This one is perhaps the simplest exercise so far, but also the hardest – and maybe the most valuable. Let’s try to notice things more today.

 

Our attention is valuable, so valuable the biggest companies in the world essentially treat our attention, and their ability to attract it and keep it as their primary asset. But it should be even more valuable to us. We talked about our lives consisting of time and energy in The Path Is A MISSION, which is true, but our lives are also what we notice, what we care to think about or remember. Noticing is living.

 

We may think we do this, and we hopefully do, but we can do it more, and this can feel like living more. Perhaps because we’re rested, perhaps because we’re seeing more new things, we tend to notice more on holiday: foreign sunsets may seem more beautiful, but it is the same sun setting over the horizon wherever you are. We can’t always be on holiday, but we can bring that noticing mind with us instead.

 

You can try this in two ways today. You can, if you have time, really spend some time noticing something familiar, perhaps something on the table or desk in front of you. Anything. If you’re in a coffee shop, has someone spilt some sugar that hasn’t been cleaned up, and is the sun refracting through the crystals? Or isn’t it? Are they just pale white specks? Right now, there will be something you haven’t noticed. Give it some extra time, and you are giving yourself extra time. Make it a practice, and you will find this leads to a greater appreciation of your circumstances.

 

You won’t always see that holiday sunset, but you will see it more often if you look for it.

 

The second way is to “double-take”. Take an extra split second to register something’s existence. This could be saying its name in your head. “Stapler” is the first thing I could double-take, as it is right in front of me, but if you had asked me just 10 minutes ago if I had a stapler on my desk, I wouldn’t have known the answer. This simple practice can help develop more awareness, and boost your attention.

 

Together, these two practices can help us develop more focus and presence, less distraction. If you have already made your “zen tracker”, you could write down some of the things you notice there.