Harnessing Attention and Overcoming Distraction

To begin this podcast, I wanna read a couple of paragraphs from 2 books that I have found to be very helpful. One of them is called The Virus of the Mind by Richard Brody. Subtitle is The New Science of the Mean, and the other one is a book called Indistractable by Nir Eyal. And it follows the things that we've been talking about as it relates to our attention is the most important commodity that we have. So here's a statement from Virus of the Mind by Richard Brody.

The idea of paying attention plays a central role in understanding memes. A meme is M E M E. So, in other words, a meme is a unit of information that tends to be repeated over and over again. It's a central idea that gains power in an individual or a culture. Anyway, so a meme that lots of people pay attention to will be more successful than a meme that few notice.

So over the millions of years necessary for major genetic evolution to take place, we aren't surprised find that most animals, including ourselves, have a genetic tendency to pay attention to the things that were important in getting us to where we are today, Danger, Food, and Sex. In our search for mind viruses then, our first candidates will be situations that push 1 or more of these 4 buttons, anger, fear, hunger, and lust, and thus draw our attention, our precious attention to a use of our consciousness for which, upon reflection, we would not choose to spend it. That's a powerful paragraph, And I have seen that come true over and over again, in which Individuals who have been involved in the therapeutic process, they're coming to try to find ways to gain control over their attention. And that's what addiction is. Addiction is a very powerful triggering mechanism in in the brain, the human brain, particularly the limbic system, that draws someone, that takes over the control of the prefrontal, rational, cognitive part of the brain, and gets one acting in ways that, as Richard Brodie said, upon reflection, we would not choose to spend it.

That's the core issue that I'm dealing with in the therapeutic office is that people are saying, I don't wanna do this anymore, and yet they have a tendency to go back to it over and over again. Hence, The work needs to be done with strengthening the prefrontal cortex, learning to gentle this instinctive part of the brain, Not Fight It. And see these memes for for food, anger, and lust are so powerful because they're survival mechanisms. It has the capacity And and if you really look at the way the human brain works, when we see things through our eyes, It hits the limbic part of our brain first where it determines whether we're safe or not. And then that information is relayed to our conscious mind.

So the challenge, unless we are hyper attentive to what we are allowing ourselves to see, we can easily be hijacked. Because once an individual starts down the path, it's like an alcoholic taking the 1st drink. I can control my behavior. Until he takes the 1st drink, and then it's done. Right?

Then there's chemicals that chewed off in the brain that make it extremely unlikely to pull away from the track that that individual is on. And and the other statements, this comes from the book, Indestractable. The untutored mind does not like to be alone with itself. It's no surprise, therefore, that most of the top 25 websites in America sell, escape from our daily drudgery, whether through shopping, celebrity gossip, or bite sized doses of social interaction. The psychological factor driving us to distraction is something called negativity bias, a phenomenon in which Negative events are more salient and demand attention more powerfully than neutral for positive events.

As the author of 1 study concluded, quote, it appears to be a basic pervasive fact of psychology that bad is stronger than good at grabbing attention. Such pessimism begins very early in life. Babies begin to show signs of negativity bias starting at just 7 months of age suggesting this tendency is inborn. As further evidence, Researchers believe we tend to have an easier time recalling bad memories than good ones. Studies have found people are more likely to recall unhappy moments in their childhood even if they would describe their upbringing as generally happy.

Now negativity bias almost certainly gave us an evolutionary edge. Good things are nice, but bad things can kill you, which is why we pay attention to and remember the bad stuff first. Useful, but what a bummer. Okay. That's and then I'm ending the reading there.

So that's so when you gain a deeper understanding of how the human brain works just by nature, an understanding that we we truly are hardwired to respond in certain ways, then the answer becomes focusing on becoming more proactive, More, aware. That's why mindfulness practice on a daily basis is so critical. For example, I mentioned this in a previous podcast, but box breathing, for example. I've had a number of clients ask me, what why what use is it to box breathe? So If if you if you're you're not aware what box breathing is, just just picture a box or a square.

So you inhale to a count of 4, hold your breath to a count of 4, exhale to a count of 4, hold for a count of 4, and so forth. So the very purpose of practicing box breathing 5 Minutes a Day, is to teach your prefrontal part of the brain to stay alert, Stay mindful and aware because the mind just drifts by nature, and you have to have you have to train it to come back. Mindfulness, my definition of mindfulness, is simply bringing a wandering mind back to quality thoughts over and over and over again Because the mind by nature moves. That's the only thing that's constant in life is is movement in change. We never stay the same.

Even I I struggle even with the word now because now seems to indicate that we can grab and stop something, but we can't because Now just left. There is no now. There is only movement. And so practicing box breathing teaches the prefrontal cortex to focus just on the breath for a period of 5 minutes. And so that relates into our daily lives that we can set intentional goals, intentionally choose to plug our energy leaks with things that are draining us.

So when the temptation comes, When the trigger comes, we can say, I am aware of that, and I know it's powerful. I am aware of it. I, however, choose, because I do have the power of choice, I choose to move in a different direction. I choose to get engaged physically in doing something different. That is your gift.

The greatest gift that you have and I have is the power of choice. So this next period of time, take from this podcast, Own that power. Be jealous of your energy. Keep it to where you can make the most, most of your life and move in in the direction that you choose proactively rather than simply reacting to the world.