It seems that distraction is the oxygen we breathe nowadays, with infinite bits of information at our restless fingertips. Each time I open my Edge browser, captivating news headlines and flashy images assault me. Half the time, I forget where I was headed!
Is the effort to maintain control of our attention a fool’s errand? Nicholas Carr, in his best-seller, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, notes that more than a few top journalists have stopped reading books because 1) they can easily find the information they need at Wikipedia and other online sources, and 2) their attention spans have withered.
Mindfulness meditation nudges us in the opposite direction. Rather than surround ourselves with endless options, we simplify. The practice has us paying attention to this present moment, with curiosity, kindness, and nonjudgment. In place of multitasking and busyness, we discover present-moment attentiveness free from the relentless push to look for more. Mindfulness serves as a counterbalance—a grounding influence that keeps us very much here, on the spot.
Mindfulness serves as a counterbalance—a grounding influence that keeps us very much here, on the spot.
What Attention Training for ADHD Can Teach Neurotypical Practitioners
For people living with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the need for attention training might be more pointed. In the winter and spring of 2025, two groups completed my six-week “Mindfulness for ADHD” workshop series, with the option to extend to nine weeks.
I wanted to track if and how these techniques were making a difference for workshop attendees. Participants completed a 19-question evaluation at the beginning and end of the program, and data was analyzed for those who completed both: 5 participants from the 6-week program, and 3 from the 9-week program.
One evaluation statement read, “I get distracted easily, and have a hard time refocusing on a task.” With these negatively worded statements, greater disagreement shows improvement. The totals for both groups were pre: 14 and post: 20—a 43% increase.
Henry, one of the participants, offered this reflection: “I realize the benefits from feeling more grounded and able to recognize when distractions are impacting me and how to handle them in order to get on with things that are most important.”
One common misunderstanding of mindfulness is that we are cultivating a particular state of mind, like calm or bliss, and anything that interrupts this process (“monkey mind”) is a detriment. People who subscribe to this perfectionist view tend to become discouraged when their ideal doesn’t materialize. They often quit, concluding that mindfulness is not for them.
One common misunderstanding of mindfulness is that we are cultivating a particular state of mind, like calm or bliss, and anything that interrupts this process (“monkey mind”) is a detriment.
The effort in mindfulness practice is not to exert oneself to keep the mind focused on a particular object, such as the breath. Rather, the aim is to recognize the wandering mind and return our attention to a stable anchor of awareness—such as our breath, or feet on the floor. This exercise develops attention, and builds resiliency. You might as well be falling down and getting back up again, over and over.
Starting With Simple Intentions
In one of the weekly sessions, participants were asked to set their intention in the beginning of the day, on arising. They identify a priority, such as cleaning the living room, and then keep reminding themselves of this during the day when they get involved in other activities—an active application of the meditation technique.
“I saw how often my mind drifted from the intention,” wrote Casey, a longtime mindfulness practitioner. “By the end of the series, I had a good grip on it and was able to take on the task of painting my bathroom using this approach, and now it’s finished. I was so used to not getting things done in the past!”
The Multitasking Myth
Our modern culture is wedded to multitasking: the belief that we need to be dextrous at paying attention to a bunch of things at the same time. Research, however, has dismantled this myth, as neuroscientists have shown that the human brain is best suited to paying attention to one task at a time. Any more than this creates stress, increases errors, and begins to erode productivity.
The main dealbreaker is that when we shift our attention, say, from reading an article to looking up a website, our brain has to reorient to the new context, and then when we go back to the article, we have to reorient again. This chews up precious cognitive resources, a process that researchers refer to as “switch costs.”
Replacing multitasking with mindfulness resonated with a third group of four “Mindfulness for ADHD” participants when they responded to the statement, “Multitasking is a great way to get a lot done.” 40% of them agreed starting out, and at the end of the program, 75% disagreed/strongly disagreed.
