I tell my brain what’s important. And based on what I tell it, my brain filters the huge amounts of information pouring in from my physical senses and other instruments of perception and presents my awareness with the things I have previously indicated matter to me.
You probably weren’t aware of your clothing touching your left shoulder until you read this sentence. The brain was receiving that information, it simply wasn’t passing it along. Because that’s not important to you every moment of the day. In fact, if the brain passed along every single tiny bit of information it was receiving, we would be overwhelmed and unable to function.
So the brain helpfully filters out what it thinks is unimportant to us and allows that which is important to reach our awareness.
If I was walking down the street with a friend who was into fashion, I might notice a Tesla driving by while he would notice someone’s stylish shoes. Both of our brains would have received pretty much the same information from our eyes. However, my brain would know I’m interested in electric cars but not that much in fashion. So mine would filter out the shoes and present the Tesla while his would filter out the Tesla and present the shoes, and that’s what we would each notice.
This doesn’t happen because we are unobservant or selfish. It happens because we have given our brains instructions as to what we care about.
Beyond things that are immediately important to our survival, like a fire, the way we give those instructions is with our focus. What we choose to focus on tells the brain what information we prioritize.
It would be a good exercise for all of us to notice what we notice throughout our day. What information is our brain allowing through to our awareness? And what information is it filtering out?