My meditation practice has been pretty consistent for the past several months. The payoff is that I am more frequently aware of when I am aware of what I am thinking vs. lost in thought.

Being lost in thought isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

But if ever there was a “dose is the poison” example, it’s being lost in thought. A little is absolutely necessary, especially if you create things. But too much can leave you feeling empty and irritable.

Being lost in thought doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not thinking about anything. At it’s heart I think lost in thought just means that you are not aware of what you are thinking and, importantly, lost in thought means you almost certainly didn’t choose what you are thinking about.

That’s where these little technology devices can really drive us to being miserable. So much of what shows up on the screen of these devices is displayed for the very purpose of hijacking your thoughts. By design, these devices really make it challenging to choose what you are thinking about while you use them.

I have been trying to give some shape to the various ways I use technology and one of the ways I’m trying to give shape to those ways is to try to know exactly what it is I’m doing with my device whenever I look at it and to try to hold on to that sense of purpose regardless of how hard it works to hijack that purpose.