Program Description: There is no "attention center" in the brain. So where is our capacity for sustained focus located? Research shows us that it is an ensemble of alerting, orienting, and executive networks collaborating to attune us to what's going on in our inner or outer world in coherent ways that point us toward an appropriate response. Most of us don't understand that attention is a finite resource, like money, so it pays for us to focus on what is more positive and productive. You can make a choice between focusing on something that is productive or generative as opposed to something that is a poor use of your time, and is non-productive. If your view of the world, or of a particular situation, is more positive, Gallagher, stating research says, "The people who are in a positive emotional state see much more-their peripheral vision is larger. They literally see what we call, ' the big picture,' and, not only visually, but also psychologically. They are in a better position to consider options; they have more choices; they can make better decisions." (Hosted by Justine Willis Toms)
Winifred Gallagher is a writer. Her books include House Thinking: A Room-by- Room Look at How We Live (Harper 2007), Just the Way You Are (Random House 1997), Working on God (Modern Library 2000), The Power of Place(Harper 2007) and Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life (Penguin 2009). She lives in New York and Dubois, Wyoming
Topics explored in this dialogue:
What happens in your brain when you focus on something
What is the difference between bottom up attention and top down attention
Why do certain things "grab" your attention
What are the implications in choosing how to spend our finite amount of attention
What are the two things that characterize a sense of flow in your life
Why we should not let our machines, iPods, Blackberries, cell phones choose our focus for us
How the nature of attention leads us to occupy the same space, but live in different worlds
Why we are much more likely to focus on what we might have to give up rather than what we have to gain
What is the relationship between attention and motivation
