Selective Attention Plus Motivation to Pause

24.8.2024

Brain is doing all it can to give you what you expect. There is a lot of power in shifting what you focus on. Experts at looking, medical radiologists, were given lung scans with a task to find cancer. 83% of them missed a gorilla picture that was photoshopped into the images. Although their eyes were looking straight at the gorilla shape, their brains had framed they are looking for cancer and could not see the gorilla.

What we focus on filters the world around us so aggressively that it literally shapes what we see.

It is not a bad thing to be able to focus with such a narrow attention and block out other things. In this case, radiologists can save lives thanks to their capacity to focus in a really specific way. On the other hand, this radical example can shed light on some of the principles of how our brain works with attention and why inattentional blindness can often limit our lives.

We do not need to be the brightest light in the harbor to notice, that things are not always as they seem. And why is that so?

Le´t s start with attention.

It helps us make sense of the world and function in it. Selective attention, to be specific, is a fundamental cognitive mechanism that brain is engaging in all the time. Its big portion runs subliminal on autopilot, but there is a conscious part of selective attention as well.

It acts to filter the enormous amount of information that we are bombarded with at each moment and prioritise the information that is relevant for your current goal at that moment.

For instance. You are driving a car Listening to the radio news blocking out unimportant sounds of the highway. All the sudden You hear squealing tires and see a huge lorry crossing your lane. Selective attention immediately prioritises new goal ,avoiding a collision. You don't hear the radio news any more.

In other cases You control your selective attention voluntarily, for example when focusing on reading a book in a busy subway or being able to maintain conversation with a friend on a party, focusing only on what your friend has to share.

This filter of selective attention is like a bouncer of our subconscious and conscious mind. It let´s in only things that fit certain criteria. But how do we choose what is important and what is not?

What we let in is determined by our genes through evolution and also by what we repetitively think and feel. Our main goal is to survive, so our subconscious selective attention is biased towards danger detection and food. That is why our system is tuned to attend more to loud noises, negative comments and objects that stick out of a row and are different. On the other hand, our perception is formed by what we think and feel over and over again throughout our lives.

Our brains rely on many shortcuts and rules of thumb to speed up processing and help us navigate the world. Schemas, or frameworks that help us organize and sort information, are one type of shortcut. We have schemas for virtually everything we encounter in our day-to-day life, from people we meet to situations we encounter. For example julia: she is tall, plays basketball and does not like sushi.

This really comes in handy so we don´t get overwhelmed by everything in every moment of our life. But it comes at a cost. People are more likely to attend to information that matches up with their existing schemas and to ignore information that does not. We tend to reject new evidence that contradicts our perspectives, paradigm or expectations and are more likely to focus on, remember and validate those items that support our beliefs. Depressive folks have negative schemas and search for negative stimuli. Awareness of positive people is drawn towards joyful signals.

We can enjoy this intelligent automatic mechanism of our brains and bodies and let it work its magic in our service. How awesome is our subliminal ability to breath, digest and protect our life without even thinking about all the processes. I am so happy I do not need to command my gastric acid every single time I eat or tune my eyesight to focus bit by bit like taking a picture with an analog camera every single time I want to look at something! That would be insane! At the same time, It is so relieving to know, that when my brain bouncer is letting in junkies and drunks causing me feel dysregulated and unhappy, it is in my power to change the stories in my head, change the schemas and let in things that align with my well being!

There is a lot of power in shifting what you focus on. Our repeated thoughts and feelings affect what we focus on. What You think and feel colors your life experience.

Let 's visit a company meeting together. Margot believes her boss does not like her. He looks at her and she thinks he noticed the stain on her shirt. “I cannot speak up now, because all my colleagues will see the stain and think how sloppy I am. If only I had a chance I would show them how it's done!” She focused on her inadequacy and her thoughts were feeding the focus. Focusing on something else might have helped give Margot confidence and the whole meeting could have shifted. “Oh, he looked at me again, maybe he thinks I have something to say and wants me to speak up!”

Discovering the tendencies of our minds, shining light of our awareness on our distracting and unhelpful brain patterns will gradually shift our perception and open our vision towards new horizons. Our capacity to step out of limited tunnel vision into the freedom of choice of perspective, can save us unnecessary pain and misunderstanding. Using our limited attentional resources wisely can save a lot of energy. Because energy flows where attention goes. Lifting up useless old beliefs can open up our attention in a way that helps us understand and hold space for other opinions, beliefs and experiences in our lives. Innovations, wise decisions in business and relationships come from a spacious and relaxed mind that is lifted above unnecessary biases.

So often we focus most of our energy on one aspect of an event or on a couple limited solutions, ending up overthinking and fixating on certain things. Because growth is not something we graduate from, we can take tiny steps in a new direction, shifting our focus and move closer to a happier and more balanced life.

There is actually empirical evidence to support effectiveness of mindfulness practice - including as a tool to reduce attentional bias.

The story you tell yourself is the most powerful story in the world. And you can shift that story in every interaction or experience, by small choices in ways you direct your focus. We often want to learn something big, buy a course and feel motivated, so we miss the tiny little things we can do every day, that are easy lifts, easy to blow off, that no one is paying attention to. Finding short interruptions, spaces, gaps that take us out of doing and thinking and bring us into being, observing and deep listening. Shifting our expectations and asking what if? These moments move the needle the most. Jumping out of the hamster wheel for a moment can lift our spirits and stoke the fire of our intuition. Small moments, repeated many times, might feel like eating a soup with a fork, but trust me, you are not eating soup with a fork. Like a ship that adjusts direction just a tiny bit. You won't notice anything in the harbor, but down the line, this new direction brings you to completely different waters.

Things are not always as they seem.

I will end with the words of an old Sage:

“When I was born I was crying and everyone around was smiling. When I was on a deathbed, everyone was crying and I was laughing.”

For more fun, check the The Monkey Business Illusion. Best known experiment on this topic.

How did You like this episode? If it brought You new insight or two in the domain of attention, please share it with someone You love. There is never enough clarity around this topic in a chaotic world. You can make me really happy by rating this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or giving it a like on Youtube. Thank You! Do You want to get practical now and do a single step forward in finding more space in your life? Check out my Toothbrushing Flow Audio Track or Fresh Driver Audio and get pulled by the flow of the groove. But now. now. Take a deep breath in, looong exhale and slide smoothly into another adventure!

The Monkey Business Illusion Experiment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY

Resources:

Music by Sky Gienger on UppBeat: https://uppbeat.io/browse/artist/sky-gienger

Macquarie University - Ms Genevieve Quek, Faculty of Human Sciences

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bVsIOWrD0k

Michael Easter -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRWcY9Y8Xp8&list=PLNlNx9Di_AxuSvXu4xRiy6qfx8KY-J-C9&index=24

Jay Shetty Yuval Harari

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qLHEaZNzbM&t=1111s

https://wikisofia.cz/wiki/Pozornost

Teaching Little Brains - Sarah Nykoruk