Attention - Seeking

 "Attention is the new money."  - Ezra Klein on the Ezra Klein Show

Sociologists have observed the shrinking attention span of modern Americans, most obvious in teenagers but impacting adults, as well. Horrified by my own increasing phone usage, I vowed to reduce it in the new year and succeeded for a whole week before the "time on your phone" stat crept up again. As I'm in the thick of it with high school swimming I tell myself that it's just swim times and playlists, but I can't quite pull the wool over my own eyes (such is my preoccupation with swimming, though, that I first wrote "pool" instead of "pull").

Any increased phone usage is not spent on news doom-scrolling, I guarantee you, since my peace of mind can't tolerate more than thirty seconds of the current headlines. My first venture back into non-frivolous podcasting (i.e. NOT "Call Her Daddy" or "Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce") was my listen to Ezra Klein's show last week. 

Klein's statement "attention is the new money" caught me off-guard while at the same time hitting home. He noted that the oligarchs now on podiums and in seats of government are not your standard billionaires but the ones who control the flow of information via websites, newspapers and social media sites. Those who control information can alter reality for users of their platforms. As Klein noted, one party seems to understand this and one does not - to their great detriment.

I will leave further political observations to the experts but remind myself that Klein's concise summary runs parallel to familiar exhortations "Where the mind goes, energy flows" and the Biblical "Where your heart is, there your treasure will be also." I am trying - for now - to focus on the positive and fill my brain with positive possibilities instead of negative outcomes. I want my energy flowing to life-affirming actions that I can control. These include music I listen to, books or articles that I read, and to helping the young people I coach.

My current favorite playlist has "sun keeps on shining" (almost monday), "Life is Beautiful" (Tim McMorris) and "Feeling Alive"  (Earl St. Clair). The upbeat, positive music sinks in so much that some days I wake up singing "Life is great, life is beautiful."  Good books keep me focused on the positive power of words, and affirming young swimmers helps them reach goals. If attention is the new money, I want to build up my resources and spend them well.

Nuggets of Wisdom

My acupuncturist is an amazing healer, a fiery Colombian American and self-avowed recovering Catholic. Each time I visit her sky blue office I feel soothed and supported while at the same time challenged and uplifted. Her belief in the divine is supported by her knowledge of quantum physics (right up my alley) and she discusses frequencies with fervor.

A few treasured observations from my visit yesterday:

- "Monkeys don't like monks." This witty assessment of how Gregorian chants can be an antidote for stress and the so-called 'monkey-mind,' even for recovering Catholics (although she asked permission to play that particular arrangement, acknowledging that some raised Catholics could be anti-monk, or at least averse to chanting).

- "The Spanish word for faith is fe, which = force and energy."   I love this, as my faith has taken a beating since 2016, when I felt that Christianity was co-opted by people who act the least like Jesus of anyone I've ever met. Deyba talked about how Jesus' positive energy, his high frequency, was so powerful that he could walk into any group of people and change their existing energy field. She explains how we can raise our own frequencies with positivity and optimism, how we can also use our force and energy for good and positively alter the energy of a person or even a room of people that we encounter. This takes a lot of work, a great deal of self-care, and healthy boundaries.

I'm working on the healthy boundaries. As an oldest daughter, a woman raised in 1980's "Ronald and Nancy Reagan" America, I am certainly a people-pleaser. Deyba has been teaching me to do what I need to do for my health and my peace of mind, making choices for better sleep, fewer conflicts, positive outlook (manta - 'everything is always working out for me') and healthy eating, reading, listening.  

If we could all hum our way to higher frequencies, how much better could we be? (Apparently humming is another wonderful way to soothe and uplift). I'm prepared to wield humming, good health and Gregorian chants as we enter 2025.

PS - Thinking of everyone in CA affected by the fires and praying for quick resolution and no further loss of life.

 

Resolute in 2025

I stopped making specific new year's resolutions a few years ago, probably around the time I turned 50 and realized that the years march on regardless of my more-healthy diet or my vow to spend less time on my phone. Ideas for self-improvement float into my head year-round, and the restlessness has previously fed my need to stay busy, to do meaningful things, to deny myself rest. While these personality traits are difficult to shake, wisdom won through trying experiences has made me want to be resolute in the face of whatever comes, and not to make resolutions to make myself better for mysterious times ahead.

My friend Hana sent me this lovely poem by Donna Ashworth that expresses such sentiments better than I can, and I want to share it with you.

"On the stroke of midnight tonight,
You can resolve to be better, if you like...
To be fitter, to eat cleaner, to work harder.

On the stroke of midnight tonight,
You can resolve to become a 
Whole new you, if you so choose.

Or, you can take a moment to acknowledge
All you already are,
Because it's a lot. You're a lot.

And you deserve to be commended.

On the stroke of midnight tonight,
Perhaps you could congratulate yourself
For coping, for breaking again,
And for rebuilding again.

For catching the stones 
Life has thrown at you and using them
To build your castle that
Little bit stronger.

You have endured, my friend.

And I don't see the need to resolve 
To become a whole new you,
When you are already so very much indeed.
Happy new year. You made it.

Now let us face another 365-day turn, 
Arms wide, accepting and embracing
And 'seeing' each other
For all we are."

Happy New Year xxoo!