Ever notice how certain phrases sometimes have a deeper meaning? Like "Be Yourself," or "Gut feeling." One I really like to ponder from a spiritual perspective is "paying attention."
Our attention is about the only thing we have to give. Attention is given or payed to what we value. We might be giving our attention to our work, to our kids, a hobby maybe, or the TV.
Not only can attention be given, it can be spread out. I like to think of attention as a type of energy we can send out, sometimes we send it to one thing, like being engrossed in a video game, headphones on, dark room, maybe talking to people online. Or you could have your attention spread out more, maybe talking to your passenger while driving and listening to music and thinking about what to have for dinner.
Some of these things, are begging for your attention. They're buying chances to get your valuable attention with advertising, they're trying to catch your eye(or I) with fancy looking visuals or sex appeal, they're wafting smells down the street to entice your hunger.
Products all want your attention, everyone is trying to get your attention, because that's where value starts. I was trying to get your attention with this title and this picture and my writing style and topics. A blog is just someone sharing themselves and hoping people find their lives and work valuable enough to give their attention to it. There's nothing wrong with it, it's how life works.
But some things have inherent value.
For example, how many healthy, natural foods do you see advertised? I don't see many,. Some things have value inherently built in, like vegetables. Everyone knows vegetables help your body, so there is no need to advertise unless you're competing with the guy right next to you at a farmer's market. Our attention goes to these foods already when we value our bodies.
Whereas I see soda and junk food shilled(thanks for the vocab boost crypto) like crazy. They have no value other than artificially exciting our taste buds, so they need to get our attention with fancy advertisements and songs that get stuck in our heads.
One question I like to ask myself is "am I paying attention to the things I think I value?" Sometimes we aren't giving enough attention to what we believe ourselves to be valuing in our lives.
An easy one is how much do we value ourselves? How often do we IN-VEST our attention.
"The kingdom of God is within you."
"True power is within, and it is available now."
-Eckhart Tolle
“The truth is that you already are what you are seeking.”
-Adyashanti
How often do we listen to our bodies, giving it the chance to tell us what's wrong or what's bothering it, or even what's good, before we go and mentally classify it: "This is good give me more" or "this is bad, I better shy away from the sensation."
Why can't we wait and see what develops, to see what the feeling is right now, now, now.
dive into experience instead of getting lost in the mind's interpretation of the past. To be content with what's here instead of anticipating what's next or yearning for what could be. Maybe what is right here in this moment is more important than what was or what could be.
Sometimes when we give up paying attention to a certain thing or things, and instead allow everything equal access by being open to experience, something wonderful can happen. Deep clarity.
This is something I'm working on in my own life. It's easy to write the words, it's much more challenging to live them. I say I value truth and family and health and happiness, but am I putting in the work in those areas. Am I looking within and living my truth?
I still pay 8 hours of attention to my job(security,) I still read more and watch more than I create to give back, I still eat less than optimally. I still daydream instead of taking action. Everyone has things they want to change, all that's required is a change in attention.
Some food for thought.
I think it's pretty easy to let people grab our attention in this world. To get distracted by cat videos and the latest celebrity gossip, giving attention away that could be used to build our lives up, to make someones day, or to create something to share with the world.
Or even to look inside and see what there is to discover.
Attention is our most valuable asset to give, are you spending it wisely?
I want that deep clarity, too.
I can tell when I'm moving in the right direction and when I'm not. When I'm more centered towards that point of balance or not.
So, I guess, I am daily working to stay on that right course. It's hard to manage sometimes. We do have so much competing for our time and attention. I'm not sure that our brains at this point in human evolution are even capable of managing it all, if left to process every ounce of input completely unrestricted.
I have intentionally restricted my input at times, and it's been a really telling experience for me; a learning experience of what I actually benefit from and need, and what I do not. I think that, over life, what we need most, or what is most ideal for us, changes.
