Cultivating Your Attention

You have an innate ability to pay attention. There is a saying, “where intention goes, energy flows.” Mindfulness practice is a process, one that you return to time and time again to turn over these objects of your attention in your mind - to cultivate them - and as you do, your ability to pay attention helps you become more aware of your thoughts without judgment and with kindness to yourself and toward others.

The practice of mindfulness can help you increase your focus, cultivate good qualities, disperse negative thoughts, and help you be your best self.

I’ve recently studied four types of mindful practices that help cultivate your attention. They are inquiring, aspiring, grounding, and extending.

Inquiring - By using your inquiring attention, you can investigate mental habits and patterns. Contemplating habit change is the first step in changing a habit, for example.

Aspiring - Attention toward self-compassion, loving-kindness, empathy, and non-violence are aspirational qualities for yourself and the world around you. These are universally good qualities which by directing a steady attention to them will in turn foster them within you.

Grounding - This practice focuses on awareness of the body and the stimuli around you while maintaining steady, non-judgmental attention. Grounding can be a wonderful anti-anxiety practice. Body-scan meditation is a grounding practice and has been found to reduce stress’s impact on both mind and body (as evidenced by testing for cortisol and DHEA, both are biomarkers of stress).

Extending - Extending can be personal or societal. This practice expands awareness into deeper attention on topics related to yourself and the world. For example, parenting, listening, or eating are personal whereas leadership, social justice, or caring for the elderly are broader, and more societal.

For a moment, think of an anchor. Cast it imaginatively into the sea of your life. Know this anchor tethers you from drifting away. This anchor is your breath. If when bringing your attention to the practices above, let your breath be your steadying force, the dependable anchor for your mind. Thoughts will come and go, as they do, remember you can always come back to attention on the breath even if you never settle into a specific thought or practice. It is still a worthwhile endeavor which with practice will help you direct your thoughts instead of the other way around.

Cultivating our attention is tending to our thought life. Science supports the idea of replacing neural pathways as the way to change behavior, as in replacing things that are negative or untrue with things that are positive and true. It’s a way to reframe something.

You may have heard the expression, “you can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you frame it.” The best way to not think bad thoughts is to purposely think good thoughts.

What are some things that are true?

How can you reframe a negative situation?

What would it look like if you put mindfulness practice into practice today? Would you stop coasting through life on auto-pilot? Would you practice more gratitude?

Here’s an idea, grab a journal and a pen and start listing the things you are grateful for and the things that are good and true. Think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)