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So tonight's talk is going to be addressing the role of attention in both psychological well-being and in spiritual practice.

There are two, broadly speaking, different types of attention. The first type is narrow or focused attention.

I like to use the word spotlight, which is akin to the

concentrated light and when you're watching a play that brings your focus to a

specific actor or a specific dramatic element on a stage.

So it guides to a very specific element and the rest of the stage generally we become less aware of. We become the spotlight will generally be on the

protagonist of a play and the other characters will remain somewhat in the background with

less light on them and will have far less attention on them.

So spotlight attention is associated with the functioning of the left hemisphere.

It is that characteristic of attention that allows us to bring our awareness to some object as opposed to an entire spatial context, but a specific

object that we need or we need to pay attention to.

Now, for example, birds use spotlight attention

to find seeds on the ground or they will use spotlight attention to bring a

twig and to build a nest.

Understanding how spotlight attention works and when it's skillful and when it can be less skillful is I think of great benefit for our long-term psychological well-being.

The first type of spotlight attention is when we're focused on a short-term pleasurable

reward.

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