Our Attention Was Never Meant to Be This Fractured

🌀 Technology, nervous system overload, and what helps

Many of us don’t realize how much our attention is being hijacked—until we try to rest and find we can’t.

We pick up our phones to check a message, and suddenly it’s 45 minutes later. We’ve read headlines, scrolled through social media, or watched a video—and forgotten why we even picked up the phone in the first place.

It doesn't seem to be a lack discipline or willpower. It’s that the pace and volume of modern life are outpacing our nervous system’s ability to process.

Our biology evolved over millions of years to track slow, rhythmic changes in the natural world—daylight and darkness, the presence of a single conversation, the sound of a nearby bird or other creatures. Now, in the span of a few decades, we’re expected to process the equivalent of thousands of stimuli per day. That’s not evolution—it’s overload.

Overwhelm becomes our baseline.

Our bodies weren’t built for constant interruption. Every notification, every ping, every “just one more thing” fragments our attention. And when attention is constantly pulled in multiple directions, the nervous system stays in a heightened state of alert. We don’t land.

Even when we’re not doing anything, part of us is still scanning.

Over time, this creates a deep sense of disconnection—from ourselves, from rhythm, from

calm.

Stillness begins to feel... even wrong.

It’s not a failure of discipline or presence. It’s an overwhelmed system doing its best.

When we constantly shift our attention, our physiology loses its sense of coherence. That internal hum of wholeness—the felt sense of “I’m here, I’m okay”—gets drowned out by input, alerts, headlines, feeds.

There are many practical and very effective ways to relate more intentionally to technology:

→ Single-tasking rather than multitasking

→ Creating tech-free times (or even getting a phone cage!)

→ Being selective about what we consume

These are helpful. But they’re not the whole picture. Those tips rest on a deeper foundation.

At a deeper level, this is where Organic Intelligence® can help.

Organic Intelligence® teaches us to respect the pacing of the human nervous system. To pause. To notice what’s already okay. To allow rest—not as a concept, but as a physiological reality.

We begin to recognize what the system actually needs to process stimulation—not just react. We learn the rhythm of activation and deactivation, of input and integration.

Rest isn’t a luxury. It’s how the system metabolizes experience.

As we re-synchronize with our own rhythm, relating to technology becomes more easeful. Not perfect. Rhythm naturally fluctuates. But the system learns how to return.

Organic Intelligence® teaches us to honor the nervous system’s built-in rhythm between activation and rest. To recognize when we need to pause, to shift into default mode, to integrate. When we then combine this wisdom with the practical guidelines of engaging humanely with technology, we have a life that works in modern times.

When we learn how our unique rhythm moves—when to engage, when to disengage, when to take in, and when to let be—we stop fighting our biology and begin partnering with it. From that place, relating to technology becomes not just manageable, but wise.

Technology will continue to accelerate. But our systems don’t have to live in reaction to it.

We get to choose a different rhythm. One that works with our biology, not against it.

Want to explore what that could feel like for you?

If you’re curious about how to build a saner relationship with technology—and yourself—I offer free intro calls to see what’s possible together. Just click below to book.