I was raised religiously and taught that values were these static things carved into stone, and that what we should or should not do, therefore, was just the same; unchanging and universally true for all. I do think that some things are that way, and we'd be good to hold onto that universal wisdom, but I also think that lacking that understanding of change, the value in change, and failing to fully realize the impermanence of life and time, really, in a way, hindered my personal and spiritual growth. And now that I understand this value in selectively chosen attention given, time spent, value made, it's really beneficial to try and stay mindful of it.
To be mindful at all - that's the start. From there you can just grow and grow. It's really a beautiful thing, and a beautiful thing to watch happen in others, too. (Interestingly enough, I believe my journey into this mindfulness really started with pain, seeking a cure for pain in various forms. And I do believe the cause of a lot of our pain comes from the culture in which we live. The things promoted for us to consume and place value in simply aren't good for our well-being.)
Very good post. You get one extra-long comment and a whole penny vote from me. :P
It's interesting, once we see even a glimpse of it we want it, but we can't get it because we already have it. We just need to let go, stop striving for something, and see what happens.. It's like engaged non-doing.
I wouldn't worry about this, the brain and nervous system are quite capable once we let them do their job naturally, consciousness has infinite possibility, if it needs to, it will manifest better brains is my thoughts. Either way, not trying to grasp all the input and just letting it flow through your senses is the best way I've found to process more of our experience.
Most definitely, there's that saying, "the teacher appears when we are ready." To me, the teacher isn't always a person, it could be anything, we just have to be "listening"
Totally, values are constantly changing, that's why we even see people losing spirituality, it's not valued, which is causing a lot of issues. But the whole should do or should not is almost entirely based on circumstance. I know what you mean though, I was raised catholic, religions are fairly rigid in their beliefs. I'd say it hindered me, but really I think it just gave me a sharper realization when it took place. I feel most of the struggles in life are just to help us "see" better.
Funny that huh? I keep wondering if there's this evil force, but maybe it's something we need, like we need the friction and struggle to overcome and learn and get stronger and grow.
Who knows ;)
Thanks for the comment, those pennies add up!
Most struggles in life are just to help us "see" better.
What a thought.
I just reread that and it stuck out to me. I got it the first time, but it brought to mind some things for me. I wish more people understood that. You might see it coming, you might brace for it, you might even wish it wasn't so, but you know you're going to come out of it having learned something. I see things this way more and more. I hope that never changes. It's such a constructive and helpful viewpoint for looking at life.
There's this book "the ideal made real" I was skimming through again today, and one of the things it says is to count everything joy. Doesn't matter what it is, because when you do you're looking for the good in life, which will attract more good. So once we start seeing the silver linings good things start coming our way. Opposite for criticism.
Check it out, its free other than missing pages. I got "lucky" and got some amazing books because they were free the days I checked the site. It was weird, I got like 10 books in a month, then never saw a related book again, it was all old cookbooks and journals and crap haha.
That's funny you were writing this comment while I writing mine. About criticism. Yes! You said exactly what I was trying to say. It does, it frames you into a positive. I like to frame things in the positive.
I guess some would call that denial, but it's not. I know the darker side, I see the darker side; I just choose not to let it have all the say in how I view things. It doesn't overshadow the good that's always there. And the good is always there; I've seen too many things to not believe this. I'm sure some hurt and angry people might shout me down for saying something so audacious, but it's my view from my own experience and I'm sticking to it.
Like that's all I need is more books! That's one of my consumption habits I'm afraid I'll never kick. I already have enough to last me a lifetime. And yes, I do read them. Now I'll read this one too.
Ya, I love buying books, the whole meditation thing has caused me to read very select books recently
I do too. Reference me any if you ever feel like it. I've got an ever growing referenced list added onto my to-read file. I've found some of the neatest things that way. Been led to things I might never have crossed on my own.
That's a spot on reply. You clarified my own thoughts. Thanks for that! I was right, but you were righter lol.
