DISTRACTIONS

The most common hurdle is losing Concentration and being pulled away by a sensory experience that you were not paying attention to. The most common distraction is being caught in thinking! This is actually a completely natural response. When your brain is not busy doing a task or when it gets bored, an area of the brain named the default mode network kicks in and activates the self-referential system. The self-referential system is what you experience when your inner voice becomes activated and starts reviewing how you are doing, who you are, or what is going on. When you notice this is happening during a mindfulness exercise, first you can be proud of yourself when you detect it. This is the first step, no matter how long you were distracted for. Most people may actually play the inner tape of shame and blame when they catch themselves being distracted. Rather than using punishment (shame and blame), you can recondition yourself by giving yourself positive reinforcement every time you detect that you are distracted. After all, you don’t have much control on your default mode network! With time, you will notice that you become more and more focussed.

Detecting a distraction is actually a sign of good Sensory Clarity! Moreover, when you notice that you are no longer keeping track of a sensory experience, you also have a golden opportunity to detect what other sensory experience(s) distracted you. You may have already discovered that thinking as an activity is expressed in mental talk or mental images. In addition to working on Sensory Clarity, distractions force you to work on your Concentration muscle as well. Every time you are caught in inner talk or lost in mental images, you have to gently bring back the focus to the mindfulness exercise. This builds Concentration. Lastly, as you gently resume the mindfulness exercise in a matter of fact way, without shaming or blaming yourself for having a very natural brain that works the way it works, you also work on your Inner Balance skill by not trying to repress or cling to the activity of thinking. You can also gently resume the exercise with a loving touch, and give yourself some compassion. Even though you might experience challenges with your thinking mind, you are still making progress and working on your mindfulness skills.

A similar challenge is that as you try to focus on X and your attention is drawn to Y, a sensory event outside the focus range (other than thinking) occurs. For example, you try to focus on what you see, but your attention is distracted by a strong emotional sensation that you feel in your chest, some discomfort that you experience in your lower back, or the sound of a dog barking. The strategy in this case would be the same as above. When you notice that you are no longer paying attention to the desired object of focus (what you see in the above example), gently bring your attention back to the object of focus with kindness. If the distraction (a strong emotional sensation for example) is still present, allow it to be in the background of your awareness without trying to make it go away. Bring the spotlight of your attention to the object of focus in the foreground of your awareness. By doing so, you would be working on your three mindfulness core skills even in the presence of distractions.

Labelling is a great strategy for the above two situations where your attention is either caught in thinking (mental talk, mental images) or your attention is pulled to another sensory event that is not in your focus range. Labels act as a natural biofeedback mechanism. When you are no longer labelling, it prompts you to assess if you are distracted. There are different ways of labelling that might help in different situations. The pacing (how often) of your labels may help you to keep your Concentration. The intensity of the labels may also foster Concentration. When you are stable and focussed, labels are an option. When you are distracted now and again, mental labels may come in handy. When you are hardly able to keep the focus, spoken labels are the next step. Spoken labels can be mouthed, normally voiced, or strongly spoken. The more intensity in the labels, the more it keeps you focussed. Depending on how distracted you are, you may want to use a strategy that is applicable to your situation.  

You can also increase your Concentration when taking a more active role in your mindfulness exercise. When you passively let your attention go wherever it wants to go, you may be prone to distractions. If you decide to take a more active role and direct your attention to a specific object of focus, you are less likely to become distracted. In the second phase of noting, the soaking part, you can put all your energy in deeply focussing for a brief instant and thus would be less likely to be carried away by another sensory event.