A Real Habit that's Impacting our Health

Yes that's right - A real habit / daily practice that's impacting our health... in a NEGATIVE WAY.

Matthew Inman (aka "The Oatmeal") shares this reminder in his hilarious cartoon here:

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/human_time

I love "The Oatmeal's" work. It was a client, back around 2014-2015 who gave me my first book by Matthew Inman called "The terrible and wonderful reasons why I run long distances" (a classic in my mind). This was then followed by another I received called "How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you". Another instant classic... LOL

After reading his cartoon via the link above, I think we can all agree we've all have done this ourselves here and there, but we also know at least a few people who are exactly THIS person. And THIS is related to our daily practices ... or put in other terms - what we DO MOST OFTEN.

In the case of this cartoon, it's reminding us that the more we practice having a SHORT attention span, the BETTER we get at having a SHORT attention span!!!  

Often we then start to conjure up all kinds of ideas in our head on a regular basis...

"Do I have the onset of alzeihmer's or dementia?"

"I must be getting old"

"Why can't I get things done?"

"Why can't I relax and sit still sometimes?"

"Why can't I relax my mind so I CAN relax?"

"Why can't I stick with anything?"

An added "bonus" to this practice - The INABILITY to LISTEN and TAKE IN information "improves"... "Oh boy!"

I'm not saying you "should" stop social media, using your phone/devices etc... I DO believe we NEED to improve WHY and HOW we use our devices and apps for the sake of our health and wellbeing.

But that's my individual opinion.

(A wonderful book to dive deeper into the WHY and HOW idea is "Digital Minimalism" by Cal Newport. )

However, what I DO believe we NEED TO DO is STOP being so surprised that ALL these things are happening to us!!! If you find some of the above phrases are things you're saying or thinking often, take an honest step back and ask yourself:

"What am I doing MOST often?"

By doing just that, you may find your answer and can then more easily sort out a course of action to lead you in the right direction. If that's what you want. Even if it's not, at the very least you can SLOW or STOP the constant negative self-talk of the worst possible scenarios (i.e. a disease/condition). Instead you can be satisfied with knowing it's just what you practice most!

The next time someone says..... "Are you paying attention!?"

You can say..... "Nope! I've been practicing only holding my attention to things that are less than 30sec. And I'm getting better at it!"

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How to IMPROVE your FOCUS and ATTENTION SPAN

As discussed often here on the Zen Blog, WHAT WE DO MOST OFTEN OUR BODY ADAPTS TO and WE GET BETTER AT IT. In this case, we want to do the opposite of taking in "short snippets" of information/entertainment and practice holding our focus for longer durations. For some people, you may need to start with just a couple minutes of focus and build from there.

Here are a few ideas, but of course there are TONS of ways we can practice focus and attention...

• Keep your social media use limited to once or twice daily and/or only for a specific length of time

• After checking your social media, put your phone away. Ideally in another room, drawer etc for a while.

• Read books, longer articles or your favourite blog (THE ZEN BLOG I hear is quite good!)

• When you are having a conversation with a friend or family member, keep the phone away. Intentionally look at them, listen and be present (rather than worrying about what's on your phone every 5min)

• Learn how to meditate (I may know someone who can help with that.... )

• Get out into nature; go for a walk, a paddle, a run, a bike ride ... (without your phone. If you want it for safety, turn off all notifications and keep it in your pocket until you're done)

• Choose a project, hobby etc and practice doing JUST THAT task until it's completed.

Again, there are SO MANY ways we can practice focus, attention and listening better. It doesn't have to be fancy or even very long. Just consistent / often.

What we practice MOST we become good at.