Pay Attention!

Managing where we focus our attention can reduce our stress and improve our life and achieve our goals.

We have all heard that ‘time is money’, but so is our attention.

Our world is busier. Our attention is spread very thin and going in more directions than ever before. The constant rapid hits of information make our minds spin, our stress rise, creating more anxiety than ever before and the feeling of overload piles up.

Did you know, most of us have approximately 10,000 thoughts a day and some people top out at 60,000?

That is a lot going on in our minds without any other outside stimulus. Our brain is not a multitasker. Contrary to what many believe, we only think one thought at a time, and feel one feeling at a time.

Many are experiencing a scattered feeling in a world that is so much in tune with the idea that we have to participate in all of it. The end result, we can’t focus on anything. It becomes a blur. All the news, email, social media, videos, constant dings with reminders to engage minute by minute with no reprieve creates a constant feeling of emergency within us.

Our thoughts are things.

The subconscious mind is like a wish granter. It operates at a very literal level and all the information overload that we put into our mind needs to be filed away for future reference. Our brain needs to make sense of everything and uses nighttime for housekeeping and filing. When we are supposed to be sleeping. Insomnia is also on the rise right along with anxiety and stress.

When we are stressed and overloaded and anxious and sleep deprived it all adds up to a big load of not helpful. Our coping skills are not up to this workload and the self talk can turn negative, toward ourselves and others and everything.

What we say, think and how we show up, how we feel inside, our subconscious mind is only doing what we are saying we want. The human mind is always ON! Always listening, always working, always accepting what you say, feel, think, believe and translates all of that into behaviors, actions and outcomes.

All of this is whirring away in our minds like a background app on our phones and it never shuts up, it never shuts down, it just keeps draining our energy and then our batteries, just like our phone.

Suddenly we feel stuck and exhausted and we don’t know what to do.

When we are participating in all of that and other people’s stuff, we are actually not living our own life. We are living in the ‘reality show’, or gossip or whatever news is going on that we have convinced ourselves we must pay attention to. We are minding everybody’s business except our own. This is living a life of constant distraction, and not present and participating in our own life.

We worry about what food we put into our bodies but are on autopilot as to what we put into our minds.

How are we using our attention? If we think of our attention as currency, like money, what are we getting back? What is the return on investment?

In a 24 hour day, we use one third for sleeping. Another third for work, then eating, grooming necessities, kids, the house stuff – how much time and attention are we actually investing in the clutter that is out there? And how much time, attention and energy do we have left to build what we want to achieve in our own life?

Life can be a fairly simple process, if we choose to leave it that way.

The truth is, we can choose our thoughts, beliefs, behavior and that puts us in control. We can identify what is helpful and what is not helpful. What is supporting us and what is sabotaging us. We can all choose to focus on what matters to us and create progress in our lives.

When we are in the present moment, we focus less on the past and have the power in this moment to build our future. When we are fully connected to reality, focused on a purpose and have a vision of a positive, desired outcome, we are happier and experience less stress.

I recently repurposed the phone desk that we used when we had a landline. Remember those? I think all phones should come with a wall mount option so we can put them there, recharge the battery while we give ourselves a break and recharge ours.

We never felt obligated to go the phone on the wall and pick it up and listen to see if someone was there, demanding our attention. When it rang, if we were near, we answered it. If not, they would leave a message and we could call them when we had time.

The phone is a tool. It is intended to use at our discretion but somehow technology has modified how we function as human beings.

We have all seen people out for dinner together and both of them engrossed in their phones, zero conversation or connection with themselves, each other or the food that they ordered. Or parents with kids in strollers, pushing it along, fully engaged in screentime, never making eye contact with their child. Or worse- people driving on the freeway while using their phone.

What is so urgent that the important people in your life, you included, have been put right off the priority list? How does checking your phone every few minutes throughout the day, affect productivity and focus in your job?

What is the return on investment of this habit? If you could assign a money value to this, what would that be?

Skills training in Relaxation hypnosis sessions and breathing exercises has helped every client I have worked with. Improvements range from stress reduction, improved sleep, decrease or elimination of the ongoing chatter within them, experience deep relaxation and are calmer and more confident. We have forgotten how to take our foot off the gas pedal and how to allow our mind and body to release tension. These sessions are a reminder of what that feels like.

Pay attention, to yourself, your life, your health and those that matter most to you.

It’s worth a lot.

This article by Margo Staniforth @ Hypno Chic Hypnosis in Red Deer, AB inspired in part by The Power of Attention by Sarah McLean.