STRENGTHENING ATTENTION IS KEY TO GROWING HEALTH

Photo by Susanne Jutzeler on Pexels.

“A man is what he does with his attention.” —John Ciardi

NAVIGATING LIFE REQUIRES ATTENTION

To pay attention is to be able to focus the mind on something for a sustained period of time. Sustained focus is required for navigating life well. A recent experience of inattentiveness illustrated this for me.

As I was driving one sunny fall afternoon, my attention was focused on a meeting I was about to attend. Suddenly a Wake County Sheriff’s Office electronic speed recording sign came into view, riveting my attention back to driving. I realized that I was going ten miles over the posted speed limit in a neighborhood where children, dog walkers, and cyclists frequent the street. Fortunately, no sheriff’s deputy accompanied the sign, but it was a good reminder about how, even in small matters, the capacity to pay attention is crucial.

It is common for our minds to drift away from tasks at hand or to be pulled away by other—often more stimulating—topics and activities. Limitless connectivity exposes us to excessive information and stimuli that constantly pull our attention away, often in little drips that we may think of as annoying. But according to technology ethicist James Williams, there are additional and significant downsides. Williams writes, “In the short term, distractions can keep us from doing the things we want to do. In the longer term, however, they can accumulate and keep us from living the lives we want to live, or, even worse, undermine our capacities for reflection and self-regulation.”

Fortunately, attention can be trained, and we can develop the skills needed for maintaining better balance and control in today’s environment.

ATTENTION CAN BE TRAINED

“The natural tendency of attention when left to itself is to wander to ever new things,” explained psychologist William James in an 1890 essay. James continued, “If we wish to keep [attention] upon the same object, we must seek constantly to find out something new about [it], especially if other powerful impressions are attracting us away.”

In this regard, there is no such thing as voluntary sustained attention. Instead, we must make successive efforts to bring our attention back to the object of our consideration. To train our attention, we must first be aware of its need for training. We must be determined to intervene, and we must practice bringing our attention back again and again until this pattern becomes second nature. This level of consistent practice and skill helps us to mitigate excessive distraction, restore mental focus, and learn new ideas and concepts.

STRENGTHENING ATTENTION IS KEY TO GROWING HEALTH

Deepening our attentional abilities also enables us to meaningfully connect with new concepts about health and well-being and new methods for growing them. These methods permeate the High Health Network and support our goal of helping Network members build valuable skills that grow the high health needed to navigate successfully and prosper in our complex and demanding society.

If you want to strengthen your attention and grow your health, contact us and find out more.

Joyce M. Young, MD, MPH
Managing Director, Advanced Wellness Systems
Lead Expert for The High Health Network

Photo by Pixabay

“Pay attention to the frog. Pay attention to the west wind. Pay attention to the boy on the raft, the lady in the tower, the old man on the train. In sum, pay attention to the world and all that dwells therein and thereby learn at last to pay attention to yourself and all that dwells therein.” —Frederick Buechner

Sincerely,
Your colleagues at Advanced Wellness Systems