Mindfulness

"Pay attention!" I don't know how many times my mother yelled that at us as children. Jesus never yelled at his disciples to pay attention, but he did tell them to listen fairly often. Almost every prophet, spiritual teacher, or religious leader has at some point told their students and followers to pay attention in some way. We humans are a distractible bunch. We make fun of dogs for their distractibility, but we humans get distracted very easily as well. 

(All that nonsense about goldfish memories and attention spans is just nonsense. Attention span is very determined by the task and our emotional involvement in it.)

However, the point about paying attention, being mindful, to what is going on around us is really important. Not only does it help us survive on a daily basis, it can also teach us new ways we can help our environments. When we are paying attention, we are more likely to see problems as they arise, see cause and effect situations we take part in, and change what we are doing. If we never pay attention to the ecological damage done by littering, we will never change our ways. Yet, if you simply pay attention along the side of a road as you travel it, you can see the ecological impact of trash. Vegetation dying, water movement being choked and contaminated, plants getting tangled up in plastic bags, animals trying to eat things which are not food. These are visible to anyone who is mindful enough to look. 

Mindfulness doesn't take any special equipment to do. Mindfulness only takes an intention to be mindful and the persistence to come back to it when you have gotten distracted or worried. Mindfulness can be practiced, and there are hundreds of apps and groups which can help one practice, but it really comes back to you. Do you want to be mindful? Do you want to pay attention to what is going on around you? Do you want to see what is happening? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you are already on your way to being more mindful and helping creation. Take some time to be mindful today. See what you see. Notice what is going on around you. Pay attention.