training

Heard something today that seems obvious now but didn't really occur to me. Training attention is like training a muscle. If left untrained, the muscle weakens and it takes more and more effort to do less and less. And in the process of training it, extra energy is initially required to reach and sustain a new plateau of strength. After this more becomes possible with less effort and further levels become available.

Attention is something that I...haven't given enough attention to. I usually let my mind wander where it wants, even during a good portion of meditation. I'm a lot more mindful of its wanderings now but I still tend to give it quite a lot of space to roam. I'm typically in a near-constant state of psychological consumption too, always taking in information or stimulation.

I'd say my attention muscle is pretty weak right now. I definitely flit about and struggle with extended focus. It's good to have this analogy of the muscle so I can start putting in more of a concerted effort knowing that it'll be hard at first and then get easier, probably without me even noticing if I just put in some regular exercise time.