It’s 2016. Pay attention!
Attention! Attention! Here and now boys, here and now! –From a book.
From what I’ve heard, seen and learned, it appears coincidences are life’s way of giving us insights, of putting lessons and opportunities for learning right before us. If we pay attention, that is. My current coincidence is a book I’m reading. It’s the second time in my life that I’m turning its pages, the last occasion being around 5 years ago. At least for me, books are one of life’s great coincidences, because it frequently seems that books find their way unexpectedly into my personal realm. I have the intention of writing a more elaborate post on books (coming soon), but most of the ones I have read hitherto, I have not sought deliberately. They have rather sort of appeared before me, for one reason or another.
Without making these words too much about books, the one I’m currently reading (I won’t disclose the name, just for a little drama) has consistently emphasized, from its opening lines and throughout the couple of hundred pages I have gone over, a quite simple yet penetrating concept. Paying attention. As the last pages of 2015 are now inexorably being flipped, I find the concept very timely and adequate as a subject of some quiet end-of-year reflecting. I’ll explain why.
I’m not a Buddhist (frankly I currently don’t know what I am), but Gautama’s legacy to humanity is the notion that we men and women lead unhappy lives because who and what we think we are is not at all who and what we are in reality. Our distorted views and expectations of what happiness and fulfillment represent are at the root of our general personal frustration, disappointment and dissatisfaction. I show you sorrow, said the Buddha bluntly. This is the sorrow he meant: the present world around us. Unhappy, frustrated, unfulfilled human beings all over the place, their condition given away by their acute and sometimes paranoid attachment to outside things and pleasures, by their disappointing personal relationships and by a widespread apathy and disenchantment with all that’s worthy and beautiful in this world.
A depressing scene, indeed. However, fortunately for you and I, it is a scene not without an exit sign. The potential immediate escape to happiness is within our grasp. If only we start by paying attention.
If only we start paying attention to the blessings already there in our lives, instead of distracting ourselves with the things that are supposedly missing. Pay attention to this present moment, to this newborn opportunity to be present, instead of entertaining regrets about the past or fantasies about the future. Pay attention to ourselves, to our bodies, to the things we put into our bodies, to the amount of stress we allow ourselves to build up, to the lack of movement and unburned calories that our sedentary habits bring about. Pay attention to how we individually add to our surrounding world’s problems, to how responsible we are about our species’s bigger picture, to whether our footprint on the planet is a sustainable or unsustainable one. We can choose to pay attention to all of this.
To pay attention to the things we do everyday. To becoming aware of whether the life we’re leading makes us feel peace, or if it’s the other way around. Pay attention to how precious time is, especially time spent with loved ones or time spent doing what makes us feel whole. Pay attention to what it is that lights a fire inside of us, of what we could do non-stop everyday, even without pay, or of what doesn’t feel like work because it brings inexplicable joy. Only by paying attention will we be able to optimize energy and dedication on these things. We can pay attention to the details that make certain activities valuable or important and place those activities higher on our list of priorities.
We can also choose to pay attention to people so that we can learn from them. Learning from our own mistakes makes us clever, but learning from other people’s mistakes makes us wise, goes the old saying. Pay attention to opportunities to learn new things, to explore new places, to grow in experience, to grow as a person. Pay attention to whether we’ve become a better person this year in comparison to the past year. Because I am a runner, I have learned that life’s biggest competition is against our own selves, not against others. If year by year we can outgrow our former selves, we are probably on a good path to raising our awareness and therefore our opportunities to savor happiness. Pay attention to the fact that happiness is constantly within our reach, if only we choose the right perspective.
I could go on and on about things we should pay attention to: the sky and the clouds, the sun coming up in the morning, the sun going down in the evening, to endorphins flowing through our bodies when we’re moving, to the sound of the ocean each time we get the chance, to the silence when being alone, to our friends and family when they’re smiling, to the fortune of living in a country that isn’t technically at war, to the roof above our heads, to the privilege of being alive and in good health. We should at times also pay attention to our breathing, whenever we have the chance. I’ll stop here. The list could keep going, but then again, that’s not the point in this writing.
The point at hand is that 2015 is now coming to an end, just a few hours left of it. We had our chances. Perhaps we paid attention, or perhaps we didn’t. Maybe just partially or just a little bit. It’s in the past. There is, however, a fresh, new and shiny 2016 just around the corner. New Year resolutions, in my experience, are a mechanism that doesn’t go well with our human nature. Instead of a list of things to do when the new year comes into being, we could maybe just think of one thing and make it our sole mantra: paying attention.
A mantra that isn’t hard to repeat as many times as necessary in our heads. We could write it down on a post-it note and paste it around our houses, offices, laptops, or bathroom mirrors. We could set a daily or weekly reminder in our schedules or smartphones. Pay attention. Pay attention to ourselves, to our actions and to our thoughts. Watch them closely with a conscious eye. Not a judging eye, because we’re humans and we will do pathetic things, but a conscious eye, an eye that’s aware of what’s happening, be it good or bad. Pay attention to others around us. And finally, pay attention to the world around us.
If you decide to try this out, I will be right there with you, giving it a shot as well. If more of us pay attention in 2016, it will most definitely be a fruitful and memorable year for us and those around us.
Wishing and acting for lots of awareness, peace and happiness for us all in this upcoming 2016.
