Finding Stillness in a System Built for Distraction

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Ever feel like you're just not cut out for mindfulness? Like your wandering mind proves you're somehow failing at the whole concept? Take a deep breath – this episode is about to change how you see your mindfulness journey forever.

The truth is startling: your struggle isn't about discipline or personality. Research shows the average person's attention span has plummeted to just 47 seconds before switching tasks, with each interruption costing up to 23 minutes of focused thinking. We're attempting mindfulness in a world literally engineered to fracture our attention, where tech companies profit from your distraction and society rewards busyness as a status symbol.

Let's liberate mindfulness from its marketing. Forget the curated Instagram aesthetic of expensive yoga pants, whispery voices, and salt lamps. Real mindfulness isn't a performance – it's simply intentional attention. Walking mindfully, washing dishes with presence, or taking three deep breaths before checking emails all activate your prefrontal cortex, lower cortisol, and improve dopamine regulation just as effectively as formal meditation.

This episode offers practical strategies for thriving in our distraction-dominated world. Learn to redefine what counts as mindfulness, build micro-practices into daily transitions, and most importantly, laugh when it goes sideways. When your mind inevitably wanders, that moment of noticing and gently bringing it back IS the practice – it's not failure, it's a mental rep.

Ready to transform your relationship with mindfulness? Listen now and discover why you're not bad at mindfulness – you're just living in a very loud world and still showing up to try. That's not failure. That's commitment.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome back to another edition of GW Unspoken,
where we discuss stuff we don'ttypically talk about but
probably should Look.
We're in episode six in ourmindfulness series.
If you've been secretlythinking I'm just not good at
this mindfulness thing, thenguess what this episode is
definitely for you, and you'reprobably not alone.
I'm here to tell you.
We love it.
We love a little bit of sassand you're actually not bad at

(00:42):
mindfulness.
You just try and do it in avery loud world.
So let's unpack that.
So many of us are thinking thatwe're failing at mindfulness
because we can't sit still,because our brains wander off
like a dog with no leash.
But here's the truth yourstruggle with mindfulness isn't
about discipline or personalityor even trauma whether that can

(01:02):
play a role.
It's about the environment youare in.
We live in a world that's builtto fracture your attention all
the time.
You've probably gotnotifications every 4.2 seconds,
multiple screens open at once,and we live in a place not only
in Australia but in the worldwhere productivity culture
rewards busyness over stillness.
You heard someone say beforeyou ask someone how busy they

(01:22):
are, how are you going?
And they go oh, I'm just sobusy and it's like a status
symbol right.
So if you're struggling to bemindful, it's not because you're
weak.
It's probably because you'rewired for survival in a system
that thrives on your distraction.
And, believe me, if you'resomeone who's on laptops with
emails or screens, it'shappening all the time.

(01:44):
The tech companies are gettingpaid to distract you.
So what does the science say?
Let's look at this for a second, and I'm going to read this
word for word here.
A 2022 study in the Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience showed
that the average person'sattention span has dropped to
just 47 seconds before switchingtasks, and every time we

(02:07):
interrupt it, it takes up to 23minutes to get back into
actually focused thinking.
So that's like losing your keys17 times a day, except this
time, it's your focus.
So when you attempt mindfulnessin this context, your brain is
failing because it's protectingitself from overload.
Here's another fun factMindfulness doesn't require

(02:30):
silence.
It doesn't require cross-leggedsitting under a triangle.
In fact, walking, meditation,doing dishes mindfully, drinking
your coffee without checkingyour phone, walking your dog
that all counts as mindfulness.
So neurologically, it's stillengaging your prefrontal cortex,
which means that thinking partof your brain and for that to

(02:50):
engage it means it lowers yourcortisol, that stress response
system and actually improvesyour dopamine regulation.
So you're not being distractedall the time.
Now, if you're out therethinking out there, listen to
this with kids, you're probablythinking out there now going.
Yeah, I can see kids gettingdistracted all the time, right?
So let's bring it back a bitironically.

