Inside vs. Outside Attention

 Attention from the Inside and from the Outside

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I notice that there are at least two distinct ways of directing attention to the body: One seems to “come from inside,” and the other, “from outside.” As if attention moved along different axes — one as if it traveled through the body from within, and the other as if it traveled through the body from without, yet both reaching the same point.


"From inside": attention is oriented through an activity in the throat region, moving from its interior and proceeding inward toward the part of the body on which it focuses. This subtle inner posture seems to be more closely related to emotions (see emotion and attention).


"From outside": the movement in the throat seems first to ascend toward the eyes — which tense slightly — and, in this way, attention projects outward, then turning back toward the part of the body to which it is directed. In this configuration, perception tends to concentrate more on the surface of the skin. 


The paths are perceived as if they were as follows:



In addition, I notice that during inhalation, the air seems to sensitize a slightly deeper region of the nostril, though still close to its lower edge. The respiratory sensations associated with attentional movements in different directions are also perceived in this area, but more subtly than when they occur at the very borders of the nostrils. 


However, this movement perceived in the throat does not necessarily have to be directed toward the eyes or involve any tension in them; at times, it seems to orient itself toward the nose or another region, as if attention were “emerging” through a specific point of the body before turning again toward some part of it from the outside. 


Moreover, depending on the point through which attention ‘emerges,’ the sensations perceived during inhalation tend to manifest in different areas of the upper airways.

 

When I am in this subtle inner posture oriented toward the “outside,” I notice that even in the presence of emotional stimuli, emotions do not arise easily. It is as if this posture reduced the intensity and duration of my emotional reaction, seemingly preventing the throat region from helping to trigger its internal responses.


Importantly, for this modulatory effect on emotions to occur, this outward movement of attention does not need to be complete — that is, it is not necessary that, after “going out,” attention returns to rest on parts of the body as points of focus. It is sufficient that attention simply orients itself toward the “external axis.”


Something like this:




At times, it feels as though the emotional response tries to emerge but then dissipates, as if it cannot find the proper path through which to unfold. In this condition, I experience greater emotional stability.


Thus, it becomes plausible - and is phenomenologically observed in my own experience - that more effective emotional regulation does not primarily depend on shifts of attention along the same “from inside” axis, but rather on a qualitative change in the axis of attentional orientation itself, from the “inside” toward the “outside.”


Indeed, when I try to regulate emotions while working within the same internal axis, the effect is limited. For example, when I feel anger, I often try to hold it back by preventing the tension from rising toward the upper part of the head; as a result, I end up holding that tension myself in the lower part of the throat, which gives rise to what I experience as a ‘anger-sadness’ state (see). 


In contrast, when I shift the axis itself — moving from an internal to an external direction of attention — the sensation of anger decreases or even ceases, without transforming into another disturbing emotion.


Speculation: perhaps this difference relates to the activation of distinct bodily layers — deeper (internal, visceral) and more superficial (external, cutaneous) — perhaps engaging the visceral and deep fasciae in the first case, and the superficial ones in the second.

 

I will continue exploring these two ways of directing attention to the body, in order to gradually refine this description.



Check out these posts to understand the phenomenological approach used in providing these descriptions of experience: 1) What is Phenomenology; 2) Naturalization of Phenomenology; 3) Micro-Phenomenology; 4) Intersubjective Validation; 5) Embodied Cognition; 6) 4E

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