Deep Work

Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, I'm going to talk about distraction and the concept of deep work. We are living, as they say, in an age of distraction. And although the distractions can seem relatively harmless in the moment, they can cause all kinds of unintended consequences, large and small. Like when we're having an important conversation with a loved one and we're only half there, not fully present with them when they really needed us.

Or when we perform poorly or slowly at work, because we're not able to stay focused on our tasks and instead, we ended up clicking on things that pull us away from what's really important. Or when we pick up our phones while driving potentially putting ourselves in danger. So a big part of mindfulness training involves really training our minds to concentrate, which if you've ever tried, meditation is a hard thing to do even for 60 seconds straight when you begin. This skill, the ability to focus can give us incredible insight in meditation. We really learn a lot about ourselves through this practice.

But it also becomes immensely valuable when we take it off the mat or off the cushion and into our lives. So distractions often stumble our efforts to focus, and for good reason. The human brain is an incredible thing, but neuroscience is revealing that the brain has its limitations. And one of them is how incredibly sensitive we are to interruption and distraction. So our obsession with seeking out and consuming information is actually rooted in our ancient survival instincts.

So in a sense, distractability is in our nature. But we do need to temper it because in order to do anything well or appreciate anything fully, you need to pour our attention into it, hold it in our focus and savour it. So the question is, how do we do this in daily life? Now, of course, this is where mindfulness comes in. In meditation we're really learning to notice when we're swept away by thoughts and emotions. We keep training ourselves to return and anchor our attention over and over again.

In real life, the invitation here is to practice in the same way. So the sooner we can notice the pull of distraction, the sooner we can gently bring ourselves back. So as a practice for today, just simply notice when you're distracted and then bring your focus where you want it to be. When we can stay focused on whatever is in front of us at this very moment - this task, this conversation, this meal, this book, this step, this song - we're not only more effective in those moments, but we're also much more fulfilled in our whole daily lives. So I wish you well with this practice.

And as always, thank you for your practice. Let's settle in for today's meditation.