Feel the urge
Be curious
Feel the joy of letting go
Repeat
~So… I renamed something that already exists for myself since I’m trying to use it to optimize the currency of attention. I’m sure it's out there somewhere and I’ll change this when I find it. For my personal use, I’ve taken a classic therapy concept that Dr. Jud Brewer (addiction psychiatrist & mindfulness expert & neuroscientist) uses to help people quit cigarettes. BTW his method I believe is 5 times better(after 4 months of treatment) than the “Gold Standard” treatment doctors use to help patients quit smoking.
The method is simple but difficult to internalize and habitualize. If you feel the urge to smoke you pause, really feel that urge, be curious about the urge, then feel the joy of letting go.
Feel the urge
Be curious
Feel the joy of letting go
Repeat
This is simply a mental cycle, that can be done in less than 20 seconds I think it can be applied to anything going on in your head. Dr. Brewer has already expanded it with phone apps that help with unhealthy eating, anxiety, and used it in a scientific study that helped decrease burnout among doctors.
so I’m using it 14 times a day (tracking with the Strides app) to build the habit of bringing my attention back to what I really want it to be focused on.
I’ve renamed it my “Attention Investment Cycle.” I call it this because I was inspired to increase my wealth by increasing my attention on what I prefer to 'attend to'. This is explained in my post titled: “True Wealth...what we do with our Attention" - Sam Harris
Today I’m trying to 7 hours of Python code learning. Inevitably my mind will wander, but I’m trying to train myself to habitualize this method to focus my attention. The beauty of this is that I’m joyfully letting go of these distractions. So this cycle of not just letting go but JOYFULLY letting go should actually make this entire endeavor better and better as I get better and better.
None the less my new MIQ is all about figuring out how habitualize this and I’m betting it will make me kinder, deeper, happier, and more productive all around.
We’ll see eh?