Attention
Posted on June 28, 2011
It’s all about attention. The very definition of Body-Mind-Spirit integration is attention. If we are attentive, we are like the mountain lion or the deer that it hunts–alert, alive, fully engaged in the Now with every fiber in our bodies.
“Bears are made of the same dust as we, and breathe the same winds and drink of the same waters. A bear’s days are warmed by the same sun, his dwellings are overdomed by the same blue sky, and his life turns and ebbs with heart-pulsings like ours and was poured from the same fountain…” John Muir
If we are really paying attention, we are not thinking of one thing while we do another. We are not checking our Blackberries while half-listening to a meeting speaker. We are not eating while watching television. We are focused on one activity.
Can one be fully integrated while multitasking? Sure, it’s possible, but it’s an extra challenge; most of us are incapable of that level of awareness. Instead, most of us become jumpy, half-focused, dis-integrated, when we try to do too many things at once.
This is not about going slower in our fast-paced world. It’s about concentrating fully on one thing at a time, giving it our full attention, really participating in whatever it is we are doing.
“The Zen master said, “Attention. Attention. Attention.” You don’t have to be a practitioner of Zen to know what he meant. The next time you find that you have twenty windows open on your PC and you’ve forgotten or are confused about which task you are doing, take a step back and try just doing one task at a time to completion, with complete attention. It’s healthier and better, calming and rewarding to work this way. In fact it’s the only way you can really work and live, and when you become fully aware of this, life gets easier!