Our attention is the engine-room of our experience.
Every day, our conscious mind brushes up against thousands of stimuli – sounds, sights, smells, tastes, body sensations and mind-generated stuff – flickers on the screen of our mental movie cinema.
Yet if, at the end of a day, I asked you to recall as much of the day as possible, you’d be able to dredge up just a fraction of it. Why? Because it’s only a fraction of it that received your attention. As far as your body-mind’s concerned, the rest of it didn’t really happen.
So in a way, what we attend to IS our experience.
Think about that for a moment. What we attend to, becomes the data that forms our lives. How important then, is our ability to manage our attention wisely?
It’s mission critical!
This is a skill that’s not taught to us in educational institutions, yet we live in a world that profits from its absence. The marketing functions in the corporate world are skilled at capturing it. The attention economy preys on it, seeing it as a precious resource that can be turned into cash. They do NOT want us to become skilled at managing it!
Most of us don’t realise just how important it is, not just to escaping the manipulations of marketing departments, but to a much more impactful outcome – our very experience of life! Indeed at any time, it can be the difference between flourishing and fretting, awe and anxiety, relishing life and ruing it.
As a long-time practitioner of the Buddha’s teachings, I’m used to noticing my experience. I have a super-useful little process for bringing awareness into any moment. I simply ask myself:
What’s here? or What is this?
I answer by noticing my experience in three areas:
1. Mind activity
2. Emotion
3. Body sensation
I do it in this order because I find mind activity the easiest to notice, followed by emotion, and then body sensation. (At other times I find that body sensations can grab my attention – like the flag that alerts me to the fact that there’s some inner stuff going on if I’m not being terribly mindful.)
From many years of doing this I’ve seen first-hand the inextricable link between these three facets of experience.
Mind activity, at the top of that list, is the big kahuna. It can be generated internally, (e.g. when there’s nothing happening around you), or when the mind comes into contact with external events (either actively being engaged with the world, or observing it).
One of the skills you learn if you practice the Buddha’s teachings, is the process of watching the mind. In psychological circles this is sometimes called ‘de-centering’. That is, we get out of the flow of the river (the contents of our mind) and watch it from the bank - mindfulness of mind activity. It’s here that we might notice that we’ve been caught in a Negative Eddy, or had a Happiness Hijack for example.
But there’s another layer of this mindfulness of mind besides just watching the contents. It’s watching our attention ITSELF because it turns out that there are different types of attention.
Lists or models can really help do this mindfulness thing (like the three touchpoints for mindfulness above). In fact the Buddha created lots of lists to help people remember and use the insights he shared.
I’m currently reading an excellent book about attention and memory (Peak Mind by Dr. Amishi Jha). In it, the author describes three different types of attention. I’m finding this list really helpful in paying attention to my attention.
The flashlight (focus) – this is the narrowly focused type of attention associated with concentration, with flow, or absorption. It tunes out everything that’s not related to the task at hand. It's probably in play now as you read this. We can deliberately focus our flashlight. Think of it as our orienting system - it brings some information into focus (it can come from our internal or external world) and filters out the rest. It's what we're referring to when we ask someone to pay attention.
The floodlight (notice) – this is more dispersed attention - it's broad and open. It's receptive to input as opposed to deliberately focused on something. It can be a more fuzzy kind of attention, shining a smaller amount of light on a larger field, scanning the environment (again it can be our internal or external environment) including for threats. It’s the type that’s engaged when we are daydreaming or allowing our minds to wander. It’s also associated with what psychologists call the default mode network which is very self-referential and me-focused. We can think of this as the alerting system, scanning and alerting us to things.
The juggler (plan and manage behaviour) – this is the director or overseer of our attention, sometimes referred to as executive function. This attention system makes sure we stay on track with our goals, whether they are immediate, short term, medium term or long term goals. It's the system that navigates multiple demands and overcomes distractions. It's what we use to override automatic tendencies.
I’m going to share some more on attention with you over the coming weeks, because it’s so incredibly central to personal growth.
But for now, have a go at practicing this meta-mindfulness – placing your attention on your attention. Can you notice which type you’re engaging?
I’d love to hear how you go!
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