He has analyzed what happens to a persons focus if they engage in deliberately slow practices, like yoga, or tai chi, or meditation, as discovered in a broad range of scientific studies, and he has shown they improve your ability to pay attention by a significant amount. I asked him why. He said that we have to shrink the world to fit our cognitive bandwidth. If you go too fast, you overload your abilities, and they degrade. But when you practice moving at a speed that is compatible with human natureand you build that into your daily lifeyou begin to train your attention and focus. Thats why those disciplines make you smarter. Its not about humming or wearing orange robes. Slowness, he explained, nurtures attention, and speed shatters it.

Stolen Focus by Johann Hari