It’s strange how hard it can be to pay attention.
I’m sitting at my desk with the task of writing this, and my mind has gone in 10 directions. I’ve made more tea. I’ve swept off the porch… twice. Funny the things I do to avoid giving attention to the task at hand.
Without concentration, our attention follows random thoughts, appetites, and habits. Without focus, we are sleepwalkers, habit machines, and distraction chasers. In so doing, we detract from powerful forces and feelings within that lead us to wellbeing.
I was walking the dogs this morning, listening to some nice piano music, but mostly zoning out and running through my mental to-do list. Then I rounded a corner and stepped on a small rock. My attention woke up.
I felt a sensation in my foot, and started focusing on both my feet. The rhythmic lift of one and then the other. And then I shifted my attention upward and started being aware of how subtle shifts in my hips and shoulders changed my balance and my stride.
This opened a doorway for the wonderful thought, “Our bodies are miraculous! What a gift!” All of a sudden, my attention was fixed on the profound spirituality of the moment.
This excursion into paying attention to my body left me with a simple, strange, and serene awareness. It’s a confirmation of one of the most powerful spiritual practices: Be where your feet are.
Some people will view this attention focus as self-absorbed, as navel gazing. This is one of the great lies that keeps us spiritually asleep as a species.
The truth is that inner-attention also activates outer-awareness. It becomes empathy, appreciation, connection. And it enables discernment so that we stay in our soul’s lane, and let others attend to their work.
All of this comes together in the serene here-and-now times of being where your feet are. These moments become the gateway to wellbeing.
Paying attention can be difficult. But it’s a practice worth practicing. It can turn a stone on the sidewalk into a magic moment.
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I’m a big fan of the Enneagram because, apart from all of its other bells and whistles, it’s fundamentally an awareness tool. It calls us to bring into awareness our patterns of body, emotions, and thought.
If you have never explored the Enneagram, or it’s been a while, I hope you will take advantage of a new set of videos I’m offering through the learning platform Udemy: The Enneagram Journey of Transformation and Healing. These are all about helping you truly be where your feet are, in the deepest sense.