A standalone practice
By Michael Mackintosh and Shireen Chada. This article is part of The Human Advantage, a course about keeping human attention, judgement and connection at the centre of digital life. You can use this practice without reading the other articles.
A screen can hold your attention so completely that you forget where your body is.
Your hand reaches for the phone. Your mind moves into messages, feeds and unfinished work. Your feet may still be on the floor, but your attention is somewhere else.
This first Human Advantage practice is simple: return before you react.
The cost of leaving the body
Shireen describes watching people arrive for meditation with their hands already moving toward their phones. They sit down, but the next notification still feels urgent. The body is present. Attention has not arrived.
Digital tools are not solely responsible for restlessness, and putting a phone down will not resolve every anxious thought. The useful question is narrower: when you reach automatically, are you moving toward something you chose or away from what you feel?
Antaeus and the ground
In Greek mythology, Antaeus drew his strength from contact with the Earth. Each time he touched the ground, his power returned. Hercules defeated him by lifting him away from it.
The story works as a metaphor for attention. When the feed lifts you into comparison, anticipation or constant mental motion, contact with the body gives you somewhere real to return.
Your body is not an obstacle to productive work. It is where you notice whether the work is costing too much.
A five-minute return
- Put both feet on the ground and let your hands rest.
- Notice the contact under your feet, the weight of your legs and the movement of your breath.
- Soften your shoulders. Feel your hands without asking them to reach for anything.
- Notice the part of you that is aware of the sensations, thoughts and impulses passing through.
- Ask what you actually intend to do before touching the device again.
Shireen teaches this through the spiritual language of the soul: awareness as a point of light inhabiting the body. You do not have to settle every metaphysical question to use the practice. The practical act is to stop, feel and choose.
Use the body as an early warning system
AI and online work can make mental activity feel endless. Your body may register the cost first: shallow breathing, raised shoulders, a bouncing leg, a clenched jaw or the restless urge to check another thread.
These sensations are not a diagnosis. They are information. Notice them before asking the machine for another answer.
Practice today
Return before you reach
Each time your hand moves automatically toward the phone, feel both feet and take one complete breath. Then decide whether you still want to open it.
Read about emotions and screen use →