What has your attention?
There is always something asking for our attention.
Our phones. Our work. Our worries. Things we need to remember. Things that have already happened. Things we are waiting for. Our attention can be somewhere else before we even notice that it has drifted.
I’m curious about what happens when so much has our attention that we begin to notice less of the people around us.
When something else has our attention
We can be with someone while thinking about something completely different. We might be checking a message, thinking about work, worrying about something at home or wondering what we need to do next.
The person beside us is there, but our attention is elsewhere.
Sometimes we notice. Often we don't.
When we stop noticing what's around us
Our attention doesn't only go to our phones or our thoughts.
It can become focused on our own lives too. We might be thinking about what we need to get done, what someone said earlier or what is happening next. We can become so caught up in our own day that we stop noticing the people and things happening around us.
Someone may be trying to tell us something. A neighbour may pass by. A friend may need our attention.
Yet we may not notice.
When connection is easy to miss
Connection doesn't always ask loudly for our attention.
Sometimes it is a conversation that could have lasted a little longer. Someone sitting beside us who we haven't really looked at. A person we see regularly but haven't asked how they are. These moments can be easy to overlook when our attention is already occupied.
We may not realise what we have missed.
Noticing where our attention is
Its not possible to give our attention to everything. There will always be things that need our attention, and there will be times when our own thoughts and responsibilities quite rightly come first.
Perhaps it is simply worth noticing where our attention is.
What has it? Who has it? What or who might we not be noticing because our attention is somewhere else?
What has your attention?
Our attention naturally drifts. It will be pulled towards what is urgent, interesting, familiar or simply in front of us.
Perhaps sometimes we can notice when it has drifted away from the people and world around us.
We might look up. Listen. Notice who is there, and perhaps, for a moment, give our attention to what we might otherwise have missed.
I wonder what you might notice when you next stop and ask yourself: What has my attention now?