Attention Games
“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”
-Mary Oliver
Awareness is pure intelligence, which we know as attention.
Unlike children, we are seldom fully absorbed in any activity. Unfortunately, adults pay attention only when challenged.
Especially in today’s fast-paced technological evolution, paying attention is a vanishing art.
The gift of attention, however, and its innate capacity to enhance every aspect of living, can be honed in daily life.
Add attention games to daily routines. The point is to be aware when you normally aren’t. Which is a tool—always at hand—to train awareness.
Mary Oliver
Shave, brush your teeth, and floss with your eyes closed. Pause, as you drop the floss in the trash, and hear it land.
Refine attention games with the “pause principle.” As you begin an act—like reaching for something—mentally pause, just long enough to know that you paused.
As you reach for a light switch, pause, and watch the whole room light up at once. (This is especially fun if the bulb has an LED delay.)
This is my favorite… Listen to the sounds things make, as you pick them up and set them down. (This attention game eliminates mishaps.)
Before you roll out of bed, pause for a minute or so and decide what kind of a day you will create. It’s up to you.
I did that each morning for a few years, and it changed me deeply. The best time to see when all your problems begin is the moment you wake up.
Enjoy the increased energy and happiness that is the direct result of not thinking about what isn’t happening. Profit from the error-free precision that thrives when you are not thinking.
Enjoy what you are doing. Regardless of the error, inattention is the cause. Dive deep into attention and difficulty disappears.
Perfection is a by-product of attention. When aware, you are perfect.
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A new topic will arrive each Friday, in one of two categories. One will be on shooting, and the other will be on living, or: “how I learned to live from what I learned by competing.”
Thanks for coming in.