Hooked or unhooked?

Are you hooked or unhooked at the moment? This is a helpful thing to notice. When we are unhooked, we are in a space of open focus. We are not focused, we are not hooked, on mental experiencing or 5 senses experiencing. Just open. Unhooked by anything. Not really noticing anything in particular. Broad, open awareness.

And then there is ‘hooked’. When we get hooked, our focus shifts to mental experiencing or 5 senses experiencing or a blend of both. Something has come across our radar and we get hooked by it. We can get hooked by all kinds of data from all facets of our being.

When we get hooked, we will do something with the data that has hooked us. I notice ‘x’ and then I do ‘y’. This is how we work when we focus, when we get hooked by mental or 5 senses experiencing. We often drop or dismiss a lot of what hooks us- something catches our mind or our eye and we decide it is inconsequential and move on. Sometimes we initiate major actions after we get hooked—there were some shootings locally yesterday. If I am ever too close to a shooting I hope that that I get hooked and then follow through with helpful actions, whatever they may be.

As you go through your day, notice when you get hooked, and notice what you do next.

That’s all for now.

(Many thanks to Kevin Polk, PhD for developing much of this material)