Distractions

Distractions are not all bad.

Equally, distractions are often not good.

Most distractions come in forms that derail us, take us away from what we were doing, in a somewhat destructive and eventually addictive way.

As our resolve is corroded and our dopamine (etc) thresholds get , it becomes progressively harder to maintain control of ourselves, our actions, our intentions, our lives.

We become reduced to a quivering wreck, working a bunch of hours every week, even every day, and all our free time gets spent on scrolling various feeds because we're too exhausted to do anything and too uninspired to dream, imagine or wish.

So let's think about how to crawl out of this, frankly dark, position.

There are ways, do not fear.

First of all, we have to recognise that we are in somewhat of an addictive vice. The details on this don't matter so much right now — rather, we just have to treat ourselves gently, as if we are helping our self to break out of the grip of addiction.

That is in fact exactly what we are doing.

Thus, don't fight yourself, don't hurt yourself, don't push yourself too hard, too fast.

If you try to change yourself too fast, your inner self won't have time to catch up with the new story, and won't have time to adapt to the new playbook. Gradual change is better because you can adapt. Fast change creates system shock. (More about system shock in another part.)

We are already distracted.

Let's use distractions as our leverage.

You must be honest with yourself about everything throughout this process.

Ok.

Are your distractions addictive? Are they addiction-forming? What is the activity model of your distractions? I recently played a game that, after a couple of weeks, I realised was literally modelled on addiction. It was not an addictive game. It was a gamified addiction.

You can surely replace such distractions with new ones, less addictive.

Are you distractions educational? Inspiring? What concepts do they teach you? What concepts do you they train you to believe? How do they train you to behave? Do they teach hyper-independence? Do they teach co-dependence?

Could they be teaching you positive things, like community and regeneration and recycling?

Could they be inspiring you to do positive things in the world?

Doubtless, there is tonnes of media that fits these ideas.

Your distractions could be inspiring you to become better, to be creative, to be helpful, compassionate, loving, kind.

Replace your current distractions with inpiring, positive and uplifting distractions.

Replace your addictive distractions with less-addictive distractions.

You will reclaim your mind, reclaim your resolve, reclaim your discipline, reclaim your time.

If there is more depth to go into about identifying and removing distractions