Hey, welcome back to Practicing Human, the podcast where every day we're getting a little better at life.

I'm your host, Corey Muscarra, tuning in from Palo Alto, California.

In today's episode, we're going to talk about how deep concentration

equals deep rest. More to come on that in a moment, but first let's tune into the sound of the bells I'll ring them

bring your full attention and presence to the sound until it dissolves into

silence. Yes. So when we think of concentration I think it often brings to mind things like focus, stabilizing our mind, paying attention, and

perhaps even a sense of strain, like we have to force our attention into the present moment to get

concentrated. But something that I think is often overlooked is that concentration is actually a form of rest.

So if you think about how our attention is often spending most of the day.

It's bopping around from one thing to another.

This idea, that idea, this agenda item,

this thing of creativity, this thing of frustration, positivity, negativity, here, there,

there and everywhere. If your attention was a body it would literally be running around all over the place

like a chicken with its head chopped off.

And by the end of the day, that body would be exhausted.

Well, that actually is happening.

We're just not always aware of it. We're so used to our attention being dispersed, running from one thing to another, caught up in ideas, to do's, judgments, worries, ambiguity, confusion, that we don't think too much about its impact on our

restoration and how all of that running around psychologically is exhausting.

But even though we might not think about that consciously throughout the day.

I think if you reflect on it right now in this moment,

what that feels like when we are caught up

in the dispersion of attention.

...