We live in an increasingly chaotic world where everything is sped up and super sized.
We are constantly being stimulated by the immediacy of technology. We are distracted thousands of times a day externally and a million more times internally. It’s not getting any easier; technology has made it harder for us to focus. There is now almost nowhere you can go where someone can’t reach you with something urgent and important (at least to them).
A World of Constant Distraction
Distraction is defined by Wikipedia as “a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else. And an extreme agitation of the mind or emotions.”
In a world of constant distraction, it’s easy to get agitated by the overstimulation of bells, whistles, alarms. With that said, we could still overcome this if it wasn’t for how we try to deal with it in our left-brain centered world.
The left-brain, according to psychologists, is adept at tasks that involve logic, numbers, reasoning, language and analytical thinking. We try to make peace by over-controlling or denying the distraction. This will not bring us peace in our left-brain world.
Instead this feeds the disturbance to our mental patterns because it requires our brains to keep choosing to refocus on the distraction over and over again. We want to understand or fix the distraction, thereby repeating it and giving it power. Our energy is being drained from us as we put it all towards the distraction that creates the disturbance.
We are living in mental poverty, and the solution to learning how not to be distracted is Meditation.~Silvia Mordini
5 Ways Meditation Lessens Distraction
1. Learning the Difference Between Attention and Awareness
Awareness is the forest, attention are the trees. Attention and awareness and action are the intelligence of the soul.
2. Adopting a Global Perspective
In our brain focused society rebuilding our awareness through a more global perspective will help us be less caught up in the details of our thoughts that distract us in a gazillion ways.
3. Learning How to Concentrate
We have become a nation where the old saying you have my undivided attention is a thing of the past, these days if we’re honest we’d tell people “you have my divided attention.” Nobody knows how to listen these days.
4. Starting the Day with a Mantra
In grade school we had an opening meditation in the form of the pledge of allegiance; can you create an opening day mantra that can serve you today?
5. Dispensing of Excess Energy
In grade school we had recess to get rid of this excess energy-causing disturbance. Why not make a point to take an adult recess today? Run around, sit quietly, unplug.
Does meditation and/or mindfulness help you remain focused in your daily tasks? Share your thoughts and tips with the community below!
Image credit: Silvia Mordini
