundaries I've ever heard of.

When I first heard this, I had two immediate reactions: That's insane. And — of course. That makes total sense. Because why would someone need monk-level discipline unless they'd built something so compelling it required monk-level discipline to resist? That isn't hypocrisy. It's evidence.

At the airport, you refresh your gate info, check texts, and scroll on repeat. You were supposed to journal, but you got distracted by the buzz of a notification. Instead, I got lost in the scroll, only half hearing my boarding call. Twenty minutes later, I still hadn't pulled out my notebook, and my phone hadn't left my palm.

Here's the thing: it wasn't just me. And it isn't just airports. Digital distraction has seeped into every aspect of our lives. It’s in classrooms, boardrooms, even the conference rooms of the most innovative companies in the world.

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