Your world, and even your self, is largely constructed from the thoughts and feelings, people and things you've focused on throughout your life. Much more than you probably suspect, you can, as you move forward, actively direct your attention to create the kind of experience you want and become the person you want to be.
Drawing from the latest research in neuroscience and psychology, Rapt illuminates attention's essential function: transforming the vast, chaotic world into your own orderly, user-friendly personal version. Your brain's selective gatekeeper, it's involved in virtually every aspect of life?learning and memory, thought and emotion, work and relationships. As the expression 'paying attention' suggests, you have a limited store of this cognitive currency, which you should invest wisely, because the stakes are high. On the deepest level, what you focus on can literally change your brain, and thus your behavior. On the experiential level, taking charge of your attention is the key to personal power and freedom?and the hallmark of the successful and satisfied.
Along with organizing your internal and external worlds, attention opens the doors to the sublime experience best described as 'rapt.' By cultivating this ability to be completely engrossed?whether by rolling waves or a soaring aria, by rearranging your furniture or writing a poem?you improve your capacity for concentration, broaden your inner horizons, lift your spirits, and most important, feel what it means to be fully alive.
Winifred Gallagher's decision to focus as a way to get through cancer treatment went further than most; it led to her study of attention. Her book on "choosing the focused life" considers just about everything involved with human focus and attention. Stress, information overload, emotions, and Ritalin use in children are among the topics. Laural Merlington keeps listeners' attention focused on Gallagher's tour of research, making the human angle come alive as she discusses studies and theories. Gallagher's book won't teach listeners how to change their lives--for that, try a meditation CD--but it will give listeners insight into their own thought processes and get them started on improving their focus. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
About the Author
Winifred Gallagher's books include House Thinking, Just the Way You Are (a New York Times Notable Book), Working on God, and The Power of Place. She has written for numerous publications, such as Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. She lives in Manhattan and Dubois, Wyoming.
