"Recover your mind and your will, which are busying themselves elsewhere, you are drowning away and scattering yourselves. Concentrate yourself back. You are being betrayed, disipated, robbed."
Michel De Montaigne who wrote this, was born in 1533 and died in 1592 but this could have been written today. We are distracted and our attention is lost from the moment we awake and we reach for our phones or listen to the news headlines on the radio. I can be a fight from then until we return to bed to wrestle any moments of peace from all the distractions the modern world offers.
If we do find ourselves in a quiet place often we are bored or restless because we are out of practice of justing sitting with our thoughts. It feels uncomfortable and we seek more distraction.
I don't mean to suggest technology or modern life is bad. I am very fond of modern hygiene, medicine and life expectancy! In fact, I often recommend people I work with use their phones to break remind them to take a break from the daily distractions of life. However, I think technology is something we need to manage and utilise for our benefit rather than have it, and the organisations who develop it, take advantage of our attention.
Taking time away from all the distractions the world offers and seeing what is going on in our minds leads to a wider acceptance of self, improved creative thinking and higher level of wisdom and compassion...we could all use more of that.
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