A.C. Amarasinghe

I live in Sri Lanka, work in a corporate role, and have a family.

In 2022, after an autoimmune diagnosis, I started looking seriously at how the mind works and the science behind it. I read widely across traditional wisdom, and found thousands of ways in and very little structure. What I was really looking for was happiness that stays - not the kind that arrives with good news and leaves with bad, but a steadier kind that does not depend on circumstances. The swings get smaller. That was the essence I was after, laid out so that anyone could follow it step by step.

What worked for me was a map. Every thought is about the past, the present or the future, and it carries a charge - it likes what it finds, dislikes it, or is neutral toward it. Three times three, nine positions. At any moment attention is standing on one of them, and naming the position instead of the content turns out to be the skill. I wrote it down as The Return of Attention, published in March 2026.

This blog applies the map to ordinary situations - overthinking, anxiety, sleep, the argument you keep replaying, money. Everything here comes from the book or from my own notes; where I do not know, the post says so. English is my second language and I use AI to fix it. The framework and the observations are mine.

There is an app for the Return of Attention practice, and AyuTalks, which I built around it for my own mornings - it asks questions back rather than telling you what to do.

The objective is simple: to share what worked for me, in case it helps someone who needs it.

Nothing on this site is treatment. If you are struggling, the right conversation is with a doctor or a therapist, and this is not a substitute for it.