What Are You Already Paying Attention To?

These two Treasure Hunts will train you to notice how your brain works, and will help you put your attention on the things that are important to you and that make you deeply happy. Before you start, you may want to read all about James, and how he didn’t lose his three-year-old (and, found a path to happiness).

What Are You Paying Attention To Already? (5-10 minutes)

Your brain is always on the lookout for potential threats and novel stimulus. Noticing what your brain is focusing on (when it’s on auto-pilot) is an incredibly powerful tool of any Treasure Hunter.

Take a few minutes, and get curious about questions like these:

What have I been thinking about today?
What do I put my attention on?
What kinds of things catch my eye?
What keeps me distracted?
When I catch my mind wandering, where’s it wander?

These will get you started exploring, and will get you curious about what patterns your brain is spending time on. You can add all sorts of questions, and over time you’ll find yourself just noticing what’s going on up there.

Whenever you notice your brain paying attention, notice it. Notice the patterns your brain is working with. There’s nothing to do about it, nothing to fix, nothing to change. That won’t do anything.

This is a Treasure Hunt just to notice what’s there. That alone will free you up.

What’s Your ‘Three-Year-Old’? (twenty minutes to a lifetime)

Sometimes the simplest Treasure Hunts are the most powerful.

You can spend a few minutes asking these questions, or you can spend a lifetime.

I suggest a lifetime.

Get curious, letting each of these questions float around the back of your mind (they may overlap, that’s ok):

What am I doing in my life that’s as important to me as not losing a three-year-old?
What am I doing in my life that’s meaningful, that leads me to being deeply happy and fulfilled?

Ask variations on these questions, play with them:

What could I be doing . . . ?
What am I doing that isn’t . . . ?
What could I shift that would make it more . . . ?

This isn’t a quick Treasure Hunt! It may take weeks, or months, or years to design your life so that it works for you. It will be an ongoing process.

But it always starts from right where you are. Just being on this Treasure Hunt can be meaningful and fulfilling.

Get really curious. Let questions like these bubble around the back of your mind. Post up reminders. Write in a journal. Talk with other people about them.

As you doze off at night, ponder them.

If you meditate, or jog, or paint, let the questions float through your mind.

At times this may be challenging, at times easy and enlivening. That’s what the best Treasure Hunts often are like.