Your attention is powerful and more valuable than you think. Marketers pay excessive money to capture your attention. Your phone is using your own dopamine system to garnish your attention with the use of notifications.
Every like, comment, tag on social media is fighting for your attention: to feed its algorithm of retention, engagement, and views. They NEED your attention to keep its behemoth position of power.
If you agree your attention is valuable, then here are the 11 reasons to be aware of your attention.
1. “Where your attention goes, energy flows.” -Tony Robbins
One of my pillar quotes. I love this quote. Because your attention is the necessary component for anything to grow—especially within ourselves.
Notice how if we focus on all things we are grateful for, this can adjust and influence how we view our lives. If we focus on just the negative, that will metastasize into an ongoing string of negative thoughts that we struggle to get rid of.
This is why the practice of gratitude is so important. It’s not about your life being perfect, it’s about making it the best it can be, given your agency and resources right now.
2. Attention Is Like Watching A Movie
Here’s how life actually is: you go through the entire experience, and what you focus on is what you will remember and what your life is. But life is actually a flood of intense and plentiful sensory input…your brain filters out most of it.
Our brains filter out most of our sensory input—meaning we don’t see life for how it actually is, we see life through our limitations.
This is like watching a movie the first time. And the second time you watch it, you pick up plenty of details you didn’t notice before. Guess what? We are doing this, every single day.
But with life, you can’t start again from the beginning or rewind.
3. Attention & Fame
Here’s an interesting thought: a celebrity needs their fans, just as much fans need their celebrity. One simply does not exist without the other. They are intimately connected and intertwined.
The celebrities at the top value their privacy immensely. The one’s who are trying to be famous, do not.
In fact, we can easily go on platforms like TikTok and other social platforms to see the extent people are willing to go to achieve fame. Often they are pulling trashy, horrible stunts and pranks, just for your attention. Your attention is what feeds their behavior. No matter how horrible and offensive some “influencers” might be.
4. Your Attention = Someone Making Money
Any time you choose to view an ad, a page, a product, a profile, a shared post, a shared video—your attention is making someone money.
Your most free, but important, factor of being conscious and alive IS money: attention.
How does it make you feel accepting that someone at the top is making rivers of money into their pocket because of your attention?
5. How Do You Start Your Mornings?
Every morning, I like to wake up and spend a quick 5 minutes to get a mini-meditation session in. Then I make breakfast and check my phone.
Notice I didn’t say I checked my phone first and scrolled through news and social media first.
There is a reason for this. Immediately when you wake up your mind is still acclimating to its waking state. Usually, in dream state, your subconscious mind is wide open. Our subconscious mind tells us who we are, behind all conscious thought and experiences.
Imagine what you are doing to your subconscious mind when you are bombarding it—when it’s most vulnerable—with sensational news; images and clips on social media highlighting “the perfect life”; and emails vying for your attention?
6. Who Tells You Who You Are?
Everyone loves to believe they make choices for themselves. And that they have the free-will to do so.
Sadly, most of what we believe about ourselves are things that have been passed onto us. Especially the negative stuff. And we make decisions from that position.
It’s not easy to think for ourselves. When we have advertising convincing us what will make us feel “happy” and “accepted”. When the stunning image on our Instagram highlights the parts of our lives we aren’t very pleased with; highlighting our lack. When we wish to have “a body like that” to get the ideal looking partner.
Clearly, we have trouble defining our own selves, if our surroundings do not encourage self-definition.
7. Without Definition, Your Life Lacks Meaning
When your attention is being swayed to focus on all your lack—even perceiving a lack that is not there—your life lacks meaning.
Advertisers sell you a fantasy, but not a result. You can hold, touch, and buy a product—but you can’t buy the feeling of contentment, meaning, and joy.
Here’s another good quote to vibe with: “If you don’t stand for anything, you fall for anything.”
What do you stand for?
8. We Don’t Pay Enough Attention To Ourselves
Some are incredibly busy trying to convince others of their worth: posting that ultra explicit photo; staying in that toxic relationship; using their bodies to capture—attention.
Society has decided: Attention = Worth.
However, attention is simply attention. It can be good or bad. The more a person desperately needs attention, it’s because they do not pay themselves enough attention. Period.
9. Worth Is Not Something Someone Gives To You
Worth is something you intrinsically have and experience for yourself. No one can give you something, you already have within. Most of you have trouble seeing it, and may even have blockages from accessing it, but it’s there.
All experiences are within. Good and bad. Outside factors are simply conduits which bring to the surface, something for YOU to experience.
It’s why if you’ve had your heartbroken, you’ve probably loved again. Your new person didn’t give you back love you didn’t have. They simply brought it out of you to re-experience that joyful emotion again.
10. Be Vigilant On Paying More Attention To Your Self
This is not about being arrogant, cocky, or rude—those are based in insecurity, which is the biggest offense to our inner-selves.
Pay more attention to your mind. Especially your thoughts. The more you do so, the more you can access and understand how your own individual mind works.
And when you do, you can begin to pause yourself if your mind starts to go down harsh, critical, and self-sabotaging pathways. This is why I’m a big proponent of meditation.
11. Master Your Thoughts, You Master Yourself
When you focus your attention more on your thoughts, you’ll influence your actions.
Scroll past that picture on Instagram that made you bummed? You can acknowledge that thought and feeling…but you can shift your focus on gratitude for the things you do have. Selling explicit content just for a fancy handbag? Maybe you can redefine your thoughts on what is really important to you—it is possible to be content and a bombshell without those things.
Our thoughts fuel feelings. Feelings fuel beliefs. Beliefs fuel actions. Actions changes your world—and the world—around you.
Conclusion
People, corporations, and even your own community will always be grabbing for your attention. It’s up to you to decide what you choose to focus your attention on.
Spend time with yourself. For those of you who are health conscious with diet, it’s just as important to be vigilant about what you put in your mind. Your mind feeds off of the images, videos, and sounds you expose it to.
Lack of freedom doesn’t always have to be literal iron bars around you. It can be the limitations we build around ourselves—installed fears from others.
The saddest experience is when you make choices based on these fears, insecurities, hurts, or pain from others.
Empower yourself.
Stay well & Empowered,
– Liana
https://www.lianavibes.com
https://www.lianavibes.com/blog
