Review: Anthony Ongaro's Break the Twitch Community

When the New Year started, I knew that I wanted to start getting back on track with my health amongst other things. It’s always easy to eat too much, spend too much or get a little carried away during the holiday season, and even if you’re not big into New Year’s resolutions, it’s always good to get back into our routines and have that fresh start.

YouTube has evolved a lot since it first launched back in the early 2000’s, so for me, getting back into these changes meant finding some accountability since it’s not always easy to get back into being healthy by yourself. I’ve been subscribed to this one channel for a while called Break the Twitch, and while the owner of the channel (named Anthony Ongaro) has talked about this community before, I never took an interest in it until after the New Year. Since joining this community, I’ve found a few different tools that have helped me immensely with my health as well as my time and attention.

What I’ve learned within the last few months of being part of Anthony’s community (which you can sign up for at his website [link: https://www.breakthetwitch.com/]) is that whatever habit you want to build doesn’t need to be too extravagant or strict at the start. I’ve also learned that once you’ve removed those distractions from your life, you can start to put more of your time and attention on things that matter to you.

I’m just as guilty as anyone else of checking their phone too much, and Anthony calls this the “news feed twitch”. The thing with technology is that while it’s a great resource for a lot of different things in life, it can also take away your time if you’re not careful. With me having this blog, it’s important that I stay focused on that without getting distracted, so what I’ll usually do is turn my phone upside down or leave it on the other side of the room while working.

Using meditation to help improve my focus and attention has honestly been very beneficial, and it’s also a great way to alleviate stress or anxiety. One cool thing about being part of this community is that you can virtually connect with other people (through an app called Slack, and all group sessions are done through Zoom), and so now meditation doesn’t have to be a solitary thing you do alone. The same can be said if you want company while working from home. All of these resources can be found when you join, and navigating the website and chat room isn’t much of a hassle.

As an introvert, I can say that being part of Anthony’s community is a nice side feature for if I want that sense of camaraderie while working on my blog or doing some other task. Now I understand that for some, physical human connection may be more comforting, so if joining this online community isn’t for you, then that’s okay. If you’re looking for some place to learn and grow with others however, then this is the place for you.