Why doing away with multitasking will increase your spiritual potency

For all of my years working in the corporate sector, I wore my ability to multitask like a badge of honour. 

But what I didn’t realise is, that keeping multiple balls in the air was actually doing me more harm than good.

Today, as a student and teacher of the yoga practices, I see much more value in giving each moment, each task and each experience of my life, my full and resolute attention - rather than trying to do multiple things at once.

But single-tasking is hard. Oh, how often I catch myself eating while watching television, playing with my phone during a movie, scrolling social media when I am trying to study, or talking on the phone while walking outside.

I think we can all agree that we’ve all been conditioned for productivity. Such is the nature of capitalism, it is the production and exchange of the goods and services we produce or offer, that keeps money in circulation and our economy afloat. There is more value today in moving forward than there is standing still, and as a species, we are worse off for it.

However, I was interested to read via research conducted at Stanford University in 2009, that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. And it can also be very overwhelming.

Let each moment be enough

My human design stipulates that I have much to gain by grounding into each task, each experience and each moment of my life. If I accept that each unfolding moment is trying to teach me something, then each new task I sink my teeth into is really an opportunity to enhance my quest for self-knowledge.

I’ve found that when I do give each task, whether menial or profound, my full and complete attention - my mind doesn’t want to be anywhere else. Think about it in the context of breath awareness… when you’re 100% focused on your breathing, there is literally no space for thought.

In moments of full awareness, what is louder than any other voice, is that deep part of you that knows everything you need in your life to evolve will eventually come at you. You’re no longer in a hurry or yearning productivity because what you’re doing now is absolutely enough.

I think it was Vietnamese Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh, who said even the most mundane task can be made a spiritual one with your full and undivided attention. This gives new meaning to brushing your teeth or pulling out weeds from your garden, doesn’t it?

Rumi said the “entire universe is inside you.” If this is true in an energetic sense, it’s hard to argue the potential of putting all of your attention into one single thing at a time. Patanjali, in his Yoga Sutras, even spoke of the advanced yogi, no longer of the mind, as having supernatural powers (siddhis).  It’s been my own embodied experience that energy does flow where our attention goes, so it can’t hurt to try, right?

So are you being present?

Given everything that’s going on in the world at the moment, I wouldn’t blame you for feeling like your life is on hold. Especially if you’re like me and living in a state of lockdown. And during this time of deep uncertainty, I often witness myself living at right angles to life as it actually is… wishing things were different, wishing my Mum hadn’t of died… and the list goes on. 

But here’s the thing. Your life isn’t on hold. Whatever the circumstances, this time of your life is just as important as any other, and is an experience to be both nurtured and appreciated.

So, are you truly awake to it?

In the wise words of Eckhart Tolle, “live each moment of your life as though you have chosen it.” In doing this, you’ll notice how you soften and how you begin to thrive more in that uneasy space between expectation and experience. 

Practices to realise the moment

Much to my husband’s annoyance, I will often commentate my actions in an effort to be more mindful. “I am getting out of bed,” I will announce as I do. “I am opening my draw and I am putting on my socks.” It sounds silly, but it really helps you to realise how often we’re not present.

I will also repeat to myself the mantra of Lord Ganesha: “Om gum ganapataye namaha”. Ganesha rules the root chakra (earth energy) and also heralds over the senses, so chanting this mantra will help you to ground into each moment and resist the urges and desires of sense information which is the busy mind’s fodder.

I also love this simple practice from Thich Nhat Hanh:

Sit or lie comfortably and close down your eyes.
As you inhale say to yourself: “Breathing in, I am aware I am breathing in.”
As you exhale say to yourself: “Breathing out, I am aware I am breathing out.”

Within this moment, when all you sense is your breath, something magical is happening… in the words of Yogeswari, “you’re not missing a thing.”

You are resting in full awareness of everything just as it is. You are pure Sakshi (witness) and you’re remembering all that you already are. 

om shanti xx

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