Attention Movement Techniques for Mindfulness Practice

Attention can be directed away from visual focus, enhancing awareness of peripheral sensations and inner experiences.

### Developing Attention Control Without Meditation
* 👀 The instructor demonstrates how to **decouple attention from vision** by focusing on the **periphery** while looking straight ahead.
* 🧠 This exercise aims to show that **attention and vision are distinct**, as **attention can move independently** of the focal point of the eyes.
* 🔄 Participants are asked to move their attention from the edge of their visual field to inside their head, noticing how **attention shifts to different sensations**.
* 💡 The exercise highlights the ability to **control attention** without the need for **deep concentration or meditation**.
* 🔍 By practicing moving attention back to its "**origin point**," participants develop a crucial skill for meditation and mindfulness.
* 🍅 The "**origin point**" of attention is often felt as a sensation in the head, but it can vary among individuals.
* 🧘 The instructor emphasizes the importance of this attention-directing skill in meditation practice, suggesting it is a **fundamental move** that will be used **frequently** on the meditation journey.
* 💬 Participants are encouraged to practice this attention-directing move regularly, as it is a **key aspect of developing mindfulness and concentration**.

we're not going to go into a meditation necessarily because I want to demonstrate to you guys that you don't need to be in meditation to do these moves. These are moves that you can learn to do with your attention that can become available, and you don't have to be really concentrated, really sitting still for a long time, really relaxed. So, no need to really enter meditation. Okay, so what I'm gonna ask you guys to do actually is have your eyes open and stare directly forward at a point on the wall in front of you. Okay, and from there, you're staring at this point in front of you. You might put your hand to the side and try to find the boundary of your vision, your peripheral vision, and just, you know, kind of move it forward and backward and see, you're still staring forward. Can you notice the exact moment, still staring forward, and you first detect your hand in the side of your vision? It's actually a bit wider than 180°, I think. And so, okay, you're looking forward.

but your attention is to the side. You're noticing a blurry object, your hand in the side of your vision, the edge of your periphery. Yeah, do that on one side and then get that going on the other side as well. You're still looking forward at this one spot, but you're noticing the edge of your peripheral vision on both sides. You might try, yeah, really find the border, push your hand back, really pay attention. When do you stop seeing your hand? It's really just a blurry, colorless object. Okay, what we're doing here is we're decoupling our attention from our vision. So even though our eyes are looking forward at something and there's something in front of us that's more in focus, we've decoupled, we've moved our attention to the side of our vision to something that's blurry, that's not in focus, right? So what I'm trying to demonstrate to you guys is that your attention is not the same as the focal point in your vision. Often, those two markers are like

synced up, so I just want to check with people. You guys get this? You can nod your head or yeah, cool, cool, good. So, okay, you don't have to keep your hands up, you know, this is tiring, but I just wanted you guys to get this idea that you can move your attention around your vision even though you're not moving the focus point of your eyesight right here. You can see attention is something different that can move, all right? And now, again, staring forward at a point on the wall. You don't have to have your hands up now, but move your attention slowly from the straight in front of you round to the edge of your vision. So, you kind of move your attention round to the edge without moving your eyes. You might be tempted to move your eyes, but slowly move your attention 90° to the side. Okay, okay. Now, you think you've got your attention on the edge, your peripheral vision. Keep moving it back. Move it back even more. Okay, where does it go now? You're moving your attention out of the visual

space back into what. Okay, you might notice that, okay, your attention then moves from the visual side. It kind of jumps to, um, sensations in your head. You notice that. So now you're kind of moving your attention around the edge of the visual space. Seems to connect with, like, sensations of the side of your face. Do people find that? Yeah, and you might keep trying that now. Keep moving it around. So you moved it around the side, uh, so out of the visual space. Keep moving your attention round, round, round, round. But once it goes out of the visual space normally, then it jumps to sensations in the head. But move it around the, not the back of the head, but into the head again. Not moving your eyes, looking forward. And now have your attention kind of coming round from the back, but then back into the center of where the one who is looking is, but not out at the wall. So you moved it from around in a semicircle back. Are people getting this? You guys able to do this? Okay, okay, so this is something to play.

with moving attention round around the experience space. Now look straight at the wall again, so align your focal point of your vision with your attention. So, you're looking straight at the wall in front of you, and your attention is out in front. Yeah, people are doing this. Yeah, and this might be a little bit mentally exhausting to actively move your attention like this, but let's do it. Okay, so you're looking out forward with your attention as we normally do. That's how we normally look and attend to the world. Now defocus your eyes and so kind of look at the air in between the wall and your face. So, you kind of moved your attention. You haven't moved your eyes, but you've moved your attention kind of back a bit, right? And you might play with defocusing your eyes so things are blurry. You've moved your attention kind of to the air in between the wall, and then look back at the wall, and then defocus tension back, attention forward, attention back, tension forward, and kind of notice this forward-backwards.

