Good Life Project - Attention is Reality: The Odd Thing About Pleasure and Pain

Episode Date: November 11, 2015

You know the old question, "if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it, did it make a sound?"What if we asked a similar question about pain, suffering, anxiety or any other "experience or emotion" that exists only in the space between our ears?What if many of the things we experienced throughout the day, whether good or bad, were less about what was happening to us, and more about where we focused our minds "while" it was happening to us?What if our reality was not just about circumstance or "thoughts," as is popular to offer in the world of personal development ("with our thoughts, we make our world")?What if reality was really about attention?In today's short and sweet GLP Riff, I make this very concrete, applying the idea to one of the most common pains out there, headaches. We talk about how shifting attention can profoundly change the way you experience pain, and potentially even eliminate it for a window of time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. January 24th. Tell me how to about this thing lately, and that is, if something exists only in your head, and then for a moment, you don't notice it anymore, does that mean that it's still there and you just stop noticing? Or does it no longer exist? I know I'm getting a little bit esoteric

on you, but it's actually a really practical question. Let me tell you what I'm talking about. The thing that comes up the most with this is the idea of pain. If we stub a toe, if we break a bone, if something happens to us, we tend to think to ourselves, okay, or we feel I'm in pain. And then we look to the part of the body that's injured or sick and say, that's the source of pain. But in fact, it's not. So here's the truth about pain. You can have any sort of stimulus, but the pain actually exists in your brain. Pain is what happens when signals get translated in your brain to tell you that's causing you pain still is there, but for a window of time, you're so focused away from it that you no longer feel it. And I'll tell you why I'm asking this. There have been a number of times in my life where this has happened and I've gotten really curious. So I'm somebody who, sadly, actually, pretty much for my whole life,

I've gotten headaches and I and tried all sorts of things. But there's also this really weird quirk that I've keyed in on over the years. And that is that I can have a crushing headache, but something can intervene where for a window of time, from anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, I don't notice it. So here's an example. Years ago when I was teaching yoga, I was on a regular schedule, which meant that I had people showing up to me at my studio.

And there could be a lot of people, you know, wall-to-wall classroom on an evening, and they were there because they needed something. And my promise was to give it to them, or at least to create the container for them to give it to themselves. Now, there were days where I showed up and I felt awesome. But there was also the occasional day where I walked into the room with an excruciating headache. And here's where it gets weird. All people would sit. We'd close our eyes. I would dim the lights, and I would begin the class,

very often the same way. And without fail, within a matter of seconds, I was completely and utterly in the room. And the headache, the deep pain that I brought to the room ceased to exist until I uttered the last words. Literally until I brought people up from their final relaxation or meditation, brought my hands before my heart and said to the class, namaste. And they said it back to me and then people would start to leave and then the moment would start to absorb

into the bigger reality and the pain in my head would return. And it's made me so curious because this has happened now so many times when there's something which is causing a source of pain in my life. It may be physical pain, it may be emotional or psychological pain. But then something else intervenes where I become so engaged in an experience that requires

my absolute attention. And during that window of hyperaged attention, the pain no longer is a part of my experience. And I began to get really curious. Is it that the pain is gone? Or is it that I don't notice it? Or is it that attention is reality. If something exists only as an experience in your head and you have the ability to shift your attention to a place that no longer makes you experience it or experience it differently,

does that in fact become your new reality? And my exploration, my answer, at least now, as I sit here thinking out loud, is yes, attention is reality. Curious what you guys think about that. Share it around social media or just have a conversation with your friends. Because I'm guessing that if you've listened this far, one of you has had a pretty similar experience and maybe even asked the same question. I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project. Classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest.

And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing.

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It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10, available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary.