This blog is linked to a series of meditation and yoga practices.
Consider where your attention has been for the last minute. Can you recall what you were thinking about or doing?
When it comes to meditation, I often hear from people I can't shut my mind off, that I can't keep my focus. What's important to note about the Art of Attention is that your focus doesn't always have to be on one thing. Sometimes your attention will waver and jump around to many different things. This is why I teach the art of attention from the Tantric perspective, where our attention notices the coming and going of many things. In meditation practice, you can notice, sound, sensation, breath, thoughts, feelings etc. The art of attention is not about pushing anything away or drawing anything in or changing anything, it is about noticing what your attention does in any given moment.
You may have heard the phrase Monkey Mind, where your mind is jumping from one thing to the next. This can mean many things, often what is helpful is an anchor, like the breath, something simple to focus on until you feel settled, yet even while you focus on your anchor there are still many things coming and going, your thoughts will run, you will hear things, you will feel. Again, what's important to note is that this is not wrong. Life is always happening, and we get to notice it happening through our practised art of attention.
"Energy Follows Attention"
The art of attention is linked to the phrase "energy follows attention," meaning to say, what we invest our focus in can influence how we feel. For example, it is one thing to notice a negative thought about ourselves, it is another thing to follow that negative thought and believe it. This highlights that we may have a choice and an influence over our attention. While we may not have control over our thoughts specifically, what we invest our attention in has long term effects. The Art of Attention is noticing what comes and goes and learning to understand what can serve us and what can move on. What thoughts are helpful, what thoughts are worth paying attention to, and what sensations or feelings are important to notice? When you show up to the present moment, where is your attention, is it on useful things or is it focused on things that deplete you or pull you down.
Your attention has a significant effect on your well-being and is connected to how you feel day in and day out. What if you put your attention into things that are important, that you value, if you focused on the positive even when you were in pain, and your mind was running wild. Imagine if you spent a day focusing on the positive, even within a storm, the chances are that is where your energy will go and therefore you will feel better and more positive overall.
The Art of Attention is not about control or trying to fix something, but about using your influence to focus on the comings and goings of life and where needed redirect the attention to things that serve you that lift you up and make your life fuller.
Start Simple with this mediation
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