14. How does Expanded Awareness (Alexander Technique) Intersect with Focus?
Hello! Welcome to part 1 of my 5-part series exploring intersections with Alexander Technique (Expanded Awareness) - AT(EA).
To avoid repetition, I won't redefine AT(EA) here. I invite you to review the content and podcasts that I shared with you on my first post in the series - Stack 13 of Insight Axis. Moving forwards, I assume you broadly understand the ideas around expanded awareness.
This week I want to talk about AT(EA) and focus.
What do I mean by focus?
When I think of focus, I think of placing sustained attention to one activity for a long period of time. These episodes of focus can lead to "flow states", a term that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined in the 1970s. When people talk about their experiences of these flow states, they often describe "being lost in the task" and "not knowing where the time went". Less often, they refer to feelings of curiousness or play. The following books cover themes of focus, flow, and concerns about modern humanity's dwindling attention spans. I’d highly recommend them all:
Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
Indistractable by Nir Eyal
Deep Work by Cal Newport
Bounce by Matthew Syed
Focus by Daniel Goleman
Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey (which interestingly also talks about the importance of intermittent scattered focus)
They all point to the idea that as a society that's endlessly doomscrolling on our phones, we’ve completely zapped our attention spans and hampered our ability to get into flow states.
BUT.
So many people (myself included) have been suckered by these books into working on improving our "focus" and "attention", that we've forgotten about how it relates to awareness. Similarly, many of us “work” on mindfulness and other awareness activities, but don't integrate it in our day-to-day activities that require attention. So let's explore this relationship between focus, and expanded awareness in more detail.
The Attention-Awareness Matrix
This matrix is not my idea. It's something that Michael Ashcroft has discussed in his podcast appearances (see my first post in the series for links to his content). The core idea is that when people think of flow, they over-glamourize a state of focus at the expense of collapsed awareness. And actually, what you want is to have both - a high awareness, and a high attention/flow state.
Why does this matter?
Because you can only attend to what you are aware of.
Awareness is the backdrop on which the torch of attention lights up only one spot at a time. So the question then becomes - does the size of the backdrop influence the quality of the torch light?
Expanding awareness changes the quality of attention.
Whilst Ashcroft suggested that attention and awareness are independent, I think they are related. I noticed that with expanded awareness through AT(EA) practise, my flow states became less effortful and straining. I gave myself space. If my attention wandered, there was space for it to wander into. And then, my attention gently returned to the task at hand. There was space for it to wander back. This new lack of forcefulness helped me sustain attention without strain or fatigue.
To help describe how I think awareness affects attention, I came up with an analogy. My inspiration comes from the classic computer game - Brick Breaker:
See how the ball moves from 1-10 seconds, compared to 10-15 seconds in the clip.
I think the different states of awareness reflects the quality of that movement. Let's look at the image below. Imagine that the focus of attention (the red dot) is like a bouncy ball within a box.
When the focus of attention inhabits a small awareness space, it bounces much more frequently, and has less space to move around in. It looks agitated, energetic, and restless.
When the focus of attention inhabits a larger awareness space, it's still moving at the same speed, but there's more room for motion. Movement is more gentle. It returns to its start position with fewer bounces and fewer changes in direction. It is less agitated, it requires less force.
This is what I feel in terms of the quality of sustained attention being different when I am in an expanded awareness state. There is a certain element of aliveness that I feel, along with a vitalising, effortless focus.
So the paradox is: to improve your focus, first expand your awareness.
Anecdotes from real life
So, how did I notice these concepts in my life? Well, I realised that fixating on a computer or phone screen represented a literal collapse of my awareness into a small square; this was an activity that made me feel drained and trapped. The feeling brought on by constantly cycling through apps, or refreshing email represented how my focus of attention was constantly pinging all around this small box. With collapsed awareness, I could literally see no escape.
But when I maintained the knowledge that the expansive universe continues to exist all around me, whilst I use a computer or phone, I started feeling free. I was no longer hooked to apps, or scrolling endlessly. And this realisation, this awareness, helped me more than any of the books I’ve read about focus or flow.
There was literally more space for me to exist in.
To realise that there were other things happening.
That there were other things I could do.
Which made focusing on the right things easier.
I'd love to hear about your experiences of attention and awareness!