The brain is a prediction machine.
It draws on past experiences to anticipate what’s happening now, constantly comparing incoming information with what it expects to find.
And those expectations influence what we notice, how we interpret it, and how we respond.
Imagine walking into a forest.
One person notices the flowers and feels calm.
Another notices the possibility of poison ivy and becomes anxious.
Another notices the trash left on the trail and feels angry.
They’re all standing in the exact same place. Yet they’re having entirely different experiences.
Why?
Because our attention is shaped by what we’ve learned to recognize as important.
If fear, criticism, comparison, or uncertainty repeatedly capture your attention, those patterns can become increasingly familiar and easier to detect.
Conversely, intentionally making space for beauty, curiosity, possibility, or awe gives your brain opportunities to notice things it might otherwise overlook.
On the trail, it feels automatic. And much of it is.
Our attention reflects years of experience, learning, and repeated patterns of response.
Your brain isn’t designed to notice everything
At any given moment, your nervous system is receiving far more sensory information than you can consciously process.
The brain must prioritize: What matters? What’s familiar? What’s unexpected? What requires a response?
This is why two people can leave the same meeting with completely different impressions.
One remembers the compliment.
The other replays the criticism.
One notices opportunity.
The other notices risk.
Neither person is wrong. They’re attending to different aspects of the same event.
And what we notice can influence what we believe is likely or possible in that moment.
So how do we change what we notice?
Contrary to popular belief, the solution is not simply to “think positively.”
Telling yourself to look for the good doesn’t necessarily change the physiological state, learned expectations, or automatic responses influencing your attention.
The opportunity is to train the nervous system to respond differently, through practices that support attentional flexibility, regulation, and awareness.
Take a moment to look around wherever you are.
- For 10 seconds (about 3 breaths): Notice everything in your environment that’s imperfect, distracting, or out of place
- For the next 10 seconds: Shift your attention toward anything beautiful, interesting, or comforting.
Notice how your experience changes when you alter what you’re looking for – subtle sensations, thoughts, and feelings that arise.
Attention is one of the most valuable resources we can learn to influence.
What are you training yours to notice?
References
- The Free-Energy Principle: A Unified Brain Theory? (2010)
- Disentangling Predictive Processing in the Brain: A Meta-Analytic Study in Favour of a Predictive Network (2021)
- Expectation in Perceptual Decision Making: Neural and Computational Mechanisms (2014)
- Positive Emotions Broaden the Scope of Attention and Thought-Action Repertoires (2005)
- An Introduction to Predictive Processing Models of Perception and Decision-Making (2024)