Our attention has been hijacked. Our abilities to focus have never been more defeated. We constantly ping-pong from app to app, checking facebook, emails, youtube, instagram, text messages one after the other. Notification screens are miles long with no real useful updates but we can't help ourselves from clicking on each one, reaching for our phone every time it buzzes.

At work, we struggle to remember what our boss asked us to do, making checklists that never get fully completed. We drink coffee to feel productive but it ruins our focus, magnifying our attention-disruptions. Then after the third cup, we have trouble falling asleep and need a cup to get out of bed the following day. We cope with the anxiety of growing lists of tasks by drinking alcohol or smoking marijuana much more than is ever helpful to us. Because we are not performing at our peak, we miss out on that promotion--we never get that next raise--and the stress of life is snowballing.

At home, we don't communicate our deepest intentions because we can't even get a clear enough headspace to figure them out in the first place. Our partners are disappointed when, for the third time that dinner, we check our phones and forgot what they asked us to do earlier in the day. Our lack of clarity and focus is ruining our relationships and we are closing to forgetting how to communicate clearly forever.

Stress, poor mood, lack of sleep--these are the silent killers. A lack of regular sleep over a lifetime is the leading cause of Alzheimer's. Hypertension leads to heart attack and stroke, eye problems, metabolic syndromes. We gain weight, we don't exercise, even for ten minutes a day. Gone are the days of running around with our kids, or playing catch with a friend. Life has become a struggle and our bodies are heavy, weighing us down. All because we are not aware that our attention has been hijacked. It has been stolen away from us. This is the nature of the world we operate in today.

This was me, ten years ago. I had been laid off twice, and fired for doing a crappy job all within 18 months. I had been a brilliant young scientist, but my career was crumbling before me. My friends didn't like me. And maybe most stressful of all, I was broke. Broke, broke. The bills kept coming. I was about to be out on my own without a dollar to my name. I knew there was a major problem, but I believed I could not be the only one struggling with my brain, this brain I was born with and had with me for twenty five years. I had faith that this problem must have been solved before, and that information could be out there. I was a scientist after all, research is my job.

So, I hit the books. I hit the internet--mindfully. I did my best to focus, and I came across a meditation retreat. It was not free, but it was cheap. I spent $150 of my last $400 to spend five days eating, sleeping, and breathing mindfully in the forests of update New York. It was a beautiful time. I spent hours per day in meditation. I saw my mind drift every other minute and it was so frustrating. But I learned that is normal. That's how the mind works. OK, I said. What happens next? I kept sitting in meditation, and I let the mind run. And boy did it run. It was like Forrest Gump had command of my thoughts.

Eventually my anxiety grew tired, and with practice, an overwhelming sense of calm came over me. This was my first successful meditation. I learned to accept the nature of my consciousness. I felt connected to my spirit and my mind. There was a smile on my face--and in my whole body--that nothing could break.

Fast forward ten years and I have spent at least 10 minutes in meditation almost every day since. I have taught hundreds of people to meditate in person and on line across North America. I have used my background as a scientist to dissect every book, Buddhist practice, neuroscience paper, Ted talk, and mental health lecture I could find to come up with the protocols we teach here at BrainState. I have learned to harness the breath to control the nervous system, mastered the cold plunge, eliminate stress in under a minute, got my addictions under control, built successful and open-communications with my family and friends, and learned to build businesses. I attribute all of my growth and success to the protocols found at BrainState.

A neuroscience backed set of meditations, breathing exercises, and brain exercises specifically designed to heal us from our attention deficits brought about by the modern age of social media, advertising, and high speed everything.

Maybe you just lost a job, or disappointed your boss. Maybe you are disappointed in yourself. Your lack of awareness, faulty memory, emotional dis-regulation. Maybe you are addicted to your phone, and social media. You struggle to read a few pages in a book and stay focused.

You have two options:

1. Stay on the path you are on. Imagine twenty years from now. You have mediocre relationships with mediocre people. You never excelled to any significant level in your career and income. You struggle now more than ever with the control of your attention. Ever seen the movie Idiocracy? You have turned in to those people from the future. You've failed to live up to your potential.
   

2. Choose to change things. Invest time and energy in to your self. Imagine twenty years from now. You finish the books you've started reading--you're actually reading and remembering them! You have had an illustrious career, full of promotions and raises. That nest egg is looking good for an earlier-then-expected retirement. You feel smarter then ever, your mind is still growing much in to your adult life. You have proved that idea that the brain peaks around 25 is a myth! You communicate open and honestly with friends and family, they know they can count on you to listen to them and give amazing directions in life. You are happy. You feel calm. Peace. Experiences of joy and love are every day occurrences.

Option #2 is what can happen if you follow the protocols we teach at BrainState. Build a habit of meditation, learn how compassion impacts the brain, understand how to notice an overactive nervous system and have the tools to calm it--in an instant.