Thought is Distraction
Thought is distraction
Memory is a good thing
It lets us go back home from work
It lets us remember our addresses
It’s meant for survival
It’s meant for skills
But like all things that have been taken out of proportion
That have been used for other unnecessary activities
Memory has also been used unwisely
And given too much strength
So much so that
Now memory is where we live at
Our address has become that permanently
Being present to the present
has become the new unusual routine
It’s either the phone
Or the TV
Or memory
That’s our new distraction
Our new source of dopamine
We linger in thoughts all the time
While eating
While talking
While listening to others who are talking to our face
Looking into our eyes
Even while having showers
Memory has become our place of existence
Especially when driving
As if that was meant to be our place of meditation
And when we indulge in such activities routinely
What consequences we bring to ourselves!!
And yet we won’t let it go from us
It seems to have such a hold on us
It’s holding us captive
Imprisoned to a cave
Inside of us
So much so that
Now we have to recite to ourselves
Mantras such as
“Be here now!”
In order to remind ourselves
To attend to the present moment fully
Without having running background movies
Memory ain’t a bad thing
Thoughts and memories have their place
Just like anything indulged in too much
Anything given more attention
Anything allowed to become an obsession
Lingering in memories
Thoughts about the past
And worries about the future
All belong to a place and time
Such as when we set aside time to linger in them
As in meditation
Where thoughts are allowed to flow into us
On their own
And stay with us but a moment
Until they dissolve themselves
Never to come back again
Let us give thoughts
Only so much strength
And not uproot us
From fully paying attention
To the present moment
Being present in the present is important
Don’t let memory
Or thought
Take you away
From existing
Surviving
And enjoying
Every moment
Of today
Think about this
Peace ✌🏽
The piece feels like someone quietly admitting how exhausting it is to live everywhere except in one’s own life. It captures the ache of noticing that memory once a simple tool has become a place we hide without meaning to. The way it describes drifting through meals, conversations, showers feels painfully familiar, like watching ourselves from a distance. There is something deeply human in the image of being trapped inside our own thoughts, as if the mind had become a room with no windows. The text names the loneliness of being physically present but mentally elsewhere. Its honesty about distraction screens, worries, inner movies feels like a mirror held gently, without judgment. The reminder that we now need mantras just to return to ourselves is both tender and heartbreaking. The piece doesn’t blame thought; it simply asks us to stop letting it steal the moments that make a life. It invites us back into breath, into sensation, into the fragile now. In the end, it feels like a soft voice saying: come back your life is waiting for you here.
this one snuck up on me and then sat down next to me...
memory being for directions, not for living in full-time — oof, yes. like it’s meant to get us home, not be the house.
i like that you don’t yell at thought, you just tell it where the chair is. useful, but not running the room.
also calling out driving as accidental meditation made me laugh because… true and terrifying.
gentle nudge, not a lecture. needed that...