movement of attention right, and you could play with the depth of it as well. You know which point in the air are you looking at, how meter in front of you, and then 50 cm, 30 cm in front of you. You see how you can move your attention in these directions. Now draw the attention in this backwards direction, back, back, back, back to the place where it seems attention is coming from, nor back into the head. And you might notice this point, middle of the visual space, but you're not looking at anything in the visual space because you've moved attention inwards and the somatic sensations of the head, you know, around the left side and the back side of the head meet up, that kind of middle point. And you know everything's kind of coming together, this middle point moving attention at so close, so close to its origin point. Okay, and if you've got that, maybe drop it, stop it, look at the world normally again, and then see if you can quickly get back to looking inwards with attention back at a point and see how you can do.

this quickly doesn't require concentration. It's just a quick subtle move. Place when you've located it. You've now found this place. Move attention back there. Check on it. What is there? What is at the origin point of attention? If anyone's really confused, feel free to jump in and ask a question. Maybe give a little bit more directing guidance if need be. There might be a kind of like, okay, why are we doing this? What's the point? Well, normally always looking a way out at the world, but what is the thing that is looking that is doing the attending? You move attention, you draw it back, back or Draw It round, round and back to the closest point where it feels like attention is guided from. So what happens for me is I don't know if you know, like trying to, it feels a bit like trying to pin down like a tomato seed, you know, where you're trying to push on it and then it suddenly like slips away. And I keep noticing that it feels like I want to get to one place, but then

I notice I know now my intention is like a certain sensation in my head. Then I try to move it again, and I keep trying to like get close to the thing, but it keeps trying to slip away. It's kind of what it feels great. Great. Are other people finding that too? I not when you said origin of attention. I couldn't locate anything, and you said that middle of the head, and then I was like, Okay, I can go there, I guess. Bit suggestive at that point. Um, it was suggested, yeah, right, right for most people, not everyone, but for a lot of people, it is that sense of in the head. That's where I'm pointing to, but if it's not for you, try to see if you can pin it down. Maybe I, you know, some people, it feels like it's coming from the heart, or doesn't have to be in the head, but for a lot of people, yeah, we’re very visual creatures. We connect our eyesight to really the looker, The Watcher of the world, and we draw it back into some kind of

homunculus in the head, but if that's not the case for you, yeah, try to find where it is in the experience space. And like Andy said, you can Tomato Seed, you sort of pinning it down, and yeah, it slips, and then you get into this recursive cycle of it keeps moving. Oh, it's like, Oh, I thought it was there, but then it moves back, and it keeps moving, moving, moving, moving. And this is where you need the metacognition, which is a different cognitive faculty from attention, to notice that game, that game of it keeps slipping and moving. So, there's a part that's just, you know, omnipresent, aware of noticing the slipping in the moving, which isn't caught up in this slipping and moving. But the part's just, Oh, that's look, it's just sort of this elusive move, it just keeps going and going and going. But the thing I want to point out is it's good to locate this spot and to learn the move of being able to just quickly, quickly, whoop, direct

detention back, and that this move of directing attention back. You will do it thousands of times on the meditation journey. Every now and then, do that move. Yeah, yeah, but just like, just keep doing it. I can't, I can't tell you guys how many times I just did that move, just all the time, just constant, like just walking down the street. I just do this move in meditation. Just do that move. You learn this move, and then you just do it like a million times, and eventually, something can happen. Yeah.

How to turn attention on itself - FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS

Roger This

The speaker demonstrates that meditation is not necessary to practice awareness moves.

By staring at a point on the wall and exploring peripheral vision with their hand, participants learn to decouple attention from their focal point.

This exercise highlights that attention can be directed to blurry, colorless objects in the periphery, separate from the main focus of vision.

The speaker demonstrates how to move attention around the visual field without shifting the focus of the eyes.

Participants are guided to slowly shift their attention from the center to the edges of their vision and then back, noticing the connection to sensations in the head and face.

The exercise encourages participants to play with moving their attention in a semicircle, aiming to bring it back to the center without looking away from the wall.

The exercise involves aligning your focal point with your attention while looking at a wall.

By defocusing your eyes and shifting your attention back and forth, you can play with the depth of your focus.

The practice culminates in drawing attention inward to the origin point, creating a sense of convergence in the visual space.

The exercise involves subtly moving attention to locate its origin point.

Participants are encouraged to check in with that point and notice any sensations or feelings associated with it.

The process can feel elusive, as the focus may slip away, and the origin of attention can vary for different individuals, with common sensations in the head or heart.

Awareness can be difficult to pin down, as it constantly slips and moves, creating a recursive cycle.

Metacognition, a different cognitive faculty from attention, is essential for noticing this elusive movement.

The practice of directing attention back is crucial and should be done repeatedly on the meditation journey, ultimately leading to greater awareness.