“What you are is what you have been, what you will be is what you do now.” - Lord Buddha
It has been said that where we are in life today is the sum of what we paid attention to in the past. There is so much in our environment, both internally and externally, that clamors for our attention. What we choose to focus on will influence our actions, which then shape and create our future. Attention is one of our most under appreciated resources; it is the lens through which we experience life. It is a critical but fragile thread that connects us to both ourselves and the world around us. How we care for this precious resource has a profound influence on the quality of our lives.
It is no secret that we live in a distracting world that competes for our attention. The external world is filled with ambient noise, lights, signage, traffic, and people. Entire economies are built on programs that enable our devices to capture and hold our attention—news feeds, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, to name a few. Although the volume of distractions has increased exponentially in the past 20 years, our susceptibility to having our attention hacked is not a modern problem. The human mind has always shown an affinity for novelty and stimulation; our ability to shift attention works well to keep us safe from predators. However, the distractions from our virtual world are quite different from those in our history, primarily due to their proximity—they are literally a finger tap away. Before the creation of our virtual world, we were required to physically seek out stimulation and novelty. My grandmother told me stories of how isolated her childhood was growing up on a farm in central New York. Each day was essentially the same as the next; the only excitement came when they traveled into town (once a month) or a merchant passed through. Now technology brings the world to us with a touch of a button, 24 hours a day.
Our external environment is only part of the equation when it comes to our ability to stay focused. We are susceptible to internal distractions as well—the mind wandering, daydreaming and rumination that take us out of the present moment to the storylines we create about the past or the future. Whereas external distractions are real, internal distractions are fabricated and exist only in our minds. Unfortunately, our brain doesn’t always make the distinction, so these mental scenarios register in our body as if they are really happening. Our story lines can trigger emotions that are powerful distractions and are hard to shake. These internal distractions, along with the worry, fear, guilt, or anger they trigger become the baggage we carry around as we go through life. They can be heavy burdens that interfere with our ability to transition from one experience to the next. They fracture our attention, inhibiting us from fully arriving, in the moment, able to experience life as it unfolds.
Sustaining our attention requires effort. There are times that being distracted is not necessarily harmful, especially for tasks that require very little effort. Studies have found that the energy we are willing to expend on a task is equal to the meaning it has in our lives. We are more likely to pay attention, even in distracting environments, when we believe the work we are doing is valuable and important. In the 1960’s, the psychologist Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi found that singular rewards such as money, fame, and possessions had less of an impact on sustained attention than the overall importance we attach to the activity. He coined the term flow to describe the deep sense of satisfaction we experience when we are absorbed in a task that resonates with our values and gives meaning to our lives. Dr. Csikszentmihalyi found that this state of sustained focus and attention is the critical element found in the lives of people who describe their lives as deeply satisfying.
The tricky thing about distractions is that we don’t always experience them as such. Many times distractions are intentional—we create them as a means to escape doing things we don’t like or wish to avoid. I know a woman who complains that her work keeps her from exercising, yet five days a week she prepares elaborate dinners for her family. I asked her if she might have more time to exercise if she scaled back on the gourmet dinners during the work week. She told me she had no choice—those dinners are what her children wanted. Since her “children” were young adults, I suspected she enjoyed cooking much more than exercise and was using her dinners as a convenient distraction.
Not all distractions are dangerous—we all engage in mind wandering or check Twitter from time to time, but over the long term, the cumulative effects of hacked attention can run deep. Since our attention directs our future actions, the price of distractions typically comes due at a later date, sometimes past the time when we can course correct. These types of distractions can be costly or irreversible—we procrastinate changing unhealthy habits, always busy doing other things, until one day the doctor is prescribing blood pressure medicine or telling us how to control our blood sugar. Perhaps the ultimate tragedy of distraction is when we eventually realize what we have lost because we simply failed to pay attention.
How do we safeguard our valuable resource of attention? It’s not always possible to shut off our phones, pull down the shades, and retreat into solitude. Faced with the innumerable external and internal distractions of our world, how do we cultivate the discipline and energy needed to stay present, to experience the sustained attention described by Csikszentmihalyi as flow?
The Yoga Sutras, written by Maharishi Patanjali over 2000 years ago, is considered the original textbook of Classical Yoga. In his text, Patanjali proposed one of the earliest Vedic philosophies for ending suffering. Like the Buddha three centuries before him, Patanjali proposed that suffering was caused by misplaced attention. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali sets forth a detailed plan to help us calm the endless fluctuations that are part of the workings of the human mind. He proposed that these fluctuations can only be calmed when we have developed sufficient levels of self-discipline and self-knowledge. Patanjali sets forth specific guidelines for building self-discipline, referred to as Yamas, that help us recognize the ways in which we chase after distractions and cling to them in our attempt to hold on to a fleeting sense of pleasure or as a way to avoid pain. He offers us a path to self-knowledge through the Niyamas, which highlight the daily practices we can cultivate to gain a deeper understanding of what is meaningful in our lives. Patanjali’s guidelines of the Yamas and Niyamas are as timely today as they were over 2000 years ago.
Over the next several weeks we’ll take a deeper look at how the Yamas and Niyamas can strengthen our attention and cultivate meaning in our lives. Patanjali’s text offers practical steps that help us navigate our noisy, busy world--both our internal and external environment. The Yamas and Niyamas are guidelines that can help us find balance; they are not a list of “should’s” but practices that guide us in a particular direction. My hope is that these practices will strengthen one of your most treasured resources--your attention. Let’s strengthen this thread that connects us to both the world and to ourselves, deepening our attention and, perhaps, changing the trajectory of our lives.
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