Hi there,
I'm Katie and welcome to this talk.
So today I wanted to chat a little bit about where our attention goes.
I am a believer that attention is such a valuable resource.
It's a precious resource and attention and the cultivation of attention is something that is a part of mindfulness practice.
Part of mindfulness practice helps us build that muscle of attention so that we can be more aware,
We can become more in contact with ourselves and really so we can just be more present.
Now nervous system and somatic work also involves that ability to stay attuned and attend to what's going on too.
But as I've just kind of thought about it and talked about it over the years,
I come back to this metaphor of a mirror,
Which I'd like to share with you.
Now this is just a little standard bathroom mirror and you can see my studio here behind there but whatever,
That happens.
Think of the mirror.
This mirror goes backwards and it goes forwards.
I think of orienting or tending outward sometimes.
We do that.
All of our attention is outward.
Attending to what is out there.
And sometimes that's good.
Sometimes that's great.
And sometimes that's not so good,
Especially if we are focused on what's out there and we're not being present within ourselves.
But we can also turn this mirror back and you know,
This is what so much of the spiritual and contemplative wisdom traditions of the world are inviting us to do,
To turn our attention and our awareness back to ourselves so we can understand and be with our thoughts and our feelings and sensations.
And again,
This kind of layers into nervous system work.
Sometimes we orient outward and there can be good in that.
There is good in that as well.
We can attune to our environment and what supports us.
Maybe it's the moon at night or the sky or touching something,
Sensing something,
Using our senses to inform our nervous system,
To support our nervous system.
And then sometimes,
You know,
We need to go back in and try to be with or sense whatever sensations are happening.
Within our heart rate,
Our muscles,
Our breathing,
All of the myriad of sensations that are happening within a body and a nervous system.
And sometimes we can get stuck in one of these orientations,
Like kind of hyper-oriented outward.
Sometimes if we have trauma,
That can be a thing because we're always on guard,
On alert,
Just kind of.
You know,
Sensing our environment to make sure that we're safe.
And sometimes it can be scary to kind of go in.
Sometimes it doesn't feel good to be with our sensations or our emotions or even with our body.
Now,
I think if we were to layer this concept and also mindfulness into it,
Mindfulness and nervous system work,
I feel like what's really helpful is to have kind of some flexibility,
To be able to orient outward and to notice when it's time to come back inward.
And to sometimes not get stuck in the inward orienting and awareness.
Sometimes it's too much.
Sometimes we need to orient back out for a variety of reasons.
So I just wanted to leave that with you as just kind of a little metaphor to just kind of understand this a little bit more deeper and think about it and experience it.
So maybe something that you can do is just be aware of when you're orienting outward.
And be aware of when you're orienting inward and what that feels like.
And seeing if you can have a little bit of flexibility.
A flexible nervous system can go up and down,
And it doesn't stay stuck.
That's what happens.
Sometimes we stay stuck.
So it's this flexibility that supports us.
And it's this ability to go inward,
Too,
That supports us greatly.
I think we just have to find the right balance.
Awareness and attention is always foundational,
But what we do with it and how we work with it is something that we can practice and that we can explore.
And most of all,
We can get curious about.
