> [!summary] Progressive Summary # Structured Notes ## Definitions ## Chapter Summaries ### chapter 2 – shifting routines > Brain patterns causing us to notice specific things implying that we will not notice almost everything else. It's like a magic trick. As observers, our brains recognize movements we expect to see. These mental habits cause us to miss the subtle sleights of hand that engage the "magic" — really just clever maneuvering around our conditioning. However, once we recognize how the trick works, we know what to look for and the veil is lifted. So as members of the modern world, what are we missing? > > As the old saying goes, "We are what we eat." In terms of sensory input and mental focus, it seems to be true: our beliefs and behaviors are a reflection of our brain patterning. If we spend most of our time in our houses and buildings, in our living rooms and bedrooms, we almost literally are our living rooms and bedrooms. If our culture's gaze has turned inside, we won't notice the natural world. > > For many people in urbanized areas nowadays, wild nature doesn't really exist in their perceptions of the world. We find this to be an enlightening and yet also scary realization. No surprise then that very few people notice when the landscape starts to change in response to our human actions, when rabbits lose their habitats and disappear, when frogs stop singing. Yes, a few—the scientists trained to see such things—will notice. To almost everyone else, those subtle happenings in nature are lost. As a culture, unless we can shift our focus of attention, we'll continue basing our choices on a sense of reality that doesn't include the rest of nature. # Quotes # References