Nope, "How to fix an attention span."

Hello Members,

I opened today’s Sunday conversation topic in the free subscribers’ email with an embedded newsletter article about getting people off their phones. As you know, as members you get a second email each Sunday where I explore the same topic to a deeper level and unpack some of the itchier content from a mindfulness perspective. I call this lab work because we get our hands dirty with topics that are not easy to explore and don’t have simple answers.

The newspaper article I referenced had both a title and a subtitle.

Title: “You might just have to be bored”
Subtitle: "Or: How to fix an attention span."

I agreed enough with the title and the theme of the article that I forwarded it to all our free subscribers. The article explores an appropriate Tier 1 thought process skillfully.

But then, there’s our lab work part. As a mindfulness practitioner/learner, I can’t just leave well enough alone sometimes. The author included an alternative title for this article “how to fix an attention span.”

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, boi.
Now we can get our mindfulness hands dirty.

With that subtitle, this has now become a Tier 2 conversation about the impulse to fix.

Please take a full breath.

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I am not at all saying there’s anything wrong with the article. Within the context of the internet, it’s better than most. I like it.

What I am saying is that, within the context of mindfulness practice, the article is incomplete. Folks who do not practice might not like what I have to say.

To the author Kate Lindsey’s credit, she did include a lot of great ideas such as: “But if you’re looking to unlearn the need for constant stimulation, then that requires abstaining from constant stimulation—not all at once, which I think is the most common method that leads to this feeling impossible, but slowly and intentionally.”

Her paragraph is a great reflective moment as a Tier 1 launching pad to learning mindfulness.

But here at Mindful Boston’s Tier 2, we’re going to deepen the conversation towards considering why a title with “how to fix” is so very click-bait-able.

The full title and subtitle could be expanded as: “You might just have to be bored. How to fix an attention span.” Or re-translated as: “How to fix an attention span: you might just have to be bored.”

At this point the mindfulness practitioners in the room have a lot to chew on.

We are holding the ideas of fixing, or not fixing, bored-as-necessity (question mark?), bored-as-goal (question mark?), boredom as a mis-labeling of other emotional or spiritual experiences, questions about what is the opposite of bored, what is the definition of bored, what are the underpinnings beneath the bored sensations, what even are the sensations of boredom, is there a near enemy of boredom, is there a near friend of boredom…
You get the idea behind this form of inquiry.

If you have not yet done a two day silent retreat, this inquiry will be hazy. I recommend sitting with this topic for two days of intentional silence if you would like to unpack it and give it enough space to fully nurture and inform your practice.

Also, ask me about the topic of “near friend” some time. I will talk your ear off. (Grin!)

Thanks for your attention,
-Gena

If you have ideas or comments about the intersections of fixing, mindfulness, silence, near friends, boredom, and phone use, please use the comments section.

The next Interpersonal Mindfulness Labs at our studio will be Sunday January 19th at 3pm. Our menu can include a conversation about what the real antidotes to boredom are, if you happen to vote for that practice topic.