Attention is Life
“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.” – Albert Einstein
Our attention is one the most powerful things we possess. Whatever we pay attention to is what we become conscious of. Ultimately consciousness and attention are one and the same. Unfortunately, we live in a world where our attention is so divided that we have become lost in life, we have lost ourselves. We don’t pay proper attention to ourselves so we end up living an unconscious life.
Attention is a vitamin. Many people receive this vitamin through love, or a relationship. What happens when your lover no longer pays you the same quality of attention? You start feeling empty, not loved, malnourished.
Attention can manifest as a loving presence. My mother loves her plants, she sings to them, caresses them like a baby, she gives them the purity of her attention. The result is the plants look tremendously alive, they glow, and they become luminous.
When I was younger I would house sit while my parents went to Mexico and made sure the plants were properly watered, but I neglected the most important food, which was a loving attention like that of my mothers.
It was quite amazing that the plants could sense my mother was gone, they became sad, they looked as if they were sulking, and a few even died. As soon as my mother returned they automatically cheered up and in a couple of days looked once again healthy and vitally alive.
Plants can have the right soil, the right amount of water, and sufficient light, but without loving attention, the plant can still die. We are no different, we can have a healthy body, but without giving the proper attention to the essential aspects of our being, we too will not truly feel alive.
If you are to love yourself, give attention to yourself. You need to understand a fundamental principle, which is that whatever you pay attention to will grow.
If you pay attention to suffering, if you become identified with it, it will naturally grow. Unfortunately, when we take a penetrating look at where we place our attention, many of us come to find that a majority of it is spent on trivial things.
You need to clearly see that any feelings of being incomplete, of being unfulfilled, are not coming from without, but from within. Many of us try to fill this hole by giving all our attention to worldly pursuits in hopes that it will make us feel whole, but we will only find what we are looking for if we move our attention inward.
Having money, success, and material possessions is really nice, nothing wrong with them, but ultimately what we are looking for is spiritual fulfillment. The longing to feel at peace is coming from the aspect our ourselves that is non-physical so obviously it cannot be satisfied through physical means.
Learn to not pay the wrong attention. Switch your attention when it’s needed, try to remember blissful moments, and remember that it is possible for you to experience other states of being.
People tend to always gather and remember their miseries, they forget their happy moments, and life then becomes a hell, a vicious circle of the same dramas.
Paying Attention To Your Self
The ultimate thing to give your attention to is your inner witness because the witness is pure unconditioned attention and awareness. Meditation is simply learning to dissolve the mind’s constant chattering to allow and merge with the witness (who you really are).
When you were a kid your attention was focused on the only thing that exists, the moment, which means you accepted life as it is, you experienced life totally and fully. The experiencer was not separate from the experience, you were the experience. This is why many people remember their childhood as being golden, it truly was.
The more you learn to pay attention to your inner witness, the more you will feel your pure essential presence emerge, which simply means you are being present to yourself, you and the moment are one. When you are present to yourself, you are “being” yourself, which feels amazing, because in this state we recognize reality, we know who we are, and we recognize what it is to be authentically alive.
If you have any personal insights you would like to add, please join the conversation below and leave your comments.
If you enjoyed this post please help me out by passing it along to your friends. Tweet it, facebook it, stumble it.
Hi,
How can one attain this attention to the inner witness? Only by meditating? How about your inner witness when you are among other people?
Thanks for a lovely post, waiting for your reply,
Larissa
Thanks for contributing to the site Larissa :)…not only through meditation but through proper self observation, which means learning to observe your body, habits, emotions, energy, and mind in a passive yet alert way, learning not to judge or compare the thoughts you see. In learning to just “see” the content of the mind without trying to change it, it helps you create distance to see things you never saw before, to understand yourself better. But of course not judging at first is extremely hard because that’s all our mind likes to do, but once you start succeeding in not being so identified to your thought process, more awareness is released within you. This awareness is free from your minds compulsions. So when you are among people you learn to divide your attention, you are able to observe your self and others all at the same time without getting lost in either one, but this of course for most people will require a tremendous amount of work, but it is def. worth it. I wish you the best on your journey, let me know if i can ever help.
