Marcus Aurelius: Or if thou do, return unto them again…

Your attention is always going somewhere. The problem is not that we get distracted once in a while; it is that distraction can become our default state. A notification, a headline, a passing insult, an old worry—each one pulls the mind away before we have chosen to go. Marcus’s remedy is a return: come back quickly to the governing part of yourself, the part that can look at what is happening and decide what matters. That return is not dramatic. It might mean taking one breath before replying, putting the phone face down during a conversation, or naming the task you are actually doing. A disciplined mind is not one that never wanders. It is one that notices the wandering without self-punishment and returns. Today, when you catch your mind scattered, do not follow it farther. Come back to the next right thing.