Stop striving, hold onto a sense of spirituality in a world that's rendered it irrelevant...and, yes, I used to not think this way at all, but my hardships have probably been, if not the best, then the most needed things to ever happen to me. And oh, I know, I know everything...says my 18 year old self. ;P Little did I know...just how little...did I know.
Meh, sometimes putting these things into words is challenging, I bet you meant similar, words are tricky and have great power, we use them pretty frivolously. I feel like my vocab could use some work, reading some older authors I'm like "man we got dumber" hahah. I actually wrote an article a while back.
Haha crazy how things work sometimes huh?
Cool, I just read it...and now I'm mad at you. Let me explain.
So, you took my idea. You took my whole head of ideas and you already done did them. F@#k. Not you, just fork. That puts a fork in my plan, it's done been did; a fork in my road, the path must now change.
Man, I think about that every day, all day, no matter who I talk to. It feels challenging at near best, consoling at times when it works "real gud", and other times just downright foolish to even try. (Whenever I've ever been truly depressed, sad - that's the reason why. That's the root from which all my deepest frustrations have ever grown. Miscommunication, poor communication...failed communication.)
Good to know no horses were harmed considering your likeness. (Or is that a dog? I can't quite tell...that also makes me think of something haha, it does. Maybe I should link that too, just for fun.
See, he looks like you lol.
Crazy how things work all the time. Crazy how things work at all, honestly. We're all signing at each other with our hands thinking we speak the same language and we so very do, at least at heart, but in expression we so very, so often, do not.
But yes, to approach communication with compassion and respect. That is how the f@#k you do it best, and it can be really f@#cking hard. It's easy when you like someone, it's a whole 'nother story when that's not the case.
And, honestly, when thinking to reply to someone's ideas, I almost always just pick an angle to elaborate from, because my mind tends to travel in quite a few directions with things. And, this is relevant, because when replying to you I chose an angle of agreement over the more critical one my mind had taken. Both true, both relevant.
I tend to very carefully and selectively use criticism (words have power), maybe it's just a quirk, maybe I should reconsider that. Maybe I've been hurt enough to understand the need to tread lightly, carefully, with what I convey to others. I tend to see value in finding common ground rather than looking for negatives, differences. Not that differences are necessarily negative...and that just led me to something else. David Foster Wallace, "This is Water". Default Settings. If you're not already familiar with that, it's relevant to this, I think. What's your default approach? Is it helpful, is it good? That's a valuable question to ask over and over again. (That was a good post by you.)
I'll just add it, lol, why not? Here.
One of my favorite things ever.
Lol, whoops! Just write your own with your own take on it, I'm no authority, just the way I see things. I need to check back on this post later for vid content, busied up right now
Oh, that was just my first silly thought. And my videos are silly and redundant. David Foster Wallace was referenced by someone else here recently, in a really great post...that it looks like you took inspiration from in writing this one. I told her the same thing about what she wrote. "You stole my idears" lol. Nobody owns ideas. And I'm anything but disappointed to see that so many people do share my views. It excites me, that's why I can't quit talking lol.
Properly putting our attention into productive things requires strong discipline from our part, and this is not easy to accomplish.
I think it’s healthy to take some time for leisure activities, but for the most part it’s probabky the best to put our attention into productive activities, even if we might want to spend the night playing some game, we need to sacrifice that wish and put ourselves into more important activities.
As it is always the case with these subjects, finding a proper balance is key for the long term sustainability of our actions.
Absolutely, and it really depends on our goals. If we are happy with where we are in life, we should be spending time relaxing and enjoying! I'm coming from a place where I used to spend all my free time on games and movies and it just didn't get me anywhere. So now I'm trying to spend my time learning, creating, and interacting with people to move towards the life I'm looking to live.
I still take time for leisure, but it's leisure I find valuable, like running, reading, yoga, cooking. Everybody needs some leisure