The snow last weekend got me thinking about the power of novelty. Here in the South, we get all excited about snow – not because it’s great but because it’s different than what usually happens, and it changes how we see the world for a minute.
Having grown up in coastal Florida, I hold it’s not really that different than what happens when a hurricane might be on its way – it’s different so it takes over everybody’s focus. There’s prepping, there’s shopping, there’s talking to people about the ever-changing forecast. But by the 4th hurricane of the season, they are not as interesting.
When I first drafted this post, I said if it were to snow again next weekend our social media probably wouldn’t be flooded with cute photos of how pretty this is – it might be flooded with a few more complaints about canceled plans and other things. Today it was in fact supposed to snow. And no one I’ve talked to was at all excited. It has already become an inconvenience. As the phrase goes, the novelty wore off.
This occurs to us in almost every aspect of our life. We are wired to favor novelty. There’s a fair bit of professional study on this – we like things that are new and different. To be more accurate, “like” isn’t exactly the right word but it is fact that things that are new and different will draw our attention. We are all still kids with a new toy on Christmas day that leave it discarded by Boxing day.
This attention drawing feature of ‘new & different’ is why retail stores change their displays, why online shops front page shifts with every click through, and why our social media feeds are constantly different. It works – show us something new and we sit and look a tiny bit longer. And the longer we look at something, the better the change we will buy it (or otherwise interact with it).
Theaters are always doing new shows; musicians are always releasing new music. We like their old stuff, but we’ll pay special attention to their new stuff. Oooohhhhh – look, a behind the scenes cut! Without being new, it feels new, new, new!
The pause we give to something new is our brain assessing if the thing and situation are safe. Routines are always safe, our brain has been down that path of, for example, seeing a carton of milk a thousand times. When a carton of milk is where it usually is, we don’t even see it. If it is someplace unexpected, like magic – we see it again as our brain processes if for safety. Milk on the roof? Is that safe? Novelty is born.
The conflict is that so much of our life exists (and needs to exist) in sameness, in routine, and in things that are not new. These are the places we can relax and feel safe and not pay attention as closely. We do in fact pay – with our energy, our awareness and our time – when something catches our attention. And many things do not catch our attention on a daily basis. We live in the same house, we work in the same place, we go to the same school with our kid day after day after day, eat largely the same meals. These are places we relax, reset, restore.
So how do we use novelty’s attention hold to our advantage? Mindfulness. How do we resist being manipulated by it as others use it on us? Mindfulness – if I’m busy paying attention to my own life, I dont’ have as much space for my attention to be sucked up by others.
if we know some part of our brains is always looking for something new but so much of our life falls into routines – then the novelty opportunity comes from the practice we call mindfulness. When we’re really present, every day truly is different. Every journey to work is different. Every time I make the same recipe, it’s different.
Last week in my yoga offerings, I asked folks to notice the breath – not just to notice it in general but to notice specifically what’s different about this one from the last one. It’s a beautiful practice to dive into mindfulness. Novelty is in every moment if we can seek the differences instead of assuming it’s all the same.
As I was driving to work the day after the snow was cleared from the roads, there was still some snow and ice around so I was already driving with a little more awareness. Then the sun hit at a certain angle, and I realized ice was frozen in a layer wrapped around the tree branches. It made each tree look like it was made of crystal. I pulled over to watch things shimmer for a minute (the picture at the top was from that moment when I pulled over). Same drive, same car, same tree – totally different experience. Novelty.
As much as the view really was different, the magic might be that in noticing what’s different I can stay in a place of attention longer without effort. I’m feeding my brain’s need for novelty with awareness instead of effort. There is nothing wrong with trying new things – but what if we explored noticing what is already a little different or making small shifts. If you put your coffee into a different cup would that be enough for it to hold a little extra of your attention? Starbucks sure thinks so – at least that’s why I assume they sell different bottles and mugs that go with every possible theme or season. My daughter just got one with a tiny snake on top of it for the upcoming year of the snake. It’s very specific but the novelty is on point. I can in fact say I have never drunk through a straw with a tiny pink snake wrapped around it. Novelty.
The old school “novelty shop” was simply a shop that sold new and different things you hadn’t seen before. It sometimes seems now like every shop is trying to be a novelty shop offering anything to hold our attention a bit longer. My question for you is how can you turn some part of your life into a place with just enough novelty that your attention can rest there a bit longer. Your yoga practice? Your next breath? Your drive to work? How can you turn your own life into your own personal novelty shop and stay really present in it instead of giving away so much attention elsewhere?