Do you ever come to the end of a day and wonder where your day went and why you didn’t get more done? Maybe you were distracted. Consider this: Was your distraction self-induced?
By self-induced I mean you were doing things that spent the minutes of your day unconsciously. Examples could include time spent on: Facebook, Twitter, surfing the Web, playing video games, rehashing past dialogues, watching TV mindlessly, too much time viewing sports/movies/YouTube, stuck in the habit of worrying, and wasting time doing things that don’t matter to you.
Distraction seems to have become one of the great American pastimes. You think you have to watch your favorite programs, keep up on your social media, root for your teams and deal with all of your emails.
Have you ever questioned all the time you spend distracting yourself?
What could you be doing if you weren’t distracting yourself?
You could be:
- Giving and receiving love
- Doing compassionate acts of kindness
- Expressing your creativity
- Appreciating yourself and the people you love
- Exploring awareness, consciousness, the light
- Counting your blessings
- Communing with nature
- Playing and having fun
- Writing a novel, a song, a poem
- Living in awe of the moment
- Enjoying peace of mind
- Communicating with your soul
- Starting a new venture
This list may put into question why you distract yourself when there are so many benefits from being consciously present to life.
If you decide to move away from distracting yourself, self-discipline will be helpful. If you are allergic to self-discipline, then this could be harder then it needs to be.
Try this practice or invent one that will work for you:
Notice what you are doing as you go through you day. If you catch yourself in distraction mode acknowledge what you are doing. Then ask - Is this really what you want to be doing?
Sometimes it will be because you need a break. However, most of the time it will be to keep you from doing something you don’t want to do or from feeling something you don’t want to feel. See if this is true for you.
Distraction serves a purpose. It’s up to you to determine if that purpose is beneficial or not. If not move towards what you know would serve you better.
Avoid any negativity towards yourself if you are caught in the act of distraction. Instead choose to appreciate when distraction serves you and to switch gears when your distraction is more avoidance then benefit.
The best tool to break from the distraction habit is awareness. With awareness everything is simplified. Either distracting yourself is helpful or it compromises the possibilities of what each moment has to offer.
A life free of distractions wouldn’t be much fun because some distractions are awesome. A life free of unconscious distractions would feel much more satisfying and rewarding.
Consider this: How much more alive, interesting and productive would you life be if you eliminated all the unconscious distraction in 2013?