Attention, Awareness, Mindfulness - Who Cares?

It's getting later in the year, and in addition to thinking about holidays, presents, family, etc. I start to think about the New Year and what I want to be different. I'm not one for resolutions - those usually don't work anyway - but it's a convenient time to gather some thoughts about what's working and what's not in your life.

I've made some changes to my physical lifestyle this year, and since time is a fixed resource, it has forced some rearrangement of other things that I do on a daily basis. I've been pondering what in my mental lifestyle I want to tweak going forward to keep optimizing my mental health, which is just as important, if not more, than any physical things you might do.

I think it's good practice to remind yourself about just what things mean, especially when it comes to topics around the mind and how to potentially work with it to optimize health span. I mention mindfulness, awareness, and other terms a lot, but I'm not sure they are clear, especially when there is still a bit of an aura around things like meditation that are a bit new-agey or woo-woo. So let's dive in a bit.

Attention

What's this thing we call attention? A frequent, and useful analogy, is a spotlight. Taking a step back for a moment, there is way too much data out there in the world for the mind to process with its limited resources. We see over and over again that evolution has adapted the human body to deal with this. I talked about the eye in a previous newsletter, and pointed out that there is a small area of the retina, the fovea, that is designed for detailed vision, and the rest of the visual field isn't as clear. It's very similar in the mind; we have developed the ability to focus our mind, our attention, on specific things, and let everything else fall into the background. This spotlight of attention can be directed outwardly, say focused on sounds or sights, or internally - focused on thoughts, emotions, etc. It's important to note that this is a voluntary process that we have agency over; that's one of the things that differentiate it from other qualities of mind. It's also interesting to note that there is no one place in the brain that is the neural correlate of attention - it is a network that spans many different parts of the brain.

Awareness

If attention is a spotlight, what is this thing we call awareness? Well, it's the big kahuna - the place in which everything is happening, everything is appearing. You can think of awareness as equivalent to consciousness. The fact of consciousness is that there is a subjective experience. There is something that it's like to be you. You see the color red, you feel the pain when you stub your toe, but none of this can be probed objectively - it's an internal experience of self. The most famous discussion on this is from philosopher Thomas Nagel, who used the example of a bat. Is there something that it's like to be a bat? Surely, though the bat's experience is very different than yours. Now extend that to think about what might be conscious in our world. A dog? Definitely? A lizard? It would seem sure. What about a tree? Hmmm. That one isn't so easy. We know trees communicate, and they seem to react to trauma. But are they aware? How about a rock? It doesn't seem likely, but who really knows?

“Consciousness is the most familiar thing in the world and yet the hardest to explain.” - David Chalmers

I've digressed a bit. At its heart, awareness is the field in which everything is appearing for us. Whatever the senses pick up, whatever is going on in the mind, it's all appearing in the field of awareness. The implications of that are profound; awareness is infinite, because it can hold all things that are arising for us. It's like the sky, or a mirror. Things appear in a mirror, are perfectly reflected, but the mirror isn't changed by what appears at all. It's the same for us; awareness is the one constant, and it's just there by the very fact that we are conscious beings. Unlike attention, you can't just decide to be conscious or not.

More practically, it's possible to be aware of awareness itself; that is at the heart of what meditation offers. It sounds weird, but there is something to be gained by getting in touch with awareness itself. What's there is the raw truth of things, the data before any interpretation happens, the unconditioned. What might it be like if you could get in touch with things before your particular bias interferes, or before you cloud it with me, myself, and mine?

Mindfulness

If awareness is the infinite space within which everything is appearing, and attention is a spotlight I can shine on a particular aspect of experience, what is mindfulness? You can think of it as a way of interacting with those things. This is my formulation, a slight modification of what Jon Kabat-Zinn uses as a definition:

Mindfulness is... the awareness that is revealed through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally, in the service of self-understanding and wisdom.

You can see some of the aspects I already mentioned in the first part of the definition. Paying attention, on purpose, which takes real energy and intention. That effort can reveal what is underneath of all experience - awareness. But the rubber meets the road in the last few phrases.

...in the present moment: that's where we are focusing attention. Right here and now, not lost in thought or pondering the past or future.

...non-judgmentally: trying not to be too hard on yourself when attention wanders, or perhaps when you find out things you don't like about yourself.

and...

Why Care About Any of This?

The last part of the definition gets to the root of things. Practicing mindfulness is in the service of understanding ourselves and for developing wisdom. We're alive for such a short time, and almost all of us go through our lives in a haze, mindlessly acting out our conditioned reactions over and over without really engaging and understanding what is going on. Wake up! Seriously, are you even really here for your life? What about for your spouse, your kids, your friends? I don't mean physically, I mean really present. If you're not, what's the point? Sorry to be so harsh, but it's so important. Whatever you are spending your time and energy on that you think is important, I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but it isn't important at all. With 100% certainty I can tell you that you are going to lose everything and everyone in your life, and you're going to die at some point that could be 5 minutes from now or decades away. Are you prepared for any of that? What are you waiting for?

(steps off soapbox)

Sorry for the tirade, but this is something I'm passionate about. Waking up to the reality of our lives and how to stand in wise relationship to it should be our highest priority, but it isn't even on the radar screen for most of us. I also freely admit I haven't said anything at all in this article about how specifically to do something about this, though I've talked quite a bit about it in other articles, and there is much more to say in the future.

Perhaps I'll just return to where I started this article. It's a good time to think about the year ahead and decide what you might do to improve your mental health, even marginally. The return on that investment is huge, for yourself and for the world. Why not make it a priority?

-Scott