“The faculty of bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again is the very root of
judgment, character and will. An education which should improve this faculty would be an
education par excellence.” William James, American philosopher and psychologist
I first heard the above quote in mindfulness educator training. I thought of it often as I listened to
my daughters who rowed and during my own humbling “learn to row” experience. I thought
rowing is such the education William James was referring to and with that the idea of Power
With Presence took shape.
I am far from the first to recognize that attention is needed in rowing or that the skills and
lessons learned while rowing can be applied to life. There are plenty of quotes and articles
referring to such. Most written, retrospectively, about what they learned about the human
condition and qualities such as connection, trust, communication, leadership, resilience,
teamwork and ultimately success.
Instead of looking back, why not pay attention to what we are learning at the time we are
learning it. Attention, energy and time are three resources we all possess. Our attention
determines how we use our time and energy. Ever experience a day where you feel unable to
focus, like your “mind is all over the place” and you end the day feeling exhausted but “got
nothing done”? Our way of being (our attention) affects our way of doing (time and energy).
Harnessing those skills that help us tract and understand our attention expands our awareness,
and therefore offers more choices and opportunities of how we can use our time and energy to
better serve us. Rowing seems an ideal laboratory to “train up” the skill of paying attention as a
well informed use of one’s time and energy can not only pay off by improving one’s rowing
ability but is also a skill that can be of service to inform one’s life out of the boat.
It also makes sense to build the skill of attention as boat speed depends greatly on rowers
ability to pay attention to one another, to be in sync; or as so beautifully depicted in Boys in the
Boat, row “as one”. Findings in neuroscience have revealed our nervous systems are primed
for success when we are co-regulating with one another. Maybe practicing paying attention
together can make achieving “swing” more accessible, more often?
It all begins with a pause, stopping and letting your nervous system (the “glitter”) settle and
come into the “here and now”. From this grounded place you begin to practice skills such as
mindfulness of body, mindfulness of breath; using them as anchors to help you stay in the
present moment and notice where your attention goes. Everytime you bring your attention back
to one of these anchors you strengthen the attention muscle and become more familiar with the
nature of your attention and improve your ability to put it where you want it, when you want it.
You also begin to notice more of what is happening in your present moment experience, both
inside of you and outside of you and the interaction between the two. With more noticing,
comes better understanding and what may be needed in the next moment. Conditions which
can help a boat go fast as well as navigating a life with more ease.
improve not onlyempowers us and expands our choices of how Make the implicit explicit, by
intentionally teaching the skill of paying attention to the present moment. Training up one’s
ability to pay attention can not only improve one’s rowing, but also a better understanding of
oneself, one’s nervous system, and how to interact and connect with the world around them. It
also seems a helpful tool to have when technology advances stress our ability to keep up with
the pace we receive and process information, leaving us feeling overwhelmed, dysregulated
and disconnected.