3. Where Attention Goes... (G1)

There is much to be said about the language of paying attention. In German, it is called gifting attention. In Spanish, it is to borrow. It is something that can be given or taken, held, captured, bought and sold. It is the most valuable (and perhaps the only) thing we truly own. And it is all ours. 

Our attention is our Sovereignty. It is under our domain. Our jurisdiction. We set the rules, we determine where and how it flows. The quality of it, the depth, the power of it. 

“The Sovereign is the one who exercises power without limitation. Sovereignty is essentially the power to make laws[.] The term also carries implications of autonomy; to have sovereign power is to be beyond the power of others to interfere.”   – Cornell University of Law

We are the Sovereign of our Attention. And if we are in control of where, how and when it flows, there is nothing in this world that can control us (except through Force, which we may come back to). We are within our own jurisdiction. 

But it most certainly takes self-discipline to reign in our attention. It is a wild stallion that has to be caught and tamed. We cannot force it into submission. We’re better off building a relationship with it. But how do we do that?

The first step is to acknowledge its existence. And even deeper within that is the absence of the IT, as it is not othered from YOU, but is YOU. We are no more than what we put our attention on, what we allow it to grab hold of and reel back into our inner sanctum to paint our internal walls with. To create our own many faces. Our many facets of our multi-dimensional geometry. 

We become the aggregate of all the things we give our attention to. Within that giving there is invariably a taking, whether it is conscious or subconscious. With consent, or without. 

Then what could be more powerful than learning to harness our attention? To see and know and unify all our parts - all our facets. 

As with any multi-faceted gem, to start identifying it, we start by looking at the shape, the color, the density, and the geometry. But how do we do this with something so multifaceted and intangible as our inner worlds? How can we put a microscope to our own inner geometry?

By creating a multifaceted lens that helps us navigate with an internal compass. An “alethiometer” to help us make sense of ourselves and all our patterns, from the micro to the macro. 

The Geometry of One is this attention. The first step is to become a master of our attention by paying attention to our attention. Interesting, isn't it? But that self-reflection of pointing our attention back on itself is the true first step of self-awareness.

Mastering this step can take years. We are so used to having our attention flit from thing to thing, screen to page to person to thought. And our internal voices, the Narrator, is constantly chattering away about all the things it is observing. Calming that voice and bringing it to a state of quiet, of stillness, is the Zero-Point.

When our attention is terribly out of our control and those words simply will not quiet, sometimes it takes things that force all thought out of the mind. Ice baths are a good method of forcing the mind into stillness as all you can possibly do is breathe.

All we are doing is building a toolkit for how to harness our attention. Sometimes it takes strong self discipline (a masculine approach). Sometimes it takes softness, coaxing, and surrender (the feminine). But by asking yourself the question "where is my attention right now?" at regular intervals throughout the day, you are building the muscle of self-awareness.

And you do that again, and again, and again, and again....