“Energy flows where attention goes.”

Every moment, we make unconscious choices about where to direct our attention. Some people seem to attract success and joy effortlessly, while others remain stuck in cycles of frustration and negativity. What if the difference isn’t in their circumstances, but in their focus?

Your Brain as a Filter

Our brains process millions of bits of information per second, but we can only consciously focus on a tiny fraction. The Reticular Activating System (RAS), a part of the brainstem, acts as a gatekeeper—it filters the world according to what we deem important.

• Ever notice how when you learn a new word, suddenly you hear it everywhere?
• Or when you think about buying a specific car, you start seeing it all over the place?

That’s your focus shaping your reality. The same principle applies to opportunities, obstacles, and emotions—whatever you consistently focus on, your brain amplifies. And if you have a neurodivergent brain and tend to hyperfocus or go on the braintrain.. the amplification can be tremendous.

The Negative Feedback Loop: How Focus Can Trap You

If you constantly focus on problems, fears, and worst-case scenarios, your brain will find evidence to reinforce them. This can create a self-fulfilling prophecy:

Focus on setbacks → Notice more obstacles → Feel stuck and hopeless → Attract more negativity.

But the opposite is also true. If you start focusing on possibilities, solutions, and growth, your brain will actively seek out evidence to support them.

Focus on opportunities → Notice new possibilities → Feel empowered → Attract more positive outcomes.

The Power of Reframing: Training Your Focus

Your attention is like a mental garden—whatever you water grows. If you feed doubt, frustration, and anger, those will flourish. If you nurture curiosity, gratitude, and optimism, those will expand instead.

The World Isn’t Just Falling Apart—It’s Also Progressing

In today’s world, it’s easy to believe that everything is getting worse. Social media and the news amplify disaster, conflict, and division, creating the illusion that we are in constant crisis. But this selective and collective focus hides real progress happening worldwide:

• Global poverty has declined significantly in the last 30 years. 
• More people than ever have access to clean water, medicine, and education. 
• Scientific breakthroughs are solving problems we once thought were impossible. 
• Technology is connecting and empowering individuals across the world. 
• More people than ever are questioning outdated systems and seeking change.

If we only focus on destruction, anger, and chaos, we reinforce the belief that the world is doomed—and act accordingly. But if we acknowledge progress alongside challenges, we create space for action, hope, and solutions.

And besides, even if the world does go to shit, would you really want to spend your time making yourself (and others) miserable about it?

How to Shift Your Focus Intentionally

• Start your day by asking: What’s something good I can focus on today? 
• Reframe challenges: Instead of “Why is this happening to me?”, try “What can I learn from this?”  It will help you shift from a victimhood mentality into a mentality of agency.
• Curate your mental diet: Be mindful of the news, social media, and conversations you engage with. Does whatever you are watching or reading make you feel angry, sad or miserable in your gut? Turn it off, put it away – you know the gist of it already. There’s no need to feed the beast. You will not be better informed by reading on, it will just make you feel worse, more helpless and powerless.
• Practice gratitude: Noticing what’s already good shifts your default mental state and will make you see more good things, like you would see that car.. or bad news. And yes, if you can’t come up with anything “really good” because your life is f***ed up, practicing gratitude can simply start with:
  • being thankful for a nice glass of water,
  • nice weather,
  • crappy weather because good for crops,
  • a nice conversation in the supermarket,
  • NO conversations in the supermarket…
• Yes, you can come up with anything seemingly insignificant and that is totally legit.

And no, this does not change the fact that bad things are happening in the world, but it will change the framing and the actual impact it has on you, personally.

The Experiment: Try It for a Week (or however long you feel like it)

Sidenote:

• If you’re neurotypical, just follow along
• If you’re autistic, you might want to schedule this and try to make it a routine
• If you’re ADHD, just read it and try to remember occassionally
• If you’re both autistic and ADHD, schedule it, never look at the schedule again, and just try it whenever you think of it and feel like trying it (no pressure).

For the next 7-ish days, try this simple experiment:

1. Each morning, choose one positive thing to focus on – or more, if you don’t like to choose. 
2. Whenever you catch yourself stuck in a negative loop, pause (overanalyse) and shift focus. 
3. At the end of each day you remembered to do this, reflect: Did my focus shape my experience?

You might be surprised at what starts to change.

Your focus is your power. Use it wisely.