What Are You Choosing Now? The Spiritual Practice of Conscious Attention

Gwen Peterson Author

Explore conscious attention as a spiritual practice and learn to notice where your energy goes, reconnect with what matters, and choose with intention

There are moments in the year that naturally invite us to look again at where we are.

September can feel like one of those moments.

The light begins to change. Familiar routines return. The energy of summer starts to shift, and even when our daily lives remain much the same, we may sense an invitation to gather ourselves and notice where our attention has been going.

Not with judgment.

Simply with awareness.

Because one of the quiet ways we participate in shaping our lives is through what we choose to notice, nurture, and return to.

Where Is Your Attention Going?

Our attention moves in countless directions every day.

There are responsibilities that need us, people we care about, decisions to make, information to process, and the ordinary tasks of living.

Then there are the places our minds travel almost automatically.

We revisit a worry.

We replay a conversation.

We think about something we wish were different.

We wonder what might happen next.

None of this means we are doing anything wrong. It simply means that much of our attention can be given without our consciously choosing where it goes.

A spiritual practice of awareness invites us to notice.

Where is my attention going—and is that where I want to keep placing it?

The question itself can create a little space between habit and choice.

And sometimes that space is enough to help us see something differently.

Attention Is Not the Same as Control

Choosing where we place our attention does not mean pretending difficult things aren’t happening.

It doesn’t mean ignoring grief, uncertainty, responsibility, or the realities of our lives in favor of positive thoughts.

Awareness asks for honesty.

There will always be circumstances that require our attention, including ones we would never have chosen.

But even within those circumstances, we can begin noticing what else we are nurturing.

Are we repeatedly feeding a fear beyond the information it has to offer?

Are we giving so much attention to what might happen that we are missing what is happening?

Are we listening almost entirely to voices outside ourselves?

Or is there something quieter within us that has been trying to get our attention too?

Conscious attention isn't about controlling every thought.

It is about becoming more present to our relationship with those thoughts—and remembering that we may have more choice than we realized.

What Matters to You Now?

There is another question that can be especially meaningful during times of transition:

What matters to me now?

The word now matters.

What was important to you at the beginning of this year may have changed.

Something you were determined to accomplish may no longer feel as significant.

A relationship you once took for granted may feel especially precious.

You may find yourself wanting more quiet, more connection, more creativity, more time outdoors, or a deeper relationship with your spiritual practice.

Something new may be calling for your attention.

Something old may be ready to be released.

Growth changes us.

Part of honoring that growth is allowing our choices to change with us.

Notice What You Are Nurturing

Think of attention as a form of tending.

What we tend does not always grow in predictable ways, and attention alone cannot determine an outcome. But what we continually return to often becomes more present in our inner lives.

This gives us an opportunity to become more intentional.

Perhaps you want to nurture gratitude by noticing something each day that you genuinely appreciate.

Perhaps you want to nurture a relationship by being more fully present when you are together.

Perhaps you want to nurture creativity by giving yourself twenty quiet minutes without deciding what those minutes must produce.

Perhaps you want to nurture your spiritual connection by returning to meditation, prayer, time in nature, journaling, or another practice that helps you listen.

The action doesn't have to be large.

What matters is the conscious choice to give something meaningful a little more room.

A Gentle Practice for September

Sometime this month, find a few quiet minutes and consider these three questions:

What do I want to give more of my attention to?

Notice what arises before you begin making a plan.

What has been receiving more of my energy than I want to give it?

Approach the answer with curiosity rather than criticism.

What feels meaningful to carry with me into the months ahead?

You don't need a long list. One word, relationship, practice, intention, or feeling may be enough.

Then choose one small way to honor what you noticed.

You might make a phone call.

Spend ten minutes outside.

Return to a spiritual practice.

Create space for something you've been postponing.

Say no to something that no longer feels right.

Or simply keep your answer somewhere you can see it and allow it to remind you of what matters.

You Are Allowed to Choose Again

Perhaps one of the most compassionate parts of conscious choice is remembering that no choice has to define us forever.

We learn.

Circumstances change.

Priorities shift.

We discover new parts of ourselves.

Sometimes a path that was once right reaches its natural ending. Sometimes something we overlooked becomes deeply meaningful. And sometimes we simply realize that we have been moving in one direction out of habit rather than intention.

We are allowed to notice.

And we are allowed to choose again.

September does not have to become another invitation to hurry, accomplish, or reinvent ourselves.

It can be something much quieter.

A moment to become conscious of where we are placing the precious resource of our attention.

A moment to ask what matters now.

And perhaps, from that awareness, to make one small choice about what we want to nurture next.

PS

As we explored earlier this year in The Moment You Notice Is the Moment You Begin, awareness often comes before change.

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