We reviewed the book, The Awakened Brain, where Lisa Miller describes that your perceptual field can be seen as Top-down attention vs. Bottom-up perception. Top-down attention focuses you on the task at hand that you want to achieve but limits your perceptual field. Bottom-up perception opens you to the most salient or emotionally relevant perceptions in your field.
She writes in a chapter called "THE TWO MODES OF AWARENESS",
"As a result of this awakened awareness, our eyes move to meaningful events. In achieving awareness, the stranger who starts talking to us on the bus might be annoying or intrusive, or just invisible. In awakened awareness, we might hear what he says—and even see how it’s relevant to our own lives" (L. W. E. S. Miller, 2021, p. 165).
Then, she writes in a chapter called "INTEGRATION IS KEY",
"Quest orientation is characterized by a tendency to journey in life: to search for answers to meaningful personal decisions and big existential questions; to perceive doubt as positive; and to be open to change, or more accurately, open to perceiving with fresh eyes, and then using new experience to fuel change. In quest, we open ourselves to the messages from life, take seriously this discovery, and then actively use learning to shape our decisions and actions—our personal operating manual" (Miller, 2021, p. 169).
"In depression, parts of the brain are dysregulated and disconnected. They aren’t functioning optimally or working together. But in quest, the brain is coherent and connected, its regions and networks in harmony. Essentially, the questing brain integrates our achieving and awakened awareness" (Miller, 2021, p. 172).
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She writes in a chapter called "THE TWO MODES OF AWARENESS",
"As a result of this awakened awareness, our eyes move to meaningful events. In achieving awareness, the stranger who starts talking to us on the bus might be annoying or intrusive, or just invisible. In awakened awareness, we might hear what he says—and even see how it’s relevant to our own lives" (L. W. E. S. Miller, 2021, p. 165).
Then, she writes in a chapter called "INTEGRATION IS KEY",
"Quest orientation is characterized by a tendency to journey in life: to search for answers to meaningful personal decisions and big existential questions; to perceive doubt as positive; and to be open to change, or more accurately, open to perceiving with fresh eyes, and then using new experience to fuel change. In quest, we open ourselves to the messages from life, take seriously this discovery, and then actively use learning to shape our decisions and actions—our personal operating manual" (Miller, 2021, p. 169).
"In depression, parts of the brain are dysregulated and disconnected. They aren’t functioning optimally or working together. But in quest, the brain is coherent and connected, its regions and networks in harmony. Essentially, the questing brain integrates our achieving and awakened awareness" (Miller, 2021, p. 172).
Read More