Pay attention to life

Pay attention to life

Stop mulling over the past or projecting into the future  and enjoy the present moment, says Shivi Verma

If one is not ruminating over  the past, one is thinking,  planning, or worrying  about the future. For the mind,  happiness is just at the next  stop, the next corner, the next  destination, and no matter how  many milestones one covers, that  final stop never ever arrives. 

The wise, however, have always  emphasised the present moment  as being the essence of life, and  missing out on it means missing  out on life itself. 

The thing is that people too are  looking for the present moment.  The feelings of joy, ecstasy,  completion, and fulfilment are all  highly sought after. We want to  be fully present when such a time  comes and want it to last forever.  Who hasn’t heard of the phrase “I  wish time would stop,” especially  when lovers are enjoying stolen  moments of togetherness, an  honour has been conferred, or a  group of friends are having a gala  time? But since we get to taste  them rarely; only when a goal has  been achieved, a dream realised,  or a wish fulfilled we either dwell  in the past or conjure up images  of the future. 

But the catch is that these coveted  events may or may not happen. So  will life and happiness pass us by  in the absence of these desirable  moments? What about the Now?  As children, we were the happiest  since we were only aware of the  

present. Life danced a merry  dance as we flowed paper boats,  chased dandelions and butterflies,  splashed water by jumping in  mud puddles, played peek-a-boo  and Chinese whispers, and lived  life to the hilt. 

It has been observed that time  expands when we give something  our focussed attention. A pot of  milk takes longer to boil, and  the time on our mobile moves  much slower, when we watch  them closely. Which means  that attention has the power to  change the velocity of time. It  can magnify or diminish the  influence of any experience  which we are having. Children  unknowingly do it all the time by  focussing on things that delight  them, whether it’s making sand  castles, following the trail of ants,  or getting overjoyed on seeing a  flying plane or a hurtling train. By  paying attention to life, they make  it respond to them zealously. 

Keeping this in mind, I often zone  in to the present moment while  doing my daily chores, and life  simply burgeons into being. The  mundane becomes extraordinary.  The sight of a vegetable vendor  pushing his cart, a cow whipping  the flies away from its body with  its tail, the aroma of freshly fried  samosas wafting from a nearby  shop, the sound of my heels as  they hit the road, or seeing two  young boys with broad smiles  

speeding past me on their bike  immerse me in the chalice of  unbridled existence. Looked at  without attaching meaning and  judgement, this is nothing but life  living itself. 

Attention is the super power we  are all blessed with. But it needs to  be handled carefully. The quality  of our attention must be devoid of  greed, lust, covetousness, anger,  or jealousy for life to respond to  us positively. 

We can use this power to amplify  our experience of life, to have the  world respond to us with love,  friendliness, and warmth, but we  mostly use it to run away from pain  and unpleasant feelings. While  it is good to not be excessively  focussed on dysfunctionalities, it  is not healthy to ignore or suppress  nagging pain. At such times,  paying attention to it, to get to the  root of the problem and eliminate  it for good is the best use of the  power of attention. Life is right  here, happening in this moment,  in all its beauty and splendour,  but it’s our attention which makes  it worthwhile. 

Editor of Life Positive, Shivi  Verma is a devotee who found  all her answers in loving God  

passionately. 

We welcome your comments and suggestions on  this article. Mail us at editor@lifepositive.net