Thread by @EpistemicHope

Question for meditation people:

I have the experience of two kinds of modes regarding my attention. Is there a standard name for this axis?

Mode 1: Sometimes my attention feels shallow, or flitty.

It doesn't "sink deeply" into any one thing, but feels shallow, quickly switching focus on the basis of stray thoughts that occur to me, or random things from my environment. I'm more reactive.

I'm more likely to get sucked into twitter (or whatever) in this mode.

Mode 2: Other times, my attention feels "deliberate", or "intentional". Like it has more inertia or something? It isn't as easily deflected from it's path?

I'm tempted to say that in this mode, my attention is "slower," or more spacious, but I that's not necessarily true.

I might still be switching my attention rapidly from thing to thing (if I'm blowing through a todo list, or if I'm orienting to a situation with a lot of inputs coming at me), but if so, it still feels graceful, or intentional.

Calmer, maybe. (Though I think that my physiological arousal can be both low and high in both states. By "calm", I don't mean low arousal.)

Do other people have this experience?

Is there a name for these two modes, or for the axis they describe?

I'm tempted to call this axis "intentionality", or maybe "reflectiveness", but that seems wrong, because it implies (to me) that action is coming from conscious, deliberate, system 2 choice, which is _almost_ but not quite right.

I AM more likely to move from reflective choice in mode 2 (more likely to notice a subtle conflict, sit down to journal, drawing out what's present for me / what the options and consideration are, and deciding, for instance) but that doesn't seem like the _essential_ thing.

I can also be in that mode and mostly be moving from non-verbalized impulses. The core thing is not the engagement of S2, or even my heightened awareness of myself (I don't think).

The core thing feels like it is something like how much I'm "choosing" rather than being "yanked around".

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