Intention

CHAPTER 22Intentional Wandering

"You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star."

—Friedrich Nietzsche

Most of our discussion thus far has been centered on how to use proactive attention—choosing what to focus on and following through. In this chapter, we explore the other side of the equation: how can we use reactive attention to develop and support our intention? In common parlance, we often say our attention is drawn to something. Yes, most of the time this can be distracting, but being reactive to stimuli—even random interruptions—can also be beneficial, even game-changing, as new inputs potentially alter our perspective with significant insights. Just like Archimedes in the bathtub or Newton with his apple, eureka moments sometimes come from unexpected sources.

The Benefits of a Wandering Mind

In the world of psychology, proactive and reactive attention are more often referred to as top-down and bottom-up attention, respectively. While they're both clearly important, bottom-up attention alerts us to the unexpected, the new. For our ancestors, that may have meant a life-threatening event like a poisonous snake on the path—it was reactive attention that allowed them to quickly change course of action. But reactive attention can be applied to distractions that go beyond physical survival, such as an unexpected idea popping into our heads.

And unlike a poisonous snake at our feet, unexpected stimuli aren't all bad. The ideas that pop into our heads are ...