The Art of Attention Podcast
Daron Larson hosts the The Art of Attention podcast for WCBE, Central Ohio’s NPR station.
Developing attention skills can make ordinary moments feel richer and help avoid making uncomfortable ones worse. While there’s a growing interest in the science of attention, there will always be an art to putting the discoveries into practice. Just as with physical exercise, we have to find attentional exercises that we will do — and then actually do them consistently in order to experience the benefits.
Guests on The Art of Attention podcast share their strategies for cultivating focus, self-regulation, and resilience. Hear from experts who are exploring ways we can inhabit our lives more fully and compare notes with people who practice deciding what to pay attention to — more often than never.
Arden Kaywin is a singer, voice teacher, and vocal producer based in Los Angeles. She incorporates mindful awareness into her holistic approach to helping singers get out of their heads and realize their full potential for artistic expression. Arden and Daron discuss the kinds of obstacles professional singers run into and how navigating them invariably supports showing up for more fully in their personal lives.
Psychologist Nick Wignall returns to swap strategies during the escalating fear and uncertainty related to the COVID-19 outbreak. Nick shares strategies from his experience with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Daron describes complementary mindfulness exercises.
Carl Coleman has worked in law enforcement and protection for 30 years. He has provided security for professional sports teams, politicians, and public figures such as Les Wexner, James Caan, and Shaquille O’Neal. He is a lifelong learner who leverages his time to assess his life, come up with ideas, and develop projects. He started to learn how to play the piano as an adult and has been taking lessons for eleven years.
Cheryl Leutjen cares deeply about the future of our planet. But like the rest of us, she often feels overwhelmed by the scope of our environmental challenges and a sense of powerless in the face of so much uncertainty. In her book, Love Earth Now: The Power of Doing One Thing Every Day, she uses humor and candor to inspire others to steer toward personal engagement and sustainable hope.
Nick and Daron discuss the relationship between sleep hygiene, cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia, and mindfulness. Nick shares a refreshing strategy for getting better at worrying on purpose and Daron describes some of the attention exercises he recommends to people struggling with alertness in the middle of the night.
Kim Manley Ort shares her approach to contemplative photography including exercises you can try using your camera or smartphone. We also discuss the challenges of sharing photos on social media and why they’re worth navigating.
Writer and runner Nita Sweeney talks to Daron about how she went from struggling to get off the couch to running marathons by starting small, having a plan, and relying on the support of her dog, her husband, and her friends.
Dr. Jud Brewer is an addiction psychiatrist who has been investigating habits for over 20 years. He’s the Director of Research and Innovation for the Mindfulness Center at Brown University. Jud talks with Daron about navigating everyday addictions with curious awareness and the power of understanding what drives the behaviors we regret but keep repeating.