The Secret Economy of Attention

How the quiet choices of focus shape the architecture of our lives

The Weight of Air – Rendered by the author in Midjourney

I’ve been thinking a lot about attention lately. I'm not talking about the kind where you’re standing at a podium and someone taps a glass with their fork to get the room quiet (though, admittedly, that would be satisfying). I mean the subtler, everyday kind – where we place our focus, what we let take up space in our brains, and which plants we choose to water with our gaze.

I'm realizing that it’s funny how little we talk about it when attention is arguably our most precious currency. Seriously, forget Bitcoin, forget dollars. Attention (and time) is what really makes the world go round. And unlike money, there’s no way to earn more of it. You get the same 24 hours as everybody else, the same finite mental resources. Once you’ve spent them, they're gone. 

Attention as a Form of Power

Sometimes, I imagine my own little cache of attention as little golden coins in my pocket. Every time I look at something, think about something, or click on something? Clink, there goes a coin. And those coins eventually accumulate wherever they fall.

If I spend them on my writing, my garden, my rituals, my people? That pile eventually grows into something lush and sustaining. But if I spend them on doomscrolling or what some toxic frenemy probably thinks of my spiritual beliefs? Well, then, congratulations to me, because I just fed the weeds. Again.

When I was younger, I didn’t realize that what I gave my attention to would ultimately dictate the texture of my future life. I thought it was all just harmless distraction. But now, at almost fifty, I look around and see exactly where all my attention has gone. Every corner of my existence bears the imprint of the choices I’ve made about what I feed.

The Costs of Distraction

Of course, some of those choices weren’t exactly deliberate. Attention has thieves, and quite a lot of them.

Social media apps are some of the slickest pickpockets of them all. They’re like stage magicians who wave one hand in your face while the other slips into your wallet. You might think you’re just checking Instagram for a second, but when you come back up for air forty-five minutes later, you've lost a pretty significant chunk of your mental clarity.

It's not just the damn apps, either. People can be pickpockets, too. The friend who thrives on drama, the relative who drains you with guilt trips, the so-called peer who wants your constant validation. They’re slowly siphoning your focus away from the things you chose and into arbitrary things that leave you depleted instead.

I’ve felt this more acutely as I’ve gotten older. I also realize I'm no longer coin-rich enough to give my resources away willy-nilly. It actually hurts when I realize I’ve squandered them. Badly in some cases, but that's probably a discussion for another day.

The Upside of Deliberate Economy

There's a bright side to it all, though. When you do place your attention deliberately, the results are almost magical.

Every major shift in my life has ultimately boiled down to where I put my focus. When I began pouring energy into writing again instead of treating it like an occasional side-hobby, my whole sense of purpose shifted. When I turned my attention toward my garden, it blossomed into a sanctuary. When I choose to feed my spiritual practices – incense, cards, morning walks – my inner world feels sturdier, clearer.

It’s not that I suddenly had “more” time. I just spent my coins differently. And over time, that investment compounded dividends. Obsessions can be dangerous when they eat you alive, but they can also be the richest soil there is if you learn to channel them into creation instead of consumption.

Attention as Sacred Economy

On a mystical level, attention is a lot more than just a brain function. It’s also energy and prayer. Sometimes – in my cases, anyway – it's even spellwork.

Think about it for a moment. What do you do when you meditate, pray, or pull a tarot card? You direct your attention with intent. You’re choosing to direct your gaze at something specific. You name it. You feed it. And the universe, for reasons mysterious and strange, often responds.

Over the years, I've discovered that the secret to manifestation isn’t actually about fancy rituals, but the simple discipline of tending your focus like a fire. Don’t scatter the coals. Gather them, and feed the fire that they hold.

The Inheritance

I used to think I’d missed out on certain dreams because of bad luck or wrong turns. (Sometimes I still do, to be totally honest.) But more often than not, it was because I let my attention get pulled in the wrong directions – toward pleasing other people, fear, things that weren’t truly mine, and other things that bite.

These days, I try to treat my attention more like a royal inheritance. I may not be rich in cash or property, but I do get to decide where I aim my gaze, my thoughts, my creative fire. 

So maybe that’s the reminder worth carrying forward. Attention is the currency that buys your life. Every coin you spend helps shape the world you’ll wake up to tomorrow. Spend wisely.