“Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?”

— Mary Oliver

The modern attention economy is designed to capture and monetize your focus. It fragments attention, rewards impulsivity, and shortens time horizons.

If you don’t deliberately choose what shapes your attention, something else will. 

Reclaiming agency doesn’t require rejecting modern life — but it does require intention. Sovereignty isn’t achieved through willpower alone. It is built through small structural changes, repeated consistently.

Your mind shapes your perception.
Your perception shapes your choices.
Your choices shape your life.

Below is a practical framework to reclaim mental agency in an age of distraction.

Audit What Owns Your Attention

You can’t reclaim what you don’t see. Audit gently, without judgment. Just pattern recognition. Attention tracking alone can reduce compulsive behavior.

Practice:

• For one week, gently observe (mentally note or log)
  • How often do you reach for your phone without intention?
  • What apps spike emotion (envy, outrage, craving, comparison)?
  • What leaves you clearer vs. more fragmented?

Rebuild Boredom Tolerance

Cheap stimulation collapses boredom thresholds. Boredom is not a flaw — it’s a gateway. Your nervous system will protest at first. That discomfort is recalibration.

Practice:

• Standing in line without your phone.
• Driving in silence.
• One tech-free hour per day.
• One longer “deep work” block per week.

Protect the First and Last Hour of the Day

The mind is most impressionable on waking and before sleep. Morning attention shapes the day’s tone.

Practice:

• No scrolling before 9am.
• No algorithmic input 1 hour before bed.
• Replace with reading, journaling, prayer, stretching, or silence.

Move From Passive to Active Inputs

For any input or activity, ask yourself: Am I consuming or creating? Shift the ratio gradually. Active engagement strengthens agency circuits.

Practice:

• Write instead of scroll.
• Call instead of text.
• Build something.
• Learn something deliberately.
• Engage in embodied experiences (garden, cook, hike, sing).

Curate Information Diet Like Food

You wouldn’t eat only candy and expect vitality. Apply similar standards for your mind.

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Practice:

• Long-form over short-form.
• Depth over novelty.
• Signal over outrage.
• Conversations over commentary.

Remove Friction in the Right Direction

Because sovereignty is often about environment design, not willpower. Reorganize your physical and digital environment to help you disengage.

Practice:

• Delete apps.
• Block websites.
• Place distractors out of reach.
• Remove, replace, or downgrade tech if it suits you.

Strengthen the Body

Mental sovereignty benefits from physiological regulation. A dysregulated nervous system seeks cheap dopamine.

Practice:

• Sleep consistency.
• Daily sunlight.
• Movement.
• Cold exposure (even brief cool water on face).
• Breathwork (slow exhale bias).

Build Aligned Spaces and Community

Sovereignty is not isolation. Cultivate spaces where presence is prioritized. Attention is contagious — in both directions.

Practice:

• Phones are down.
• Conversation goes deep.
• Silence is tolerated.
• Growth is normalized.

Replace Outrage With Creation

If anger at the system is present, channel it. Agency metabolizes anger.

Practice:

• Designing your life differently.
• Modeling boundaries.
• Supporting local spaces.
• Mentoring.
• Raising a child differently.
• Creating intentional gatherings.

Accept That Discomfort Is Part of Healthy Living

That’s not failure. That’s withdrawal from constant novelty. Stay with it long enough and something deeper resurfaces: Clarity. Curiosity. Subtle joy.

Practice:

• Notice how you feel when stimulation drops:
  • Restlessness
  • Flatness
  • Anxiety
  • Existential emptiness

Ask One Daily Question

Small choices, repeated, compound.

Practice:

• Before consuming anything ask: “Does this strengthen or weaken my mind?”

Orient Toward Meaning

If you remove distraction without replacing it with purpose, emptiness can creep in. Sovereignty is easier when tethered to purpose.

Practice:

• Articulate what you’re protecting your attention for.
• Identify a long-term aim that requires sustained focus.
• Revisit it weekly.

Sovereignty is not isolation from modern tools. It is the ability to use them deliberately rather than reflexively. 

Guard it accordingly.