Outlaw Attention

“To live outside the law, one must be honest” Bob Dylan

 This is Attention on the edge, where the action is. Think merry-go-round, the operator stands in the middle in a slow spin with a bit of boredom, while the riders swirl with excitement on beautiful horses, their minds a whirl of sensations and imagination.

 Outlaw Attention, partnered with self-honesty, is about eluding the posse of habit police, those who serve and protect what has always been.  The habit posse enforce the unconscious traps of sleep walking, the drills of negativity, the collars of having to be right, the shackles of not making mistakes, and the handcuffs of already knowing.  

 Children flirt as outlaws. Whenever freedom offers a painted pony of presence and where self-expression shows up creating a rodeo, children want to ride the bronc!

 Outlaw Attention rides that trail beyond ‘get along little doggie.’ The ride is down into the Forbidden Canyon, toward the echo’s mystery. With magic the child creates maps to return to where Attention comes from. They find Attention from searching the high mountains and Great Plains.

 Pay Attention to children. Lasso those who want to keep the children jailed by the habit posse corralling them into the land of the in-SAME.

 Lead the habit police down a false trail. Let yourself follow the free attention trail to gratitude, enthusiasm, and joy in bringing the little cowpokes along.

Different Types Of Attention

Step into, or out of, the land of the Imagined Resistance. A scary place, believed to be real yet hidden in a fog of unknown fears.

Let us see what is in the Imagined Resistance.

Fear of something unknown? How can there be fear of the unknown when by definition I don’t know?

Is it fear of nothing?

 Is it a garden-variety fear? Fear that is just floating, caught from a toilet seat, rubbed off from a doorknob type fear?

 Is Imagined Resistance more important than a goal, a project, happiness, compassion, or fear of success?

 Is it fear of being stupid and wrong or fear of embarrassment?

This is the un-slayable Dragon of Imagined Resistance.

 This is the I can never win, never change, Never, Neverland of Captain Hook entrapping Peter Pan’s friends in a fear that does not exist.

It is an enduring my useless suffering fear!

 For God’s sake USE your imagination!

 It is Don Quixote waving at windmills, while Poncho is TOO BUSY to help his partner.

 It’s the great obsessive-compulsive, bi-polar continuum of the 21st century. 

 The fear takes control and manifests as I tell my selves “I’m stuck.” Then I may feel a great release, the slingshot epiphany, of “I’m saved, it’s just my imagination, a negative mental attitude(NMA). I may mentally run the gamut  of “I’m not perfect, I’m a sinner, it ain’t me-‘isms’ of excuses and fears, and finally releasing my Imagined Resistance and being present-NOW.

 Here’s a recipe for concocting Imagined Resistance. You’ll need the following ingredients: a mishmash of beliefs about time, usually a lack of time and energy. Add some laziness. A large vat of ‘whatever’s’. Season with blame, excuses, and because. Lots of ‘I can’t.’ Add your favorite addictions, TV, drugs, alcohol, sex, sports, politics, and, or drama. Add more of our ever-present ego’s need to have to be right. Find a very large oven with a  heavy door and climb in, like Hansel and Gretel, close your eyes,  imagine the worst, then resist the cooking of your own creation. This is negative imagination, creator of Imagined Resistance.  

One antidote to Imagined Resistance is to handle real resistance. Show up, step up, make the call, knock, ask, just do it! Tell your selves you can do it. It is most likely not gonna kill you. After all what is the worst that can happen? Say yes to life, to choices and risks, getting on with your real resistances.

 Another antidote is not believing in resistance. If you must believe, and I love it when my attention is so FREE, I don’t need to create beliefs!

  What about the belief in no resistance, only feedback, mere bumps on the freeways of life?

  What about not believing everything that I think?

  What about upgrading imagination, without the resistance, into a useful tool toward the goal.

 I can imagine that everyone is on my side.

 I can imagine I have the patience to participate and complete  my goals.

 I can imagine I have all the tools and skill I need to succeed.

 I can imagine miracles, a great place to pay attention.

 Visit The Checking Inn, get a room with a view, and see what’s outside your window, and For God’s sake USE your imagination, and trust your selves.

Where Does Attention Come From?

Is attention different than life itself?

 This is an exercise where I need a timing mechanism to “block and focus” over a defined time and then return to paying attention and ponder where my attention goes.

 It’s a loop; I am my attention, seeking to know where my attention comes from, and to focus my attention on where it is going.

 What of these attention loops?

 I remember altered states in which I chose to maintain my ‘sanity clause’ by creating a routine, ‘go to the orange tree, pick an orange,  peel, eat, toss the peel, repeat.’ It was soothing, calming to the mind as I minded the edges and allowed some very strange experiences to pass. I was still my attention, uncertain where the attention came from but certain of the loop and its importance and certainty.

 This loop is often used to describe infinity, an unbounded space, time, or quantity.  Does that mean our attention is infinite?

  I love the concept of love being a cornucopia, a never-ending supply of acceptance and appreciation, which at its’ core is attention.

 Looping back to the Beatles “♪All we need is love….love is all there is…♫

 Attention comes from attention and leads to attention. It is inside us and outside us. It’s everywhere.

 My Attention brought me the questions ‘where is God not at?