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?