How to: Slow Down and Pay Attention

And an audio recording to help with that.

Life comes at us so quickly. Years ago, I was driving, I don’t remember where, and braked for a yellow light. The driver behind me did not. There was no question that I would not have made it through before it turned red. Somehow, the man behind me swerved, missed rear-ending me, and slammed on his brakes in the middle of the intersection. I still remember his red-faced anger as he stormed towards my rolled-down window and berated me for “causing him” to swerve. If you know me, you know it took all of my self-restraint to say nothing. Instead, I did the deep breathing exercise that is this week’s audio recording.

This story reminds us that if we don’t pay attention, it can hurt other people. Have you seen those experiments where people miss someone walking by in a gorilla suit? It’s known as inattentional blindness and a quirk of the human brain. When we are engrossed in a task, especially when life is moving quickly, we miss things that are right in front of us.

But life does come right at us, so it is imperative to strengthen our ability to slow down. This week's news came at us fast. Big stories. Nonstop. Sorting through the sheer volume of it all, sussing out reporting bias, and checking public opinions and reactions becomes a time-consuming and troubling ordeal. We want objective facts and an awareness of how bad actors are obfuscating them. Getting there can be a chore. With so much information available at any given time, it can be hard to focus. It’s tempting to put down the phone, slam the computer shut, or turn off the television and go about your day. Especially if the news is upsetting.

But the skill of paying attention is possibly more important than ever. The phone in your pocket gives you the world at your fingertips. You can chat with a friend, get the news, order lunch, buy a car, learn a language, take a photo, play a video game with a stranger. It feels pointless to make a list because I am just scratching the surface. We can do so much that it’s become easy to get distracted and hard to pay attention.

Learning to harness your attention in a world like this is a superpower. Some of us have a habit of barely skimming the surface—numbing out to our phones to see the latest—more out of a sense of habit than anything, and maybe even repeating things we saw “somewhere.” Wouldn’t it be better to devote our full attention to the conscious discovery of what we need to see to stay informed so that the power to decide what is worth our attention lies with us and not an algorithm?

We need to slow down to be able to pay attention on our own terms. When we move too quickly, we miss things or skitter right past their import. When we don’t pay attention or don’t check the source, we can get it wrong. Modern life demands that we think critically. Actually doing so requires slowing down and paying attention.

But how? I’m glad you asked.

Slowing down your lifestyle is one thing. Spending time in nature, reading, creative projects, gardening, and the like are wonderful if you have time, but I realize some don’t. So if you are moving quickly and need to slow down suddenly, there is a way.