How to Reduce Stress by Simply Paying Attention
And a meditation that will help.
We live in a world that worships productivity, but what if the real secret to a fulfilled life is simply learning to notice the world around you? This isn’t just a nice idea — it’s a radical act of reclaiming your attention.
Let’s dive into what I mean by attention, how it can impact your entire nervous system, and ways to do it (and the meditation shared below is basically gold for building your noticing muscle — the best thing to help you deal with stress, anxiety, and overwhelm).
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I was out for a walk with my mum a while back and we found a hedgehog. A hedgehog! If it’s been a while since you’ve seen one, let me remind you: they’re cute. And I mean oh-my-god-look-at-his-little-face sort of cute.
This particular fella was clearly on his way home from a big night out, and heading towards a main road.
What did we do?
My mum wrapped the little guy up in her coat and popped him in a hedge in the opposite direction. Not knowing best hedgehog practice, this seemed like a good idea at the time (I’ve since learned we should’ve called a local hedgehog rescue and have the fella picked up — daytime ‘hogs are not doing okay).
Regardless, I wrote this down later as a Good-To-Be-Alive Moment of my day. Seeing his (strangely long) legs shuffling across the grass, his little nose, the way he waddled… nothing else mattered in that moment. Just a curiosity — we became problem-solving hedgehog-heroes and nothing else.
And that’s the thing about being absorbed in this way, about noticing two magpies flying across your path, or realising the ultimate coincidence has just happened: paying attention.
If you’re wrapped up in your work problem, or that pressure in your chest from that overwhelming anxiety, you just… don’t notice. And maybe if we were wrapped up too much, we wouldn’t have spotted him.
But this is the problem. Our society has taught us to crack on, suck it up, and get back to work. Burnout is a chronic problem. And no-one has any time.
I challenge you to find someone in your life that’s not dealing with overwhelm, anxiety, or too-much stress. And social media can make it even worse, because ‘everyone else is just fine’ when actually, the whole social media thing is probably contributing to this feeling of dis-ease.
So I actually consider the art of attention a bit of a revolutionary act.
Changing the way you notice the world around you can have a profound impact on your nervous system, mood, and the way you interact with reality — even the amount of time you perceive you have.
It can change the relationship you have with your body, with your workouts, with your stress, and with the people around you... It’s way more impactful than you realise.
Here are three ways I encourage you to begin to pay attention more. Try them (and the meditation at the end of this post) and you’ll begin to soften your shoulders, dull the anxiety, and make much better decisions for yourself:
1. Moments of attention
See if you can find prompts in your day to remind you to pop out of the drama — whatever it is — and sink into attention. Maybe set an alarm if that’s the way you roll, or habit stack and link it to brushing your teeth, or putting your socks on. Then, in that moment of attention, just notice.
I like to really notice the feeling of the carpet on my toes as I get up in the morning. Noticing the change as I move into the tiled floor of the bathroom. If you pay proper attention to it, it can be a really joyful thing (and it’s one of the big things we experiment with inside Joy Unplugged).
2. Technology detox
This is a big one, and I mostly get a lot of eye-rolling and kick-back from people about this. But trust me: removing yourself, even for an hour or so, from social media, your emails, your screen-based busy-ness, is a gift to yourself.
When you notice yourself doom-scrolling — as soon as you notice — pull yourself out, turn off your device, and just notice. Bring it back to the sounds you can hear, the colours and shapes you can see, your sense of touch, the fabric of your clothes, your posture. Go through your senses and notice it all (try this here). I promise, this is one of the most soothing things you can do.
3. Daily journaling
I like to bring this into my evening wind-down routine. Gratitude is a huge thing for morning or evening routines; writing down three things that you can be grateful for can shift the way your brain processes your day. And the art of noticing is the same.
Try making a note, at the end of your days, what you were able to properly notice that day. Maybe the sound of the kettle boiling, the clouds, the hedgehog you found by the side of the road… it doesn’t matter.
By writing about it every day, you’re training yourself to do more of it. It’s the equivalent of bicep curls but for your attention muscle.
Try this:
Exclusively for the paid Joyful community (thanks for being here, my friend), I’m sharing this meditation with you.
This is about learning to strengthen this muscle of noticing. Often referred to as interoception, this is one of the best things you can do for your ability to make better decisions, promote nervous system restoration, and bring a little of this noticing magic into your days.
Try it tomorrow morning (right after you wiggle your toes in the carpet), and see how it changes your perspective. Adding this to your morning routine can be a total game-changer.