Wasted Time, The Habituated Mind, and Empowerment

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” -Annie Dillard

I was feeling nostalgic about how I wasted time before the existence of the smart phone. Pre-smartphone time-wasting had a certain richness to it. My kids won’t look back on their middle school days and recall the kind of freedom I do when I look back at mine - I’m not sure they have ever experienced that wholly untethered world. When I wasted time at home, I’d do something creative or productive, not once consulting or interrupting the flow by peeking at a screen, or that energy-sap of longing for any sort of electronic connection, because I was connecting with myself and my environment. I was able to do this because at that time I had no habitual, annoying, internal pull to look at a device that could offer me an escape or a “connection". Nobody could get ahold of me once I left my house, nor could I get ahold of others, unless there was a pay phone somewhere and I had a dime to drop. This did not concern me in the least! Once I walked out my front door I was free, no invisible strings keeping me from fully embracing Now. 

The creation of well-worn pathways

The invisible strings I speak of are neural pathways that I unwittingly reinforced over the years, by (over) engaging with my mobile phone, computer, and even my television. Often because I was wasting time in the name of avoiding something unpleasant or “dull". You’ve probably done this, too. We create deep, well-worn neural pathways with our thought patterns, too. Each time we engage in anything, thinking, conversation, exercise, reading, we are programing ourselves, sculpting our minds and our lives. Repeated engagement in any of these creates a potential habit. We humans have tremendous influence over the way our minds are programed, and most of us, including me, don’t take full advantage of this power. Some of us don’t even know this power exists, and we're always at the mercy of the conditions and situations we “find" ourselves in. Perhaps we don’t take advantage of this power because we are unaware that we are making choices, or that we can make different choices. Change requires us to become aware, which is something habits can rob us of. 

“We may not be responsible for the world that created our minds, but we can take responsibility for the mind with which we create our world.” ~Gabor Maté

What are you paying attention to?

So what can any of us do to get ahold of the potential power of our minds? The first step is to pay attention, without judgment, to your experience. I recognize “without judgment” will be difficult for most, and that is okay, just notice. The human experience is accessed through the senses. Pay attention to how your mind perceives the input of your senses. Pay attention to the feelings these perceptions evoke. Pay attention to, or notice, what habits have come from these perceptions and feelings. These seemingly small moments of attuning to our present experience are what significant changes are made of.