Mezz,
We need to pay attention within because it is our duty.
We often neglect our own inner-being in exchange for money and other physical pleasures.
yes your right almost the whole world neglects the most important things in exchange for the things what will not bring complete fulfillment. But if more people focused their attention within, they would realize this. Thanks for stopping by.
It’s so true. We sometimes wait for someone to make us happy, but the truth is that if you do not love yourself enough, how do you expect someone to love you? In contrast, if you love yourself properly, you are happy in any situation, without being dependent on others. Thanks for the post. I enjoyed and continue to follow:)
thanks so much for stopping by :)…glad you enjoyed the post, be well.
Today this was what I needed to find my Inner peace, can you help me find my life? I lost It some where.
thank you for stopping by :)..I would just say that if you are sincere enough and you move inward, you will find what you are looking for, good luck on your journey.
An interesting post.
Attention will help us to avoid unwanted things in our life such as failure, misary,hurt. Attention means carefulness.
Hello,
I am an extrovert, sanguine temperament, dynamic thinker type, special education teacher, psych. and education major, mother of two twenty something boys, spiritual (the studier type), and child like. I was born to a very violent father, alcoholic step father, and hopelessly codependent mother. She was a good mother; just looking for peace outside of herself. I survived childhood mostly by being very athletic (gymnastics and track). It was great for being in touch with that inner witness during training and gave me a way to express myself in a genuine way. I have been labeled a barbie since about age 12; and it continues from the outside world to this day. It was, and has been unfortunate, as people try to keep you in a mold that is based on your outward appearance rather than who you really are. It happens to everyone. The nerd, the brain, the jock, the this, the that. I recently decided to stay home a lot more, and just stop being around this weird, objectifying, material, shallow, example of relating in this world. I have been allowing/giving myself so much more attention to and of my own thoughts, values, motives, drives, ambitions, without the noise, toxicity, and games of our narcissistic culture. I realized during this alone time, that because of my upbringing, that when reality sucks, I focus on potential in a bad relationship, instead of reality. And, build a fantasy not based in reality. I realized I have done this all my life. Violent/alcoholic fathers and or care givers in general, perpetuate fantasy making in the minds of their children. I also, have realized, living this false reality, made me a less than genuine person. With less than genuine motives. Even felt that I was deceitful at times. Using beauty or sex for attention; when I actually have a nice disposition, good qualities of empathetic, open-minded, emotional availability. I just played the whole barbie, objectifying image thing up, that everybody pushed on me. And, when I got in a relationship that was not healthy, not validating, self-centered, and toxic, gave up on the real me that was being rejected, and played the false image they wanted. As, I said above, I got sick of it; and decided to back off and be by myself. Prior, to deciding to pull away from the world for awhile, I allowed myself to become celibate. I think living a celibate life, has been the whole beginning of getting more in touch with myself. So, again, this alone time, has helped me realize I resort to thinking in fantasy and potential, instead of reality, and it leads into false self and even deceitfulness. Finally, I also realized I got into this way of looking for attention way, way, too much outside of myself. Boy, this post is totally correct; the child gymnast and runner did a lot better. I still love gymnastics and running, and now I want to, and have wanted to, take ballet for a long time. I am literally changing careers right now (teaching not a good career if your not on contract right now). So, being a creative female, I am starting school full-time and going into cosmetology. I want to start a fashion consulting business and weave it into a cosmetology career. I love women; and want to be a creative force in their lives. So, the ballet will come later. I just wanted to share with all of you my experiences with allowing/giving myself time to really see/get to know, and understand my motives and drives. And or, how I have allowed myself to be driven into, or keep me in a false self. A lot of people are frightened by a person’s personal, intuitive, power. And will try to keep you functioning for them and in a false self. I got sick of it. I literally, had to cut myself off for awhile. It has been a very enlightening experience. I know someone reading this will relate to me. Be yourself for you. Your inner witness has been there all along trying to get your attention. Maybe, you need to get alone with him or her as this post recommends.
Please how can I know myself well