Attention: social media is where it’s at. It’s not a good or bad thing, and it’s not the source of attention either. The source of attention, that’s a worthy curiosity, from which everything else takes root. The way is not to focus on outward appearances but dive directly into the inner substance of here and now. Choice is the fiber of attention. You can either look at someone and judge them based on their political correctness and how many followers they have on Instagram; or you can suspend judgment, look at someone human-to-human, and instantly get a sense of their story, strengths, and superpowers. The latter tends to be more interesting.
You can wrinkle your forehead and thumb into a screen or you can relish at how the sun falls on your shoulders as heat cascades to your fingertips – the raw process that life directly has on you. Or how the skin breathes and heart beats itself into being. It’s a simple process of noticing, or mindfulness, that has shown to relieve stress and activate brain development.
[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Discovering your life purpose means unveiling the mind so your being can shine.[/perfectpullquote]
OK but what does that have to do with the creation of wealth and abundance? After all, that’s what drives us. Well what if wealth is the ongoing flow of attracting people and situations that match your natural calling? Knowing your inner substance is to discover your full potential. Discovering your life purpose means unveiling the mind so your being can shine. As the famed Neurologist Antonio Damasio once said, “We use our minds not to discover facts but to hide them.”
To truly savor and cultivate flow is to fully appreciate what makes you different, what makes our time precious and rich with opportunity. I’d rather be present and muse with a friend, eye to eye, in real time than to zoom and scroll. Zoom and scroll can be there and often is, but it doesn’t have to be consuming.
Winning on social media or a political debate doesn’t mean you win at life. Winning at life means having courage to be self-aware, to reinvent oneself, to seek and adventure into the unknown and actively dialogueing with people who are unlike you, which often leads to a diversity of thought in the ways that we pay attention.