Meditation is Attention Restoration
The world’s “soft fascinations” can bring us back home…
Attention Restoration Theory is the hypothesis that people concentrate better after spending time in, or simply looking at, natural phenomena.
In their book The Experience of Nature, professors Rachel and Stephen Kaplan posit that Nature has the power to restore our attention. By letting our minds float without impediment—by observing how clouds drift by, or by allowing ourselves to be dazzled by a great horned owl keeping her nest warm—we reduce mental fatigue and release the demands of life.
(…) the brain is at wakeful rest, such as during daydreaming and mind-wandering.
Nature works its relaxing magic by offering up “soft fascinations” i.e. environments or natural wonders that draw us in and permit our minds to sit in what is known in neuroscience as the Default Mode Network (DMN). This large-scale brain network is “active when a person is not focused on the outside world and the brain is at wakeful rest, such as during daydreaming and mind-wandering.”
Hold up. “Wakeful rest”? “Daydreaming”? “Mind-wandering”? This sounds a lot like what happens when we meditate!
We breathe and softly focus on our interior landscapes, untethering our thoughts so they can meander. Our minds can’t help but be charmed by whatever is unspooling inside: identifications, images, feelings, sensations, memories… While Open Monitoring meditation traditions consider mind-wandering a distraction, other Focused Attention practices1 “consider the spontaneous flow of inner experiences as part of the meditation process”:
It has been suggested that types of meditation that allow spontaneous thoughts, images, sensations, memories, and emotions to emerge and pass freely without actively controlling or pursuing them—such as Relaxation Response, Transcendental and Vedic Meditation, Clinically Standardized Meditation, and Acem Meditation—over time may reduce stress by increasing awareness and acceptance of emotionally charged experiences.2
If natural environments can bring about a meditative state that restores our attention, what other sorts of amazements in our world can have a similar effect? What else can make you feel at home in yourself, pleasantly enchanted? Immersion in a work of art? Letting yourself be inundated by music? Being overwhelmed by the movement in dance? Allowing the churn of bicycle pedals to elicit transcendence?
However we arrive at attention restoration—be it through meditation or another deeply enveloping experience— it pulls out a chair so we can sit calmly in Default Mode Network, that place where we are truly us.
Thanks to extensive studies, we now know that the Default Mode Network is potentially the neurological basis of the self. Among other things, it is responsible for how we reflect and feel about ourselves, and how we think about others. Hanging out in the DMN can not only refine our attention and reduce stress, it can build more self-awareness and compassion.
Spending time in the DMN is spending time at home so let’s find ways to spend more time there! Below, ideas for using meditation to begin and/or extend your attention restoration project 😌
Below, an intro to meditation course as well as additional meditation resources in Paris.
Vedic Meditation: Introductory Course (Paris)
with Tanya Dyhin
Vedic meditation is a simple, effortless and natural mantra-based meditation practice which is done for 20 minutes, twice a day. Over time, Vedic meditation brings about mental and physical health benefits, reduces fatigue, anxiety and depression.
The only pre-requisite for this course is an informal chat (15-30 minutes) or a discovery talk. You do not need to prepare for the course in any particular way.
Thursday March 21st through Sunday March 24th, 2024
60€
MORE PARIS MEDITATION RESOURCES
In yoga centers, meditation is typically treated as a yoga add-on rather than its own, intrinsic practice. The places below are exclusively dedicated to meditation and offer in-person and online classes, workshops, trainings as well as continuing education.
Réso École de Méditation (FREE online intro course this Saturday)
Wild Flower Zen Sangha (DONATION-BASED Day of Practice with Roshi Amy Hollowell)
Raffone, Antonino; Srinivasan, Narayanan (2010). "The exploration of meditation in the neuroscience of attention and consciousness". Cognitive Processing. 11 (1): 1–7. doi:10.1007/s10339-009-0354-z. PMID 20041276.
Xu, J; Vik, A; Groote, IR; Lagopoulos, J; Holen, A; Ellingsen, Ø; Håberg, AK; Davanger, S (2014). “Nondirective meditation activates default mode network and areas associated with memory retrieval and emotional processing”. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 8 (86): 86.