The Mind
Because attention determines what will or will not appear in consciousness, and because it is also required to make any other mental events—such as remembering, thinking, feeling, and making decisions—happen there, it is useful to think of it as psychic energy. Attention is like energy in that without it no work can be done, and in doing work it is
... See moreMihaly Csikszentmihalyi • Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
Almost anything that we are able to direct sustained attention at will begin to loop on itself and bloom.
To take a dark example, if you focus on your anxiety, the anxiety can begin to loop until you hyperventilate and get tunnel vision and become filled with nightmarish thoughts and feelings—a panic attack.
And you do the same thing with joy. If you... See more
To take a dark example, if you focus on your anxiety, the anxiety can begin to loop until you hyperventilate and get tunnel vision and become filled with nightmarish thoughts and feelings—a panic attack.
And you do the same thing with joy. If you... See more
Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself and bloom
Suppose you were looking at three objects—a flowerpot, a photograph, and a book—and were then asked, “Which of these objects is you?” You’d say, “None of them! I’m the one who’s looking at what you’re putting in front of me. It doesn’t matter what you put in front of me, it’s always going to be me looking at it.”
Michael A. Singer • The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself
None of your thoughts are more you than any other thought. You are the one who is experiencing the thoughts. There’s not a single thing about those shifting energy patterns that is you.
Michael A. Singer • Living Untethered: Beyond the Human Predicament
From now on you must say: “I am not the slave of the body. I am the dictator of my own kingdom. My thoughts are going to be exactly as I wish them to be.” Once you have changed your habits, you will say to yourself, “How simple it was to do it!
Paramahansa Yogananda • Man’s Eternal Quest: Collected Talks and Essays on Realizing God in Daily Life – Volume 1
Quite similar to Satan’s quote in Paradise Lost
There comes a moment in life, often in the quietest of hours, when one realizes that the world will continue on its wayward course, indifferent to our desires or frustrations. And it is then, perhaps, that a subtle truth begins to emerge: the only thing we truly possess, the only thing we might, with enough care, exert some mastery over, is our min... See more
Bill Wear • The Quiet Art of Attention
Ideas related to this collection