Awakened Neurodivergence: How Your Brain’s Attention Shapes Spiritual Life

Most of us are taught to admire one kind of attention above all else: the ability to concentrate, stay on task, and see things through to completion. It is the attention of productivity and discipline, of deadlines and focus. We celebrate people who can “block everything out” and “just get it done.”

But psychologist Lisa Miller, in her book The Awakened Brain, reminds us that this is only one half of the story. She argues that the human brain is built with two complementary modes of attention. One is the familiar, focused mode that helps us achieve. The other is quieter and less valued in modern culture, yet arguably more profound: a mode of openness, receptivity, and sensitivity to meaning.

Miller calls these two ways of seeing the world the achieving brain and the awakened brain.

The Achieving Brain and the Awakened Brain

The achieving brain is what neuroscientists describe as top-down processing. It uses prior knowledge, expectations, and goals to filter the flood of sensory information. Imagine walking to the grocery store with a list in your head — your attention narrows to street crossings, traffic lights, the entrance to the shop. You tune out everything else: the way the sunlight is catching on the windows, the birdsong, the smell of fresh bread drifting from a nearby bakery. You are efficient, directed, purposeful. This is the achieving brain in action.

The awakened brain, by contrast, is connected with what neuroscientists call bottom-up processing. Instead of forcing reality to conform to your plan, you allow the world to arrive. You notice what calls you, often unexpectedly. On that same walk, the bakery smell may stop you in your tracks and make you suddenly grateful for life’s small pleasures. The birdsong may lift your mood. The sunlight through the glass may fill you with awe. None of these moments were on your list, yet each one shifts your state. This is the awakened brain.

Miller is clear that neither mode is superior. The achieving brain allows us to meet obligations and bring structure to our lives. The awakened brain allows us to perceive wonder, synchronicity, and meaning. Flourishing comes not from living only in one mode, but from the ability to shift fluidly between them. We need both the discipline to practice and the openness to receive. Both intention and surrender.

Neurodivergence and the Awakened Brain

This theory takes on an even more intriguing dimension when we consider neurodivergence. Research suggests that many neurodivergent brains naturally lean toward bottom-up processing. Autistic perception is often detail-rich, less filtered by prior expectation, attuned to nuances that others overlook. ADHD brains are easily pulled by novelty, responding quickly to what feels alive or interesting in the moment. Dyslexic thinkers may take alternative routes around language but often excel in visual-spatial awareness and pattern recognition.

These are not deficits. Seen through Miller’s framework, they are signs of a natural closeness to the awakened brain. Neurodivergent people often notice what others filter out. They are drawn to signals of meaning, to richness, to connections that are invisible to those with stronger top-down filters.

Of course, this openness has a double edge. Without regulation, bottom-up sensitivity can be overwhelming. Too much sensory input, too many racing thoughts, too many threads of meaning can leave a person flooded and exhausted. But the answer is not to suppress the openness. It is to build ways of containing and balancing it, so that sensitivity becomes a gift instead of a burden.

How We Notice and What We Miss

At its core, Miller’s distinction is about how we notice the world. In top-down mode, we mostly see what we expect to see. Our predictions are loud, and the world bends to fit them. This makes us efficient, but it also makes us blind to the unexpected. In bottom-up mode, the world itself is loud. Every detail, every signal, every nuance competes for attention. This makes us receptive, but it can also leave us scattered.

Spiritually, the achieving brain helps us aim our lives with discipline. The awakened brain helps us hear life as it speaks back to us. Together, they allow us to live both committed and curious, grounded and open.

Reflection: How Does Your Attention Work?

Take a moment to think about your own life. Do you tend to notice only what you set out to find? Or are you often surprised by details and coincidences that others seem to miss? Do you thrive on structure and routine, or do you feel most alive when something unexpected catches your attention?

Now bring spirituality into the picture. Do you experience your spiritual life mostly through planned practices — meditation sessions, rituals, readings? Or do you also find that meaning arrives unbidden — in music, in nature, in chance encounters? Which mode feels more natural to you? Which feels harder to access?

There are no right or wrong answers here. This is about mapping your attentional landscape and asking how it aligns with your sense of meaning and connection.

Toward Spiritual Alignment

Spiritual alignment, in Miller’s terms, is not about being “more religious” or “more productive.” It is about living with a felt fit between your values, your attention, and your daily life. A person with a strong achieving brain may need to intentionally create space for openness: setting aside time for silence, awe walks, or journaling about synchronicities. A person with a strong awakened brain may need scaffolds for structure: timers, accountability partners, or short focus sprints to help integrate insights into action.

For neurodivergent people especially, alignment often means learning to trust your sensitivity as a source of guidance, while also creating the containers that prevent overwhelm. Your attention is not broken. It is simply tuned differently — and when balanced, it can be a profound source of resilience and spirituality.

A Gentle Dare

For the next week, try a simple rhythm: set a small intention each morning (“Show me what matters today”). Then, once during the day, pause and notice what unexpectedly calls your attention. It might be a colour, a sound, a word, or a feeling. At the end of the day, reflect: How did that moment of openness shape my choices or mood?

This is the awakened brain in practice. Intention, openness, integration. Aim, listen, respond.

Your attention is not just a tool for productivity. It is a way of communing with the world

The question is not whether you are paying attention, but to what — and how you will answer when life speaks back.