Unleash Your Attention

Unleash your attention from the distractions that demand it.

Imagine you reach for your phone to check your email or favorite app of the moment, and this time, your mother begins to tell you a story. You could be so absorbed in your thoughts about what you're checking on your phone that you ignore her entirely. Or you might dismiss her abruptly, causing her to feel hurt. Even after five minutes, you might not even remember this episode.

This is how many people live their lives, even after practicing meditation.

But the more you cultivate mindfulness, the greater your freedom in such situations.

You can recognize your mother's attempt to get your attention and understand that it's competing with your urge to be elsewhere mentally. When mindfulness is present, you can sense the urge to check your phone as an energy pattern in your body and release it, breaking the link between the feeling and the behavioral drive.

So instead of responding to the urge, you can simply let it go.

And, by doing so, you can direct your full attention to your mother's story. In that moment, you can fully appreciate its significance and strengthen this new habit.

By changing your brain, you can become the type of person who is fully present in these moments, not just for yourself but for your family, too.

This is just a 30-second snippet of life.

By meditating, you open up hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of similar moments throughout the day. These are opportunities for making choices that wouldn't have existed otherwise.

But without mindfulness, there's no room for meaningful decisions. As you advance in mindfulness practice, you'll start to see through the lies you once told yourself about how you move through the world and gain insight into your true motives, even if they're unflattering.

But these insights are valuable because they help you become a better person.

This is what it means to live an examined life. So don't meditate merely because it's good for you.

It's worth much more than that.