Attention, Distraction, and Your Responsibility

Attention, Awareness, Shocking Revelation, Walking and Writing, Your Responsibility

I.

Attention

Tell me to what you pay attention, and I will tell you who you are.

Attributed to José Ortega y Gasset

Our entire existence is shaped by the orientation of our attention. Each day unfolds as a culmination of the things we choose to focus on from when we wake up until we fall asleep.  

Every aspiration, every pursuit demands focused attention. Want to read that book? Direct your attention towards it. Want to cross things off your to-do list? Concentrate on each line item until it is complete. And while this sounds obvious and simple in theory, it is difficult in practice. In the absence of external obligations, most people allow their attention to wander aimlessly. We wouldn’t let our dog or small child roam mindlessly, as they could wreak havoc or hurt themselves. So why do we permit our attention to meander without a purpose or direction?

The biggest struggle of our lives will not be the quest for purpose, coming to terms with mortality, making money, finding a life partner, or staying healthy. The biggest struggle we’ll face consists of determining what is most important to focus on and building a habit of concentrating our attention on it. This challenge forms the foundation of awareness. An aware individual is attuned to the whereabouts of their attention and intervenes when it veers off course. They refuse to let their attention drift idly.

II.

Awareness

An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.

English proverb

We’ve all heard the saying about an idle mind, but its true meaning often eludes us. An idle mind is not necessarily indicative of an empty calendar or a lack of to-dos. An idle mind is one that is unaware of its attention’s whereabouts and is incapable of redirecting it. When we lose sight of our attention, it tends to end up in unwanted territory—like dwelling on negative thoughts or succumbing to temptations. An idle mind doesn’t necessarily require more tasks on its agenda; rather, it needs focus and direction.

It’s widely believed that 90-95% of the thoughts people experience are repeated thoughts from the previous day. And many of those repeated thoughts are unhealthy ones. I believe this repetition occurs when we become unaware of our attention’s whereabouts. When left unchecked, our attention gravitates towards the dark place in our mind where bad thoughts reside (i.e., the “devil’s workshop”).

The human attention span is like that of my husky, Cooper. If left unattended in the backyard, Cooper inevitably finds himself digging for godknowswhat in the same corner of the flowerbed. When I catch him in the act, I holler for him to stop and come back inside. To break this habit of his, my partner and I must constantly monitor and redirect him. The same thing happens when we lose sight of our attention. When we neglect our attention for even a short period, it tends to meander back to those undesirable mental corners. As guardians of our attention, we must remain vigilant, correct its course when necessary, and train it to remain by our side.

Cultivating awareness demands patience and practice. So does training a dog.

Cooper being a good boy

III.   

Shocking Revelation 

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Blaise Pascal

When I hear the word meditation, the image that initially comes to mind is that of a cross-legged, saffron robe-wearing man with admirable posture and closed eyes. To the average Westerner, meditation is a largely unfamiliar concept; most of us have never even encountered the proper attire for it. However, writing off meditation as some foreign concept doesn’t aid in our understanding or utilization of its benefits. Meditation isn’t just something you see on the outside; it’s something you do on the inside.

Meditation teaches us how to become aware of our attention and, in time, control it. During meditation, one “goes inwards,” shutting out visual sensors and lessening the ability for external distractions to dictate focus. To better maintain control of awareness, meditators often concentrate on inner focal points such as one’s breath, an “anchor” (e.g., the heart center or solar plexus), or a mantra.

However, some minds are more tumultuous than the bustling streets of New York City. Consequently, many people prefer engaging in activity—any activity—over being left alone with their thoughts. In one revealing experiment, study participants were seated in a quiet, empty room for 15 minutes, during which they could think or meditate without distraction. The only external stimulus available them during that time was a button that would deliver an electric shock to their ankle, if they so chose to press it. By the end of the 15 minutes, 67% of male and 25% of female participants opted to administer at least one electric shock to themselves rather than endure their own thoughts. This inclination towards external stimulus, even if harmful, highlights the reluctance many people have towards quiet introspection. I could only speculate that some of my workaholic acquaintances fall into the same category as those who would prefer self-inflicted discomfort over stillness. They continue to shoulder an increasing workload, even when it proves painful or unnecessary, solely to maintain an external distraction and avoid confronting their inner thoughts.

IV.   

Walking and Writing

To be honest, I don’t engage in sitting meditation every day. If I’m feeling particularly motivated, I might get around to it once a week. But there’s more than one way to cultivate greater awareness.

During a conversation with Charles Eisenstein, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared that he goes on a solitary walking meditation in nature every morning, a ritual he’s upheld for decades. This practice helps him maintain sanity and regulate his awareness throughout each day. Walking meditations are simple: you can tune into the sights and sounds of nature, fully experience the act of walking, focus on an affirmation, or follow the rhythm of your breath. Walking, in and of itself, occupies the neurotic parts of your mind so you can focus your attention on nature or a sensation inside of you.

Similarly, writing can serve as a form of meditation. When done well, the act of writing requires unwavering focus on a single thought. For example, in this Big Idea, my attention is focused on two alternative forms of meditation. But as I write this, I also confront intrusive thoughts (I want more coffee, what are tonight’s plans?) and external stimuli (distant jet noise, Hunter clearing his throat downstairs). To meditate my way through writing, I must filter out undesirable inner and outer distractions and maintain focus on the topic at hand. When my attention wanders, as it often does, I must diligently bring it back on track. In practice, this often entails re-reading the last paragraph or two to remember where I was going with my thought before proceeding with the next sentence.

Good writing is meditative writing. It’s a polished and cohesive train of thought, devoid of superfluous babble. If intrusive thoughts make their way into your writing and you neglect to edit them out, your work will suffer. Quality writing does not arise from a stream of consciousness or absent-mindedness. It’s a practice of meditating on a specific idea and detaching from distraction.

V.   

Your Responsibility

We are both human and animal. Our attention is instinctually unconscious, yet we possess the will to consciously direct it. While meditation sucks, writing well is arduous, and walking in nature without a podcast or music sounds dreadful, contemplative practices like these are crucial for our evolution.

The decision to realize our sole opportunity to become fully human is ours alone to make. Beyond the clamor of inner and outer noise lies the knowledge of our metaphysical disposition and the truth of our existence. Discovering who we are necessitates deep contemplation—a deliberate, focused effort to heed our calling while detaching from all distractions. No one can uncover our hidden truths, break our addiction to hasty diversions, or put in the meditative reps on our behalf. This work is our individual responsibility, if we so choose to take it on.

Subconsciously, we recognize our responsibility to become fully human; however, our animalistic minds conjure up countless distractions in an attempt to conserve energy. That’s because what we’re put here to do—our calling, dharma, ikigai—will not be easy. It will consume us, it will require our full attention, but it will also fulfill us.

I’ll leave you with this poignant and meditative idea from Nietzsche:

In individual moments we all know how the most elaborate arrangements of our life are made only so as to flee from the tasks we actually ought to be performing, how we would like to hide our head somewhere as though our hundred-eyed conscience could not find us out there, how we hasten to give our heart to the state, to money-making, to sociability or science merely so as no longer to possess it ourselves, how we labor at our daily work more ardently and thoughtlessly than is necessary to sustain our life because to us it is even more necessary not to have leisure to stop and think.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Schopenhauer as Educator

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