Focus is sometimes overrated. To live a full life, it’s also necessary to step into the pleasure and power of distraction

ILLUSTRATIONS: IRINA PERJU

If you ever feel like you spend too much of your life rushing around, ticking things off to-do lists, perpetually racing to get to the next appointment, thinking ahead and planning where you’ve got to go next, you’re not alone.

But have you ever stopped to wonder what you’re missing when you move through your day in this fast-paced, productiveyet-never-enough approach to time that leaves you blinkered and unable to fully witness the world around you? New York Times bestselling author, speaker and poet Mark Nepo refers to this state in his essay, Inside the Miracle, when he says that succumbing to speed is a ‘form of isolation’.

Dare to stray

But what if there was a different way of being? A way that encouraged kindness and connection along the way, while still honouring your commitments? What if, once in a while, you allowed yourself to swerve from your path? Author, Buddhist teacher and psychologist Tara Brach discusses this concept in her latest book, Trusting the Gold, and highlights three points:

• ‘Swerving from our scheduled paths is not something we easily do.’