The people living with ADHD in these three groups were relieved to hear that simplifying to one thing at a time conserves cognitive resources and reduces stress, while preserving attention. And this message strikes a chord with the general population as well. In a 10-week Workplace Mindfulness training conducted with 10 police officers, their response to: “Multitasking enables me to accomplish more” showed a major change of mind (significant disagreement) in the post evaluation.
The “Mindfulness for ADHD” program included a pausing practice that we call “head and shoulders.” It’s a way to take an immediate break from a challenging situation—overwhelm, frustration, stress—connect with the big picture (open space), and then revisit the challenge with a spacious frame of mind. “Learning to pause before reacting and to stay present with one task at a time,” says Gloria, “has been especially helpful.” The group with four participants showed strong improvement with regard to the evaluation statement, “I tend to be impulsive, taking action, and then regretting it later,” progressing from 75% agree/strongly agree (pre) to 50% disagree (post).
The Link Between Anxiety & Attention
Anxiety and stress are common in connection with attention difficulties. The evaluation statement that showed the greatest improvement with the first two ADHD groups was:
“I get stuck with the storylines that can make me feel anxious or stressed, and I don’t know how to pause or interrupt this pattern.”
In the first two groups, disagreement increased by 70% (Total scores: pre: 17; post: 29). The third group progressed from 75% strongly agree/agree (pre) to 50% disagree (post).
Mindfulness isn’t like a vending machine where you simply put in a coin and out pops a bag of chips. There isn’t a one-to-one relationship between the practice and outcomes, which derives from the non-goal orientation of the practice. Of course, we’d like to get something out of it, but at the same time we are encouraged to check our ambition at the door. That way, we can be present with the actual practice, following the instructions as best we can, without hankering for something outside this moment.
When we’re stuck on storylines, it’s like our thoughts are amplified by loudspeakers, glued to our ears. Mindfulness practice has us noticing when this is happening, acknowledging that these are thoughts which come and go. We don’t have to “fix” anything. We just return our attention to this world here. Some mindfulness folks see this back and forth activity as exercising a mental muscle. We learn that, through awareness, we can radically change how we relate to our thoughts, ranging from being mesmerized and trapped, to objective discernment.
Noticing Thoughts Without Judging Them
Relating to our thoughts without judgment is key.
Getting stuck understandably makes people feel anxious or stressed. When we’re trapped in a whirlwind of thoughts, stress and anxiety are not far behind. Their impact on the brain affects working memory, which is closely related to attention.
“Research has shown that rapidly changing circumstances, worry, and anxiety can all have a significant impact on your ability to focus,” writes Kate Morgan in the BBC’s “How Anxiety Affects Your Focus.” It stands to reason that learning how mindfulness tools can help deal with anxiety can assist us in regaining attention capacity.
Mindfulness is not about getting rid of stress and anxiety, but relating to them with openness and curiosity—seeing them as they are, without the varnish of habitual patterns, bias, and aversion.
People’s sense of powerlessness often arises from the fact that they don’t know how to pause or interrupt this looping cycle of distraction, anxiety, compromised focus, and judgmental thoughts. That momentary pause to be with our self-critical thoughts in a new way seems like it might not do much, but it’s actually doing a lot of work. Since it’s so easy to habitually get drawn in, putting a pin in it and taking a mental step back, even just for a breath, becomes a game-changer.
Attention Training Matters In a Distracted World
The mindfulness elements of grounding, present-moment orientation, kindness towards oneself, and developing awareness, attention, and nonjudgment are of course not restricted to people with ADHD. In fact, a key reason for the growing widespread interest in mindfulness is the crying need for balance and well-being in the midst of our techno-addled consumerist-driven world.
These skills take time to develop, and the process isn’t linear. But a growing body of research is showing that these mindfulness practices work to strengthen our attentional capacity, reduce the attendant stress of constant distractability, and enhance our sense of personal agency in a noisy world that’s relentlessly trying to pull us out of the present moment.
