Finding Stillness in an Age of Infinite Prompts
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 6 hours ago
NaRon Tillman is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and mindfulness educator helping people navigate leadership, personal growth, and the age of artificial intelligence. He is the CEO of Principal Matters, Inc., host of the Walk In Victory Podcast, Director of Urban Yogis, and author of Awakening I Am: Internal Awakening in an AI Age.
In my previous article, I explored how attention, repetition, and awareness shape identity. Awareness, however, is only the beginning. Once we recognize the patterns shaping our lives, another challenge emerges: Can we remain present long enough to change them? Identity changes through awareness, but awareness only becomes transformation when we learn to direct our attention. In an age where every notification, headline, and algorithm competes for our attention, stillness has become more than a wellness practice. It has become a leadership discipline.
We finally found our rhythm
Every week, I teach mindfulness and yoga to children living in a homeless shelter. During the school year, we have one hour together.
The larger the class, the longer it takes to settle into a rhythm, so we’ve learned to adapt. We use more movement, shorter transitions, and a faster pace. Sometimes, we use a game. Sometimes, we offer a reward. Eventually, we find our voice, and the room begins breathing together.
Then summer arrived, and suddenly, we had an extra hour. I assumed the additional time would allow us to go deeper, with less movement, more conversation, more gratitude, and more reflection. Instead, I discovered that sitting still was far more difficult than moving.
When stillness became the lesson
One child asks to use the bathroom. Before they’re halfway to the door, three more hands go up. “Mr. Ron, can I go too?” Nothing had changed, yet everything had changed.
One child’s movement became everyone else’s curiosity. Then came the question I hear almost every week. “Mr. Ron, how much longer is yoga?”
I smile every time, not because they dislike the class. Most of them have nowhere special to be. They simply want the freedom to follow the next thought, the next movement, or the next possibility.
As I watched them, I realized I wasn’t just observing children. I was watching the human condition. I was watching myself.
The monkey mind
Many contemplative traditions describe this restless movement of attention as the monkey mind. Imagine a monkey swinging from branch to branch, never staying long, always curious, always searching, and always convinced the next branch holds something better.
Modern neuroscience offers a similar observation. Our brains are naturally drawn toward novelty. New information, unexpected stimuli, and unanswered questions activate attentional systems that once helped us survive.
What once protected us from danger now competes for our attention through every notification, headline, and idea. The monkey mind isn’t broken. It’s human.
The challenge is learning when curiosity is serving us and when it’s simply pulling us away from the present moment.
AI didn’t create the noise
As artificial intelligence becomes woven into everyday life, I notice something fascinating. Every day brings another platform, another breakthrough, another webinar, another course, and another expert promising the future.
None of that is inherently bad. Competition fuels innovation, and curiosity expands possibility. I host conversations about AI, write about it, and study it. I genuinely enjoy watching this technology evolve.
But I also notice something in myself. One article becomes five. One tool becomes ten. One idea leads to another before I’ve finished the first. Artificial intelligence didn’t create the monkey mind. It simply gave it more branches to explore.
Curiosity needs a compass
Watching those children changed something in me. I don’t want to lose my curiosity. Curiosity built civilizations. Curiosity discovered medicine.
Curiosity created artificial intelligence. The goal isn’t to become less curious. The goal is to become more intentional.
Curiosity without awareness becomes distraction. Curiosity guided by awareness becomes wisdom. That distinction may define this generation.
Technology reflects the leader
As a lifelong Knicks fan, one recent story was especially disappointing to read. Reports about Madison Square Garden’s use of facial recognition technology to identify critics and maintain internal watchlists reminded me of something important. The technology itself wasn’t the issue. The deeper question was the intention behind its use.
Technology doesn’t possess character. People do. Artificial intelligence presents us with the same challenge. The same tools can educate or manipulate, serve people or control them, and create clarity or amplify confusion.
Technology doesn’t decide which path to take. Leaders do. That’s why I believe AI is less a revolution than it is a mirror. It reflects our priorities, values, and intentions back to us at scale. The machine is learning from us. The more difficult question is whether we are learning from ourselves.
Training attention
Perhaps this is why mindfulness, prayer, meditation, and silence have endured for thousands of years. They are not escapes from reality. They are preparation for it.
Over the years, I’ve discovered that these are not simply routines to complete. They are practices to cultivate. Every prayer, meditation, and moment of silence is a practice.
Why? Because every practice prepares us for the game, and life is the game. Athletes don’t practice because they’re already in competition. They practice so they’ll be ready when the competition arrives. In the same way, our spiritual and contemplative practices prepare us for the moments when life demands our attention, patience, discernment, and character.
That preparation has never been more important. We are living through a season of extraordinary uncertainty. Wars dominate our headlines, and the cost of living continues to rise. Artificial intelligence is reshaping the workplace, education, and the way we think about the future.
Anxiety has become one of the defining emotions of our time. In moments like these, mindfulness isn’t a luxury. Prayer isn’t an escape, and silence isn’t avoidance. They are disciplines that prepare us to respond rather than react.
The children in my class are practicing, and so am I. Every time I resist the urge to chase another headline before finishing the work in front of me, every time I return to my breath, and every time I choose presence over impulse, I am training my attention, one breath, one choice, and one moment at a time.
The invitation
If awareness reveals the pattern, then attention determines whether the pattern changes. Perhaps the greatest challenge of the AI age is not building smarter machines. Perhaps it is becoming more present human beings.
The next time your attention jumps to another notification, another headline, or another promise of what comes next, pause and ask yourself: Is this my curiosity leading me forward, or is my monkey mind simply looking for another branch? I stayed still for one more moment. What might I finally notice?
Read more from NaRon Tillman
NaRon Tillman, Entrepreneur, Speaker, Pastor & Educator
NaRon Tillman is a leader in mindfulness, personal transformation, and human potential in the age of artificial intelligence. He is the CEO of Principal Matters, Inc., Pastor of One Ministries, Director of Urban Yogis, and host of the Walk In Victory Podcast. As the author of Awakening I Am: Internal Awakening in an AI Age, his mission is to help people reconnect with their authentic identity and harness the power of intentional thinking.
