This was an eye-opening read 👀 I would urge you to read it for yourself.
Johann Hari argues that our lives are filled with constant distractions that prevent us from fully engaging in the world around us, leading to feelings of disconnection, anxiety and depression. He suggests we need to take intentional steps to reclaim our attention and to focus on what really matters in our lives, and policy makers need to catch up with the impacts this is having on us all.
I particularly liked the concept of the 3 different types of attention we have:
🔦 Your spotlight 🔦 is your focus on your immediate actions such as ‘I’m going to go to the kitchen to make a cup of tea’. If your spotlight attention is interrupted you are prevented from carrying out these short term actions.
💫 Your starlight 💫 is the focus needed for longer term goals, such as you want to set up a business or be a good parent.
☀️Your daylight ☀️ is the type of focus that makes it possible to know what your longer term goals are in the first place. So things like, how do you know what it means to be a good parent? How do you know you want to set up a business? Without being able to reflect and think clearly, you won’t be able to figure these things out. It’s only when a scene is flooded by daylight that you can see the things around you most clearly. If you get so distracted that you lose your sense of daylight, it becomes hard to figure out who you are, what you want to do or where you want to go.
This hit home hard, and counselling is a place where these 3 forms of light can be nurtured and explored. Counselling is one way of helping you to become intentional again.