(03:12):
Let's have some focusedattention on you.
How are you going with yours?
This podcast is about youthinking about how you're going
with your mindfulness right now.
So let's talk about theelephant in this salt lamp lit
room.
Here we go ready.
Mindfulness has been marketedlike a wellness performance.
You've seen it.
The curator's doing this.
The $300 yoga pants, the slowwhispery voices when the rain

(03:35):
sounds in the background, thoselovely mindfulness pictures on
your TV and I suppose that has alot of us you know, especially
the busy people in theneuro-virgin, the parents, the
trauma survivors.
Feeling like mindfulness justisn't for us right, and that's
BS.
Mindfulness isn't a mood board,it's a moment of presence, any
moment where you notice you'realive and breathing and you

(03:58):
choose not to react toeverything that's pulling at you
.
You don't need to look mindful,you need to practice noticing,
noticing you're in a moment.
So let me tell you whatmindfulness has looked like for
me this week?
How about, number one, notyelling at the dog when he

(04:21):
suddenly drips my boat cover offin time, about catching myself
before snapping at someone whobreathed wrong in my direction,
maybe because I had a lack ofsleep, or maybe taking three
deaths deep breaths beforeopening my email inbox and then,
when opening up, going, okay, Ineed three more deep breaths
and then getting into it.
So mindfulness doesn't make youenlightened, it makes you

(04:42):
slightly less reactive and, man,we need that in a society these
days, don't we?
It actually makes you a littlebit more grounded and definitely
more self-aware and overall,that's the win.
It's not a sudden feeling of,oh yes, I've done my deep
breathing today, gary, and now Ifeel amazing.
I'm going to do this every timeI get distracted, those 17

(05:02):
times.
It's not about that, it's thatfocus attention.
So here's a bit of a plan, Isuppose, in our distracting
world.
Here's how to stop thinkingyou're failing and making it
work, because a lot of people dogive up on mindfulness because
they think, you know, it justdoesn't work for me.
I'm still stressed, I'm stillworried, or, you know, I'm not
that kind of person.
So, number one redefine whatreally counts.

(05:26):
So mindfulness is intentionalattention.
That's it.
Walking, driving, sipping a cupof tea, no phone All that stuff
counts as mindfulness.
Me making a cup of coffee at4.45 in the morning this morning
and pouring it into the cup andjust focusing on the heat, is
it going to be the right taste?

(05:46):
That's focused attention.
Number two build it intotransitions.
So what was before walking outof your house today?
Take a breath before yourespond to something.
Close your eyes, maybe for 10seconds, between tasks,
obviously, if you're not driving.
Just try and do that.
Just take 10 seconds and buildit into a routine.
You might just do that eventhree times a day.
That's 30 seconds.

(06:07):
Why not?
What if it works?
And also laugh when it goessideways.
I do that with the kids oftenwhen I was doing a life skills
class and taking them out tothis beautiful quad area we were
at and they'd sit in circles orget them to move first and get
into groups and have a bit of alaugh and giggle and get them to
connect, sit down in the quadand then actually tell them to

(06:27):
be still and it's very, very,very hard to get some like three
or four students still andstereotypically it was boys
still and when talking, somelike three or four students
still and statistically it wasboys still and went and talked
to them afterwards.
Because you can't get peopletrying to practice mindfulness.
But these boys and I don'tthink it's coincidence were
massive gamers, massive gamers.

(06:47):
So the don't means being dialedup.
So when you get distracted and,believe me, your brain will
start wondering when you'retrying to do mindfulness, but it
does gently pull it back andsay, cool, okay, I noticed that
that's the practice, that's therep.
You're not trying to controlyour mind, you're sort of
building a relationship with it.

(07:08):
So when you actually focusyourself, being distracted
that's again, focus attentionAll you have to do is bring it
back.
Don't bag yourself and say,well, there you go, I'm not All
right.
So hopefully that's opened yourbrain to start trying something
different, because the researchhas shown that mindfulness is
so good for us in a heavilybuilt society where we are

(07:28):
distracted all the time, wherewe get praised for busyness, all
right.
So here's three prompts I'd likethis week for you guys to write
down.
Number one when have you beentoo hard on yourself for failing
at mindfulness and what couldyou do to redefine that?
Instead, all right, what haveyou tried and said?
This is just not me.

(07:49):
This is not me.
All right, write it down.
Number two what externaldistractions are stealing your
peace and how can you mute them,move or even manage one of them
?
All right, what's distractingyou?
And, last of all, what's onething you do every day that you
know you could turn into amindfulness movement, even for

(08:10):
30 seconds.
We talked about it.
It's not sitting on a triangleand humming or having that
background music of the rainfallin the forest.
It's not about that.
So what are some things you canactually think?
Yeah, I'm taking three breathsbefore I drive in the car, or
three breaths before my workouttoday, or before I meet the kids
for breakfast this morning ordinner tonight.
What's 30 seconds I can justhave right now, because this is

(08:33):
a reminder.
My friend, this is it.
You're not bad at mindfulness.
You're just living in a veryloud, very distracting world and
still showing up to try, andthat's not failure, that's
actually commitment.
So again, this podcast justdoesn't talk about mindfulness.
We actually practice it.
We mess it up, we laugh alongthe way and I'll catch you next

(08:53):
week, thank you.