Attention: Why is it so hard?

I don’t know how old you are. But growing up, we had vast swathes of time doing nothing. We also spent a lot of our time doing just one thing.

But today, attention is an acquired skill.

You need to work on it to be able to pay attention to anything. How did we get to a point where the most basic skill, being able to pay attention, became an acquired skill?

The fault lies to some extent with technology. To illustrate, as a child, I would have a book in my hand. The book was a prized possession, something that I had to work with my parents to acquire.

Once in my hand, I had no other distractions. The book did not come with notifications. Since I had little else to do, reading for hours became a habit.

Today I read on my kindle. It might seem basic, but you can highlight a word to see its meaning. That one act derails me. I go down the rabbit hole of going to the internet.

My attention is divided.

Before I know it, my attention is lost. It all seems productive. Which is why it is seductive. The ability to connect one piece of information with another on the fly.

But what suffers is my ability to concentrate. To give undivided attention to something.

Why does all this matter?

Your brain builds connections each time you are stimulated. The more focused your attention, the stronger your neural connections. You are learning, consolidating the knowledge and building strong foundations.

When you have divided attention, your cognition weakens. You pick up bits and pieces of information, which you partially understand.

Your brain is in a constant state of arousal, stimulated by varying disconnected information.

The result is fatigue, poor memory and get the irony - poor attention span. Your inability to focus makes you lose the ability to focus.

Reach out to me on twitter @rbawri Instagram @riteshbawriofficial and YouTube at www.youtube.com/breatheagain