Attention Flows Where Energy Goes

Nov 30, 2024

The material world - more so than ever before - is designed to release us from the present moment. But the more I experience and think about it, deep, meaningful satisfaction is primarily derived from being in the here and now. 

I had the good fortune to visit Ranthambore earlier this year. It was my first safari ever, and although I am fond of wildlife and nature, the schedule presented by our guide seemed overly prescriptive and at the time, extremely unnecessary. Lights out by 10 pm, no breakfast, in the jeep by 5:30 am. This deviated from my typical schedule, but I decided to go with it. As difficult as the regimen seemed, I returned from our first safari beaming. It wasn’t being surrounded by nature that left me feeling content, but the presence that comes from ‘tracking’; following the paw marks of a tiger, listening carefully to the screeching of the birds (which typically indicates the presence of a predator), and simply being present, in the ‘now’, living in the wild. Perhaps it’s the rooting experience of mimicking the life experience of our far-distant ancestors, but the environment and experience was moving. 

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Whenever I let go of thinking about my past or anticipating what’s to come in the future, I feel most at ‘home’. ‘Home’, I mulled recently, is the feeling of being connected to and being aware of the current moment. It enables me to come back to myself, to expend creative energy on dictating my life, navigating the unknowns, and having clarity of thought that comes well beyond how I function during periods of stress. 

This is why I’ve tried - as much as possible - to stay away from social media. I couldn’t quite articulate it earlier, but over time, I’ve realized that social media apps are built and designed to take your attention away from the present. The fast-moving reels, red (a color that highlights urgency) notification labels, and curated feeds that present life ‘highlights’. 

And so, I've made a rule with myself: whenever I feel like my attention is being pulled away into the past or future, I root myself back by doing things that make me feel present: playing the guitar, doing yoga, or even a short meditation.​