When we voluntarily place ourselves in environments of bombardment and context collapse, administering shocks to ourselves over and over again all day, we are not just making it harder to focus. We are dragging our souls through the mud. A fearful mind has a narrow, impoverished lens on the world. Others become less real. We become less real. Whole... See more

If there is one thing that I want to leave you with, it’s with a reminder that that decision is open to you too. Many well-funded and well-designed forces may be arrayed against this ability to move attention, and using it may require constant practice and maintenance against those forces, but it remains available for even the most despair- and... See more

the concept, popularized by danah boyd, of context collapse — what happens to information when it’s stripped of context and jumbled together. In short, the result is a profane meaninglessness that can short-circuit our ability not only to think, but to do anything at all.

The person who runs my native plant restoration group told me about a practice where you every time you encounter something beautiful, you take 10 breaths to appreciate it. I think this can be expanded beyond what is beautiful to what is meaningful, even that which feels unbearable. When you encounter something painful, resist the urge to... See more