What is your “consciousness hygiene”?

I recently heard Michael Pollan’s interview on CBC’s The Current on Feb 24, 2026, where he introduced the concept of “consciousness hygiene.” I really love what this evokes in me, and want to encourage others to reflect on this as well, and to explore what consciousness hygiene practice can look like?

Pollan notes that we need to “defend our consciousness.” In another recent interview with KQED, also on Feb 24, 2026, Pollan shared that he “developed a growing sense that our consciousness is under siege”. Here is a bit of an excerpt of what he shared:

“We live in a world where corporations want to monetize your consciousness. When you submit yourself to the algorithms of social media, they’re hacking your attention. We know now that our attention is being bought and sold…. Now we’re going a step further with artificial intelligence — more sophisticated algorithms that are not just hacking our attention, but hacking our ability to form emotional attachments with other people or other entities. That’s a huge step — allowing machines into the space of our mental lives. I see consciousness as this private space of interiority where we have maximal freedom to think what we want. But increasingly, we’re thinking thoughts that are being planted there by others. ….There’s a sense in which our consciousness is being polluted right now, and we need to defend it because it is so precious. It is the space of our mental freedom.”

So, here comes the question again: What is your consciousness hygiene? How do we practice this daily, just like we would with sleep hygiene or dental hygiene?