Energy Flows Where Attention Goes

I don’t know about you, but I’ve found a lot of my time and attention going down the “hope-scrolling” (the opposite of doom-scrolling) rabbit hole these past few weeks. Eagerly seeking out and enjoying newly engaged, hopeful conversations all around and feeling uplifted by a palpable positive shift in collective energy here in the United States.

And while on the one hand that’s truly felt good, there’s a tipping point line I’ve been toeing with my attention: Between fueling up with information that feels useful and energizing, and toppling down a slippery slope into unskillfully scattered attention and hard-to-wrangle focus.

And our attention is our most precious commodity.

Where and how we place our attention really creates our life experience — not to mention wiring our brain. Neuropsychologist and Buddhist teacher Rick Hanson puts it this way: 

“Developing greater control over your attention is perhaps the single most powerful way to reshape your brain and thus your mind.” 

Where we place our attention matters. 

What we focus our attention on from moment to moment impacts which hormones get triggered to course through our bodies, which impacts how we feel. And how we feel hugely impacts the actions we choose to — and have energy to — take or not take in our lives.

You’ve likely also heard this one: 

Energy flows where attention goes. 

Which explains why, after a few weeks of extending more of my attention outward to ingest more external chatter than usual, my mind has started to feel scattered and my energy more chaotic.

Thanks to a self-compassionate default home base, this isn't a problem. That unpleasant inner out-of-alignment feeling is just a signal to guide my attention and collect my energy back toward center.

So, in the name of re-harnessing the power of my attention this week, I’m going back to basics by paying intentional attention to:

a) Where I’m placing my attention from moment to moment

and 

b) Why I’m placing it where I’m placing it

I'm doing this by simply pausing any time I feel the urge to pick up my phone to scroll through another news story or listen to another podcast and asking myself:

• Why am I reading or listening to this right now?

• What am I hoping to get out of this in this moment?

And then consciously deciding whether to proceed with consuming that external chatter in that moment from there. Nothing fancy or complicated — just re-infusing attention with intention. 

Maybe you’re in a season in which it might feel good to reclaim and refocus some of your attention too? 

Here’s to us each harnessing the power of our intentional attention one moment and one conscious choice at a time.

Lots of Love,

Melissa

PS - If you’ve enjoyed this post, you might enjoy this one too.