Cultivating attention
How I’m cultivating attention and gaining back control of my mind:
The first thing I’m doing in order to switch off autopilot and regain focussed attention, is getting out of my head and experiencing my body. This sounds counterintuitive but if you are stuck in a maize and have no idea of how to get out, the solution is not staying in the maize but viewing it from the outside. Leaving your thoughts behind and becoming aware of your body is a tool I’ve seen many different groups of people and schools of thought use. I’ve seen it described by meditation people, yoga people as well as business and life coach people. I would argue that this is not a fancy technique but simply a state of mind we enter when doing things that naturally make us feel better, such as running, lifting weights, playing sport, dancing, and even ice bathing. All these things take our attention from our thoughts and put it on our body. Afterwards we feel relaxed, calm, our body has entered a parasympathetic state, the result of not giving our minds a chance of dwelling or being consumed by negative things. We are now essentially telling our nervous system to relax, we allow it to be present without any threat of the future spiking our stress hormones. Hence the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system and a way to gauge where our attention really is and how we feel in the moment. Now if we can consistently bring ourselves down to earth with this method throughout the day, we all of a sudden get a birds eye view of our mind, we can map where we are going and get some control of what we place our attention on. Practically the most helpful way to do this is to place attention on your center of mass, basically deep in your chest. Your attention can move to various parts of your body but by holding it on your center of mass you can create a solid object to focus on. If done successfully the mind becomes relaxed, empty and a clean slate to work from and build back positive focussed attention. Leaving our thoughts and focusing on our somatic senses is a way to build a clean canvas through which we can then choose the colours we wish to paint with.
Another way to build this somatic awareness is breath work. Again this is no fancy tool to which all things can be healed, however a way of shifting our focus from thoughts to a real, present experience of where our body is in space.
Now once we have created our blank canvas, we’ve rid of negative thoughts and identified unwanted feelings, we can start painting the picture we want to live inside, the picture which can influence our mood the way we choose. This is what I’m doing next:
Gratitude: This is another hot topic which has taken hold of pop psychology as non-religious people are trying to find ways to feel fulfilled in an unfulfilling world. It makes sense, however this is not a new concept and something that has been central to both the new and Old Testament, a way in which we have been called to live from the beginning of time. Although there are many verses to delve into, we need not go further than 1 Thessalonians 5 v18: “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” God’s will is for us to be grateful, and therefore I’d argue that the only gratitude which is truly transformational, is gratitude towards God, for what he’s done for us and who he is. Obviously something pop psychology has not quite placed their finger on. I believe that gratitude gives energy, it fuels your spirit and immediately shifts your focus to that which is good. Therefore I’d argue that gratitude is central to paying attention to that which would have a significant effect in elevating our mood. One caveat to the link between gratitude and mood, is that reciting gratitude alone and not experiencing it will do nothing to shift our focus. Gratitude needs to be experienced in a tangible way in order to create a shift in our mood. I’m sure there are many ways to achieve this but as Christians this requires prayerful meditation. Mediation is the process of saturating our thoughts with him, that our heart has no choice but to experience the joy that comes from Him. Thought needs to become feeling in order to make a lasting effect, and we transform thought into feeling when we really sit on it and allow it to take hold of our heart. This definitely takes practice, concentration and effort. This principle is easy to gloss over but the importance of it is more than we give credit to.
Reflection: Once again, I think one of the most powerful tools we can use to turn from autopilot to attention is to step back and evaluate our own mental space as often as possible. Another way to do this is daily reflection. Ideally I’d say to do this twice a day would be optimal. In the morning it would look more like a mental plan for the day. An intention of how you want the day to pan out, not only in activity but in what mental state you’d prefer yourself to be in. Visualizing how you will act, react, and tackle daily things is a powerful way to set your mind in a positive, forward looking way. Now instead of reacting to situations and the day in general in a negative way, you’ve already set up a positive alternative which you can easily fall back on as you have already planned ahead for it. To then reflect again at night on how the day went, how focussed and positive your attention was can be a way to consolidate what you planned for and to remind yourself to step back and reset instead of just rolling into the next day.
Scripture memorisation: A way to focus ones attention on something positive and worthwhile is simply to focus on scripture. This is something I have been traditionally bad at, Negative self-talk and all round low mood can really be replaced with repeating memorised verses. This is a perfect way to shift mindset from the world and cultivate God's presence through his word. Cultivating God’s presence is an important part of the process of regaining attention. Outside of the obvious quiet time we try to build in every morning, being reminded of God's presence throughout the day is important. To be fair this is not something I have achieved in my years but something I will continue to strive towards
An interesting way I have been gaining forward momentum in this mental shift is something I find difficult to describe. This is a way of shifting my mental energy forward, and by forward I mean literally forward to the front of my head. I feel that this shifts me out of comfort mode into more of an action mode. I find that I can do the opposite if I’m trying to get sleep or rest, I move my mental focus backwards into the back of my head, where I find comfort and a sort of static, non thinking rest. The middle of my head is where unfocused babble lives, i.e. where I live most of the time. Mid head is the typical scrolling instagram state, neither acting intentionally nor resting deeply. This may make no sense however it is something I’ll try piece together and make sense of it as I experiment further.
The last thing I’ve thought of is trying to eliminate unintentional mindlessness from my life. I find this incredibly difficult as this has been my default mental state for so long. This mainly includes social media use as well as just negative mental chatter I live my day in. “I feel tired, I don’t want to do this, I’d rather be…”. This also includes resting in negative emotion and letting it take a foothold. Instead of just being tired, really FEELING tired, wallowing in it and inviting it to permeate every aspect of my body. If I don’t want to do something I feel that with my whole being, I allow my body to experience that negative emotion without holding back. This needs to change, we need to learn to accept the way we feel, not ignore it but also not let it permeate our very being. There are ways to move past these feelings and still do what we need to do with fruitful, positive energy.
Many of these things may seem obvious, and the article as a whole very disjointed at the same time. I feel that in my thoughts as I try to piece together this state of mind I seek and the attention I believe we should regain. I plan to slowly form this into a tangible and practical way which one could easily follow and create transformation. For now let me follow my own advice and see where it gets me before I proclaim any magic formula for cultivating attention in a distracted world.