Where is your attention going these days?

Have you ever wondered: what is the most valuable natural resource?

Perhaps oil, water, land, or lithium? Or maybe data? 

Actually, some would argue that in today’s economy, your attention is more valuable than any of those. 

Think about it. Digital platforms aren’t simply competing to keep us looking at our screens. Attention is only the gateway. Once they have your attention, they gather vast amounts of behavioral data, learning not just who you are, but how to shape what you think, feel, and do next.

This marks a profound shift in capitalism itself. No longer content with simply organizing our work, capitalism now seeks to organize our awareness. Your capacity to pay attention—to perceive, to feel, to connect—has itself become a source of economic value, literally, a currency. 

In that case, protecting your attention isn't simply a matter of productivity or mental health.

Taking care of your attention is an essential act of cultural and spiritual sovereignty.

As you know, currency exchange represents energy exchange.  When you give someone or something your careful, loving attention you are literally investing in the relationship you share. 

In other words, your attention is the most precious thing that you have to give, perhaps the only thing that you really have to give.  

If your attention has become a commodity, then practices that reclaim it—ritual, time in nature, silence, music, communal celebration, embodied presence—are no longer luxuries.

Reclaiming your attention is a form of resistance. 

This is a huge topic, and one newsletter reminding us that the economy relates to our attention as a resource to be extracted is not going to be enough to shift this overwhelming trend. 

At the same time, simply being aware of how valuable your attention actually is can make a difference in the way you relate, and also in the way you prioritize your time and energy. 

Practices for reclaiming your attention are about remembering what it means to belong to the web of life before you belong to the market.

Ceremony is an ancient human technology that reminds us to pay careful, loving attention.