Ted Lasso or Breaking Bad?
Two popular TV shows are rated below based on IMDB ratings. Looking at the charts, which would you prefer to watch?
Series heat map
Do you prioritize uplifting storytelling or a dark, intense drama? Which can you handle: Ted Lasso or Breaking Bad? Which sounds like it’s in your entertainment wheelhouse?
Ratings, titles, quantity of episodes, and the quality of a show are a few filters to get to what you’ll pay attention to. Every day, over and over again, you’re filtering, then prioritizing. This why-and-what system includes managing how well or not-so-well your focused, deliberate attention will be. You can replenish that system with mental and cognitive recovery.
Recovery builds the skills to filter with habits of mind then to carefully consider prioritizing what you want to focus effort on. Problems paying attention tend to crack open other problems. You can plug the leak, reduce stress, and improve your capacity to change with recovery.
Cognitive and behavioral challenges are a set of conditions, not a lot in life. Reframe your identity narratives. You (along with everyone else) are a complex individual and desiring common “distractions” or less deeply engaging activities is normal. Practice self-compassion. You’re also absolutely capable of making very small changes. Recovery makes focused effort manageable.
Two researched methods that are positively-correlated with improving focus, attention, self-efficacy and capability are forest-bathing and land-based healing. Alternatively, hold attention to less active or stimulating activities with soft-fascination. Gaze with wonder or awe while you’re in nature.
Do you prioritize intentional attention or mildly stimulating attention?
Which can you handle: focus or distraction?
There are six cognitive and mental recovery practices in bold above for you to experiment with. You can also compare preferences to practices with the following activity:
List the 6 intentional attention (IA) practices above in a column.
List 6 mildly stimulating (MS) practices in a different column (e.g. checking emails, social media, TV, convenient food, etc)
Why do you want to replenish for effort’s sake? Here’s a filter list. What do you want to focus on? Determine what your priority is.
Number your IA practice list from 1 to 6 based on what you're most interested in (1) to least interested in (6).
Number your MS practice list from 1 to 6 based on what you most often prefer to do (1) to what you least often prefer to do (6).
Experiment with your practices then rate it based on one of your answers for question #3 - either your why or what.