Posts Tagged ‘attention’

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
~ Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

Life can be confusing sometimes. Even the simple act of getting everything that needs doing completed each day can turn our heads round and make us forget that we are living a unique life and that we are individual bits of divine spirit energy. To be honest with you I am known to be a huge procrastinator and often several days can go by without me pausing to take notice of life, spirit or my connections to others.

Over the years I have gotten much better at doing things that need doing, even if I don’t feel particularly motivated to do them, at least more often than I used to. Like when dishes need washing, I use the “just do 5 dishes” mentality and, inevitably, I end up doing 20. Starting is the hardest part.

Days are the same way. Starting them may not be as hard as picking up your tax forms and filling them out, but how you start you day most certainly sets the pattern for how the remainder of your day will flow (or stagnate.)

Oddly enough, my own busy-ness and procrastination, which are always in the way of me starting or completing things, seem to end right at the place where my comfort and desires begin. In other words, I never have trouble finding the time to bake brownies or getting up and starting a new knitting project. Those things are easy to remember and to place priority on. Yet, publication deadlines, jogging, paying bills and mopping the floors can get pushed back for weeks and even months.

I suppose you could call this self-indulgence, and in some instances our distracted mind can fall into such a “pleasure and comfort” pattern. But, in most people’s case, it is so much more than just that.

We live in a world filled with over-stimulation. The mental and visual landscape seems designed, and often deliberately intended, to keep you … Continue reading →