Pay attention to where you pay attention!

At the recent Mind and its Potential conference in Sydney, I was lucky enough to catch up with Dr Jeffrey Schwartz.  In his recent book; You Are Not Your Brain,  Jeffrey talks about the concept of ‘veto power’.  Simply put this is the .2 of a second delay between when your brain sends us an error message to when your mind carries out it’s response.   In neuroscience terms .2 of a second is actually a very long time. The key to note here is; we may not be able to stop our brain from wandering where it will in the first place but we certainly have the power to choose whether or not we focus our attention on the content.  It seems we have free won’t far more than we have free will.

Remember this the next time your partner thoughtlessly does something that pisses you off.  Instead of engaging your inner critic, stop and choose to refocus your attention on something else that exists in the present moment, for just 10 seconds e.g. the colour of their eyes, the air flowing into your nostrils the various sounds you can hear around you.  This will move you into a state of ‘direct experience’ and disentangle you from the narrative allowing you to choose your response rather than react habitually. Practicing this mindfulness technique before you need it will support you to develop the discipline of veto power.

One thing to note is that using your minds braking system requires a lot of energy and resources (glucose and oxygen).  If you are tired, hungry or unwell your capacity will be dramatically reduced.  Ensuring you take care of your work life balance is essential for effective thinking.
To your success

Kendra