MONICA’S PROBLEM WAS EVIDENT TO ME from the first ninety seconds of our session. Armed with a BlackBerry for work emails and an iPhone for personal calls and texts, she kept both on when she sat down. She was a mom, a high-powered publicist—and constantly connected. She had to be! She was always waiting for that emergency call, email, or text to come in. In reality, the constant pings weren’t emergencies but rather reminders about meetings from her assistant, press release approval requests, and messages about a client’s dress being panned at an awards show the night before.
Monica’s nonstop barrage of calls, texts, tweets, and emails had left her in a state of constant distraction. She always felt only “half there,” never fully engaged in the present moment. What’s worse, her perpetual distractedness was beginning to erode her relationship with her husband and kids. Her resulting symptoms were a mixed bag: a little anxiety, a little insomnia, a little depression.