attention
The kind of attention we pay actually alters the world: we are, literally, partners in creation
from The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist
by baja · updated 8d ago
attention
The kind of attention we pay actually alters the world: we are, literally, partners in creation
from The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist
by baja · updated 8d ago
baja added 4mo ago
The more fear we bring to an event, the more we are telling the amygdala that the salience of the event is very high and very threatening; and the less fear we bring, the less we are going to activate the threat salience, leaving our attention free to be directed as we choose.
baja added 4mo ago
Humans have a limited ability to process information; they cannot attend to every aspect of a situation. As we will see in greater detail later, the salience of a thought, idea, or intention determines which bits of information will most likely grab one’s attention and have the greatest influence on one’s perception of the world.
baja added 4mo ago
But it does mean that, whether we are scientists or not, we can only know the world as we have inevitably shaped it by the nature of our attention.
baja added 4mo ago
Is this the reason why there are so many traps for our attention?
Things change according to the stance we adopt towards them, the type of attention we pay to them, the disposition we hold in relation to them. This is important because the most fundamental difference between the hemispheres lies in the type of attention they give to the world.
baja added 4mo ago
The Buddha similarly commented on the powerful ability of thoughts to shape our experience of the world when he said, “Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking and pondering, that becomes the inclination of his awareness.”
baja added 4mo ago
only when we have shifted into the rest-and-digest response of the nervous system will our brains allow us to reclaim our attention, access the power of our imagination, and unlock our subconscious.
baja added 4mo ago
baja added 4mo ago
baja added 4mo ago