January 14, 2002
Focusing Your Awareness
“Your ability to ‘be here now’—to focus your
awareness—can boost the power and quality of all your activities.
Anything you do benefits from receiving your full attention... Perhaps
the overall quality of your life is just a reflection of your ability to focus
your awareness”
Dave Ellis (1)
Have you ever heard the phrase, “I was lost in the
moment”? For me it conjures up a
feeling of suspended animation where the world passes by while you are so
focused that you are unable to even hear the noise around you.
Whatever person, place, or thing that creates this moment, allows you
feel as if you are floating away. Perhaps
the phrase should really be “I was alive in the moment” or “I was awakened
to the moment”.
Being able to focus on what we
are doing at any given time is a difficult task. I am a runner and when I run it is challenging to clear my
mind from the self-talk that seems to invade the experience of the exercise.
My mind can race about incomplete work, family tasks, or just things that
have nothing to do with what I am doing and where I am.
Every once in awhile, however, I
find myself focusing only on the experience of the run and block everything else
out. Those are the days that I feel
the best when I finish. I seem to
focus on what my body is doing and even marvel at how it all works.
We live in a wooded area and the views and wildlife are abundant.
When I am able to “be here now”, as author and teacher David Ellis
puts it, I see things along the run that I have never noticed before.
After the run I am more refreshed than tired or sore and am able to take
that feeling into the rest of my day.
It is difficult to remain
focused and not allow your mind to wander during the activities of a normal day.
Like most things, practice and consistency will help you achieve greater
focus. When we recognize that our focus is shifting, we just need to gently
bring our mind back and regain our awareness of the activity at hand.
It may mean bringing our focus back many times, but with practice our
minds will learn to stay where we guide them.
Just think about what this kind
of heightened awareness will mean to a conversation, a walk along a path,
listening to a lecture or sermon, or just sitting and watching a sunset.
I am learning that in business activities I can achieve greater success
by becoming more aware of the moment at hand.
Our souls come alive when we are focused and aware, then give ourselves
to the moment we are in. We can control our mind and focus on being here now… here
with our body, our mind, and our soul.
With respect, acceptance, and love,
Richard
©
Richard D. Olson and Awaken The Soul, 2002; Edited by Janice E. Olson
(1) Falling Awake: Creating the Life of Your Dreams by David Ellis; Copyright 2000; Breakthrough Enterprises, Inc. (see Suggested Reading)