Compass No.30
Healthy habits of attention and conversation as the vessel for transformation
Thought provoking quote
In Mind Magic, author James R.Doty, points out that 99.9995% of our brain’s bandwidth is not available to our conscious mind; a reality with a massive impact on our habits and attention.
“As a result of this vast gap in processing, the brain is wired for inattention and inertia, rather than attention and choice. Most of our choices are made from unexamined habits or wired responses associated with threat, so we often don’t pause in the moment to ask ourselves what we would decide if we were really considering it. Instead, we just let our subconscious make the call. The result is that there is often a disconnect between what we truly desire and what we actually do. Therefore we must consciously create healthier habits of attention. This is the truth expressed by the phrase, ‘Where attention goes, energy flows.’ ”
Insights from the current book on my desk
I’m continuing to make my way through poet David Whyte’s audiobook, What to Remember When Waking, where Whyte details the disciplines he believes are necessary to see us through the difficulties of a human life. (I recently wrote about insights from the first session in Compass No.28).
On the subject of attention: Whyte contends, “We create a different identity according to the depth of attention we’re paying. When we pay little attention, there is little of us that is present and very little that can be found. One of the first acts of transformation is paying attention to what you want to transform.”
On seeing what we want to transform: We see what we want to transform by engaging with the unknown and noticing the conversations life is inviting us to have. In Whyte’s view, we don’t actually do the work of transformation or changing ourselves. Instead, what we do is begin the conversation, and the conversation is what does the work of changing us.
Embracing the questions that won’t go away: In speaking about getting into those conversations, Whyte references the phrase “Questions that have no right to go away in a human life” from his poem “Sometimes.” His belief is that each of us have certain questions that belong to us. Without them, we become less of ourselves and are less present in the world. We must address these questions when they arrive at particular thresholds in life because they are vital to our next phase.
On turning away from life’s questions: Whyte attests that we can choose to turn away from the question and refuse to have the conversation. However, when we do that, he argues that everything seems to go into neutral and life starts to lack energy. It’s only when we turn back toward the question that life seem real again. He concludes, “These conversations will also happen with or without us. If we choose not to have the conversation we will be a recipient of the collateral damage that comes out of that conversation, rather than a participant who may actually share in the rewards that lie at the bottom of the whole dynamic.”
Question of the week
What conversation do you need to turn toward during this season of life?