"Limitation can be both the stumbling block of, or the stepping stone to, our perception of powerful experiences."
With limited attention (distraction), we overlook the power of an experience. When we limit (focus) our attention to an experience, it can speak to us more deeply. Limitation is also essential to the creative process. Without limiting our choices there would be no focus, and therefore no power to our creations. Limitation produces order. Without limitation, chaos ensues.
The current world in which most of us live tends to be rather chaotic--full of distractions (which limits our ability to focus, or be in the moment, fully, which diminishes the power of our experiences). If we can limit our focus (to being in the moment fully, without distraction), our world expands, deepens, and we feel things more intensely...
From an early age, I have known the function of artistic expression is to point out (communicate) and magnify powerful experiences (like the one I had with the night sky), so that we may experience their power (even without being present, and at any time we desire). And we can only experience this power fully when we limit our attention and focus fully on the experience, which the "dull world" conspires to trample with its almost infinite distractions.
(Advertising is everywhere and pulls at our attention constantly, for example).
Limitation of emotion or experience is something we tend to try to escape in everyday, mundane life. One reviewer described it as the "dull world," and that the best forms of entertainment offer an escape from this "dull world" (of limited powerful experiences).
So we find that limitation of attention (focus) is necessary for powerful experiences. Powerful experiences are necessary for the creation (inspiration and communication) of artistic expression. Communication of artistic expression offers us an escape from the "dull world" of limited experiences...
Limitation of Attention = Focus.
Focus = Powerful Experience.
Powerful Experience = Inspiration.
Inspiration = Creation (Artistic Expression).
Creation = Communication of Power.
Communication of Power = Expanded Perception.
Expanded Perception = Powerful Experience.
Here's an extremely condensed version we all know:
"As you seek, so will you find."
-or-
The way you look at things determines what you see...
(Where you focus your attention determines your reality.)
I also discovered this week that even the way you looked at things in your past can strongly influence what you see in the present (which determines your future). There's a very though-provoking video on the nature of perception (how our brain hallucinates our conscious reality) I'll include at the end.
