Attention Is Your Superpower
Right now, there's a war for your attention. Has collective trauma captured it? If yes, learn how to reclaim & restore your attention to shape the world you long for.
Where your attention goes, your energy flows. You may have heard that phrase before, and you may have said it yourself.
Marketers have long known this truth and have refined digital advertising techniques over the past few decades to manipulate your emotions and arrest your attention.
Similarly, the Oxford Internet Institute reports that political actors employ these methods to manipulate public opinion by capturing attention through the media.
Marketers and politicians jockey for your attention because they know the truth:
Attention is your superpower. It’s the lens that shapes your reality.
Right now, politicians like OMB Director Russell Vought are engaged in actions to traumatize the masses. This is by design. It’s an attempt to (re)shape our reality.
Has Collective Trauma Captured Your Attention?
The recent wave of anti-democratic actions in Washington, D.C., is a form of collective trauma, which refers to events that shatter a society's trusting bonds.
Left unchecked, collective trauma causes a heightened state of attention focused on potential threats or triggers related to the trauma.
Collective trauma can significantly alter how you, or groups you belong to, perceive truth and our shared reality due to its lingering effects.
Carefully review the following questions to determine if some of the past week’s anti-democratic actions have captured your attention:
Hypervigilance. Are you overly alert to potential threats, limiting your attention span due to the constant scanning of your environment?
Focus Bias. Are you showing a tendency to focus a disproportionate amount of time on news, further amplifying your anxiety and stress levels?
Trouble Concentrating. Do you struggle to focus on tasks that require your attention, leading to problems at home, work, or school?
Memory Challenges. Are you experiencing intrusive thoughts and flashbacks that make it difficult to recall short or long-term memories?
Intergenerational Pain. Are you combining the pain of past generational trauma with today’s current events, even if the circumstances are different?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, collective trauma and the political actors who have designed it have likely captured your attention.
How Can You Reclaim & Restore Your Attention?
Your attention has the power to shape your individual reality, and collectively, no matter the size of the group, we enjoy this power to co-create our shared reality.
For this reason, political actors manipulate the media to grab your attention and use it to shape the world they desire (see Project 2025).
The following somatic practices, which I learned through the Strozzi Institute, will help you raise your awareness in moments when you find your attention is grabbed.
They are designed to help you reclaim, restore, and redirect your attention to the things that matter most to you. These practices include:
Somatic Centering. A body-based practice designed to help you gain presence and awareness by using feelings, sensations, and pressure in your tissues to return to the present moment. When you feel “grabbed” by news or actions intended to dysregulate your nervous system, this practice can help reclaim your attention.
Resource-Building. If collective trauma captures your attention, it’s important to shift from a reactive/dysregulated state to a calm/regulated state. Resource building helps you return to the present moment by engaging in sensory activities like making art or being in nature, which helps you feel safety, trust, and belonging.
Name Your Commitment. Begin by imagining a future you long for, and then make a commitment to realizing this future. Your commitment empowers you to reclaim and restore your attention. By naming a commitment to your future, you will begin reorganizing your life and energy to activate this commitment.
Put Your Practice Into Action
The following video will help put the three somatic practices above into action. Give it a watch, and then consider answering the following questions.
[Image Description: A navy background with gold text that reads, “The Belonging Practice, Thursdays at 8 am PT with a YouTube video player featuring an image of the Asgard Pass of the Core Enchantments, and a guided centering practice.]
Part of the power of somatic coaching is that it offers the space to get the reps required to rewire your brain.
This is a powerful process because, as old or new pressures demand your attention, you begin building the muscle memory to carefully consider where to invest it.
Only by consistent practice will this muscle memory be available. In order to get in the reps required for transformation, consider the following questions:
Commit to Center Daily. When can you build in time during your day to spend at least 5 minutes centering along your length, width, depth, and purpose?
Name Your Practices. Name one resource-building activity that will allow you to calm your nervous system (i.e., being in nature, making art, practicing meditation).
Write Your Commitment. Take a moment to consider what’s most important to you and why it matters to envision the future world you long for. Write it down.
Need Support? RPC Can Help!
Collective trauma presents a significant challenge to organizations, and practicing Collective CARE can help.
At Rhodes Perry Consulting, we developed our Collective CARE Practice Guide and a suite of somatic coaching and training programs to help.
Want to learn how this guide can support your staff process collective trauma, which is likely impacting your organization’s performance and employee well-being?
Remember, you’re not alone. That’s why we created our Belonging Practice. Join us this Thursday to experience Collective CARE in action.
Practicing collective care is the medicine your organization needs to support you and your staff in navigating these enormously challenging times.
Together, let’s strengthen our Belonging Movement by practicing Collective CARE.