Attention Strength Training

As I get older, I see the cost all my squandered attention has had on my happiness and how I participate in my relationships. There is a fight going on all around us for the precious resource of attention. Internally we have norms and standards we what to live up by, which often conflict with our moment to moment lived life experience. It can be hard to stay focused on the thing in front of you when our attention is siphoned by distractions in the environment.

• "When it's over, I want to say: all my life / I was a bride married to amazement. / I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms." - Mary Oliver 'When Death Comes.'

Any project that focuses our attention is a project worth working on. Things that misdirect attention are things we want to avoid, drop once picked up, and learn to leave alone if not picked up. These distractions can be manifest consciously with or without malice, it really doesn't matter. It is up to the adult in me to steer the focus of my attention.

Unconscious reactions to distracting stimulus is the result of losing track of my priorities. If I learn to keep my priories in the front of my mind, I have a better chance of steering my attention the way I want. The bad news is that the attention' muscle' can atrophy if untrained. If not careful, we can grow used to being distracted and become slaves to someone else's agenda. The good news is that it can be strengthened.

One can become the Arnold Schwarzenegger of attention.

• "... not allowing our own nervous systems to remain addicted to the channels of communication that maintain the collective trance of consumerism — today an important component of accepted "social reality." Instead, we accept responsibility for liberating our own attention and clarifying our own awareness, which usually requires some sort of meditation practice. - David Loy (2019): Ecodharma: Buddhist teachings for the ecological crisis

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• 31/31 Challenge
  • Dec 31, 2020 Imitating Superman Dec 31, 2020
  • Dec 30, 2020 What Would You Tell Your Twenty-Something Self Dec 30, 2020
  • Dec 29, 2020 Lucky Dec 29, 2020
  • Dec 28, 2020 See looks beautiful Dec 28, 2020
  • Dec 27, 2020 Kinship Dec 27, 2020
  • Dec 26, 2020 The big round dog bed Dec 26, 2020
  • Dec 25, 2020 Smiling Meditation Dec 25, 2020
  • Dec 24, 2020 A Smiling Experiment Dec 24, 2020
  • Dec 23, 2020 Walk Time! Smell Time! Dec 23, 2020
  • Dec 22, 2020 Ask yourself these questions. Dec 22, 2020
  • Dec 21, 2020 We short change our own lives through inattention Dec 21, 2020
  • Dec 20, 2020 When death comes Dec 20, 2020
  • Dec 19, 2020 More noticing Dec 19, 2020
  • Dec 18, 2020 Nurture Noticing Dec 18, 2020
  • Dec 17, 2020 Inexplicable Depth Dec 17, 2020
  • Dec 16, 2020 Walking is thinking Dec 16, 2020
  • Dec 15, 2020 Writing on thin air Dec 15, 2020
  • Dec 14, 2020 Iterate through failure Dec 14, 2020
  • Dec 13, 2020 Writing is the technology of thinking Dec 13, 2020
  • Dec 12, 2020 Attentional Autonomy Dec 12, 2020
  • Dec 11, 2020 A sence of place Dec 11, 2020
  • Dec 10, 2020 Your smile spreads happiness Dec 10, 2020
  • Dec 9, 2020 Hupomnemata/Zettelkasten Dec 9, 2020
  • Dec 8, 2020 Quietude Dec 8, 2020
  • Dec 7, 2020 Attention Strength Training Dec 7, 2020
  • Dec 6, 2020 You are what you do Dec 6, 2020
  • Dec 5, 2020 Tiny moments for gratitude expression Dec 5, 2020
  • Dec 4, 2020 Life is but a dream Dec 4, 2020
  • Dec 3, 2020 Falling in Love Dec 3, 2020
  • Dec 2, 2020 To whom do I report the theft... Dec 2, 2020
  • Dec 1, 2020 Getting Started Dec 1, 2020