Choose What You Notice
Our beautiful brains have the ability to change their shape and form based on the need we put in front of it. When our hunting gathering ancestors roamed the land, and had need for survival in the wild, our brains conserved energy by putting all other concerns out of focus. Where is something to hunt or gather, and what danger lurks around- those were the only matters of importance. Everything else was not. You and I are around because our ancestors, who we can trace back to directly, managed to take care of survival needs successfully enough to the age of child bearing. And, I for one, am very thankful for that!
As children all information coming at us is of importance. Our brains are figuring out the world. There are no filters. What we see and hear and experience start shaping our values and lifestyles. With getting older, our brain’s programming gets great at determining whether a certain information coming at us fits the belief system that we have been developing all these years. They help us make all our choices- who do we make friends with, what party we vote for, what neighborhoods we want to live in, what kind of clothes we want to wear…all of these choices have been in development for all the years of our history.
But the amazing thing is that we have also been gifted with neuroplasticity. The ability of our brains to change its functionality (in case a part of the brain gets damaged and another part needs to pick up the damaged bit’s function), or to change its structure (yes, the actual structure of the brain as a result of learning!) just seems like a miracle. The miracle of this structural neuroplasticity means we are able to change our perspectives. Or remove certain distractions that do not serve us. Or use our learnings to enhance our lives.
Have you ever been in the market for buying a car, and considering a particular model? Do you suddenly feel like every other person driving by has the same model of the car you are interested in? Or maybe, your eye is sharper in noticing that particular car more than the others…That is the beauty of directing our focus on what we choose. We are able to actually change the narrative of our lives by directing our focus. It’s that simple, and that hard!
Not everything around us can have our attention directed on it. Our brains are amazing, but they have a limited capacity. We are able to direct our focus, but we cannot possibly focus on everything. So this is where discernment comes into play. We have a choice of what we want to notice around us. And this noticing and focusing shapes the very reality of our lives. And the repeat loop of noticing something makes it more permanent in our brains. Do we want to focus on how much road rage is out there, or do we want to focus on how much kindness there is? Do we want to get stuck in the click bait news cycle, or would we rather notice the birds in our city or learn about some native plants instead?
An artist’s job is to fine tune our noticing filter to things that shape our art. If we want to go deep in our creativity, we have no choice but to reduce the volume on the noise around us, and really hone in on things that light us up, and inform our art. For me those things would be light and shadow play, or how some colours play together. Of course, life is wider than just focusing on what we need to make better art. But there is an upper limit to what my brain can digest on a given day. I choose to stay out of the news cycle. I choose to notice the beauty I find around me. I choose to read books that elevate or inform me about my topics of interest. I choose to stay out of political debates. I choose to spend meaningful time with my family. I choose to focus on nutrition and health. I choose to stay out of the social media black hole. These and a million other choices that you and I form every single day, which ultimately determines how we spend our most limited resource- time, is what shapes our life. And brings closer the reality that we most want and think about. Every point of choice is like a compass directing us on the path of slowly moving us towards our goals. And all the input we choose to put within our considerations, ultimately shapes the output we give to this world in terms of the content we create and present to the world. Which is one step towards the life we envision for ourselves. I realize that manifesting can be a controversial topic, but truly, what we focus on grows and gets done. So why not start choosing our focus, and move closer to our visions of life? Starting right now.
In this moment I choose to notice the breeze playing with the yellow leaves in the maple tree outside the window of the coffee shop where I am typing this as the heavenly smell of coffee beans being grinded wafts up to me.
