Pay Attention!

An Assembling God’s Puzzle video

By Fr. Garry Richmeier, C.PP.S.

When I was in grade school, my teachers often exclaimed “Pay attention!” I was always paying attention, of course, but not necessarily to the teacher. Sometimes I was paying attention to the nice Spring weather outside the window, or to the birds chirping, or to the antics of a fellow classmate in front of me. The teacher really meant that she wanted us to pay attention to her.

This example speaks to two things about us human beings, two parts of the puzzle that makes us who we are. The first is that we cannot “not” pay attention (unless we’re unconscious of course). Our attention is always directed somewhere. The second fact is that we have some control about where we place our attention. These two things may seem obvious, but it is amazing how often we find ourselves helpless about where our attention goes and what effects that has on our attitudes and emotions.

We are creatures of habit, and when we do something repetitive, like driving a car, we tend to shift attention away from the repetitive action and allow the habit to take over. That works when everything goes normally, but when something out of the ordinary happens (like another car swerving in front of us), our attention may not have time to snap back to the driving in time to avoid an accident. Keeping our attention focused on the driving can be life-saving.

There are also certain things that almost automatically grab our attention, and it is helpful to be aware of these things so we are free to pay attention or not. The advertising industry knows this well, and expertly designs commercials to grab and maintain people’s attention. Things like movement, bright colors, attractive things (people, nature scenes, etc.), louder than usual sound, memorable experiences (old songs, movies, etc.), emotional scenes (a mother holding a baby, two people in love, etc.), shocking things (murders, scary images, etc.), are just a few of the things that advertisers use to get us to pay attention to their products. Being aware of this helps us be free to buy products for more important reasons that slick advertising.

As human beings we also are predisposed to pay attention to ideology, philosophies, political platforms, and news stories that reflect what we think and believe, or want to think and believe. A simple example of this is when a person is thinking of buying a certain make of car and starts to notice more cars of that make and model on the road, even though there really aren’t more on the road. Being aware of our tendency to do this can help free us from slavery to a single, tunnel vision view, and help us come to a greater understanding of the world around us.

When we are not aware of our ability to focus our attention where we want it, we’re like a dog that pays attention to its owner until it sees a squirrel, then it’s off to the races! ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a diagnosis given to a person who cannot/will not keep attention focused on one thing for any length of time. Some psychologists believe kids are being conditioned for this disorder by the hyper speed of images to pay attention to on electronic devices.

So how do we maintain control of our attention instead of letting it control us? First of all, knowing that we are susceptible to all of the things mentioned above is helpful. It allows us to know when and how our attention might be hijacked and we can then be ready.

And when we are trying to improve any skill, there is no substitute for practice. That applies to managing our attention also. A simple way to practice maintaining attention is to focus on one thing for any length of time. For instance, I can pay attention to what I am hearing at the moment, and only that, just noting each thing I hear. Or I can look at an object, like a candle or an object on the table, and simply maintain my focus and attention there.

There are many methods of meditation that are designed to help a person maintain attention. Some recommend using the word/sound “Om” as a focus sound to train one’s self to keep attention from running wild. Repetitive prayers like the rosary can be used to help control our sometimes wayward attention.

Any practice one uses to train their attention-focusing skills can be valuable. Having more control of where we place our attention can help us focus on what is really important, and ignore other stuff that is needless, unnecessarily stressful, or even harmful. And that can make life much more enjoyable.

All of the videos in this series can be found here: Assembly God’s Puzzle.

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[Fr. Garry Richmeier, a Precious Blood priest and spiritual director, holds a Master’s of Divinity Degree from St John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, and a Master’s of Counseling Psychology degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is a licensed professional counselor and a licensed marriage and family therapist.]

Photo ID 76463928 © Arkady Vyrlan | Dreamstime.com — Pay Attention! — An Assembling God’s Puzzle video

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