Too Much Self
Self-consciousness and self-absorption consume the attention required to make a life. When all we do is monitor ourselves, we stop participating in reality and miss what life is trying to offer.
Self-consciousness and self-absorption consume the attention required to make a life. When all we do is monitor ourselves, we stop participating in reality and miss what life is trying to offer.
Some cultures protect possibility. Others slowly convince us to reduce ourselves to what they can tolerate. Isolation is not always personal. Sometimes it’s environmental.
It’s easier than we think to create experiences that are bad for us, addictively bad, but that feel good. The nervous system does not morally distinguish between expansion and depravity.
Every day, there is something at stake. We can use this awareness, not to scare us, but to keep us from squandering our lives.
We live up to the gift of our lives by expressing our rarity. We are each someone who has never existed and never will again. To sacrifice what is distinct about us…
Our attention is the currency with which we buy the life we desire. Our intentions set the direction. Attention carries it out. Every hour of attention is a purchase.