Sunday, January 27, 2008

The Power of Attention


This is the first post on the Open Focus blog. It was created to begin a discussion about some of the ideas raised in our book, The Open Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body, published by an imprint of Shambhala Press. The premise is that we all hold on to emotional stress that we have carried with us since infancy and childhood. Because this stress -- which moves through our body as well as our mind -- is painful, we shut it down reflexively to keep from feeling it. To keep our stress from surfacing we stay in a type of attention called narrow objective. This fear lives on in our stomach, our chest, our heart and other organs and muscles and causes a host of problems, including anxiety, depression, chronic pain, ADD, ADHD and many other things. It also contributes to an overall phsyical and emotional numbness.

Stress and fear is held in place by the narrow focus objective style of attention. We can release this held fear, and reverse negative physiological and psychological symptoms, by moving into a less rigid, more flexible styles of attention. Taken far enough we can even move into transcendent states.

The book includes a CD with exercises that very quickly move us out of narrow objective focus, and into other forms of attention. In the clinic the Open Focus exercises are used with neurofeedback which makes them even more powerful.

We believe that used along with other tools, attention training has the power to transform modern psychology and psychotherapy, and will allow people to gain control over their nervous system. We want to encourage discussion here.

-- Jim Robbins