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Essay for the moment
Paying Attention
to the World Around Us
I’ve missed the nights of my younger days when the evening skies were clearer. I could stand outside my house craning my head upwards in marvel of the wonders of the universe. I simply become aware of its size and realize how small I really am. The thousands of stars glistening in the heavens put me in place for I tell myself that I am not its center.
Those were younger days and now, the evening sky is dull and with fewer stars visible. Does it matter? I have more important things to attend to: my career, my work, and my job. Like the billions of other people in this planet, I have a life of my own to attend to. I have myself to attend to. I am however, but a mere speck in the middle of a multitude. There be not only people in this world but animals, trees, and buildings too. If I have only my needs to attend to, am I truly being real?
"Perhaps there is no property in which men are more distinguished from each other, than in the various degrees in which they possess the faculty of observation. The great herd of mankind passes, their lives in listless inattention and indifference as to what is going on around them, while those who are destined to distinction have a lynx-eyed vigilance that nothing can escape."
— American jurist William Wirt
Gregg Krech the author of Naikan, in which he explains and demonstates a method of self-reflection, attention, gratitude, connections, kindness, and compassion developed in Japan during the 1940s by a Bhuddist sect, points out the meaning of self-focused attention.
When we begin to seriously study attention, one of the first things we discover is how often our attention is focused on ourselves. Now we're feeling hungry. Now thirsty. Now we're worried about what's going to happen. Now we're tired. Now we're looking around the room, not thinking of others, but thinking, "I wonder what they think of me." We notice an item in a store and our reference point is "I could really use one of those." We call a business associate to meet for lunch and our primary concern is "what's most convenient for me."
In a recent winter storm 1,000 cattle froze to death, huddling together in an open meadow in a failed attempt to keep warm. When a reporter interviewed the rancher, his first comments were, "We're broke." My needs. My wants. My suffering. It's enough to make you sick. In fact, it does make you sick.
Krech also discloses a study by psychologist Rick Ingram who reviewed the research that had been done on the subject of self-focused attention (Psych Bulletin, Vol. 107, No. 2).
This research covered problems areas such as depression, anxiety, alcohol abuse, even schizophrenia. In each case there was an indication of a direct relationship between self-focused attention and the psychological problem. "The weight of available data clearly suggests an association between disorder (or vulnerability to disorder) and self-focused attention regardless of the particular disorder," stated Ingram.
Other researchers have drawn similar conclusions. A 1982 study of depression by Jacobson and Anderson (Behavior Therapy, Vol. 13) found that "depressed people refer to themselves more frequently than do nondepressed people, even when the normal flow of conversation calls for more attention to the other person." They went on to conclude that "...evidence also seems to suggest that happiness is associated with an outward focus." Here we have one of the most fundamental and overlooked distinctions in the field of mental health: the contrast between outward attention to the world and attention focused on ourselves. This distinction is a watershed between good and poor mental health; between a healthy, flowing mind and a suffering, self-absorbed one.
I believe attention, both self-focused and outward, are skills and we develop it in the same way we learn to dribble a basketball. If we practice consistently with the left hand we become good at playing with our left hand. If we practice with the right, we become good at playing with the right. A good dribbler plays well with both hands. But I have much more dexterity with my right hand than my left. So, I’m sorry to say that I have much more dexterity attending to my self than to the world around me. I naturally daydream, plan, worry or do almost anything other than pay attention to what is going on around me at any given moment.
Nearly everyone echoes this self-diagnosis. We are not out of touch with our inner world — that world of feelings, of preferences, of desires and discomfort. It is a world we know too well. It is a prison that blinds us to universe of sunsets, spider webs, and stars. A universe that is vibrant and breathing with life. The universe wants us to dance, but we are too self-absorbed to hear the invitation.
But not all the time. Every once in a while the beauty of the world around us is so stunning, so captivating that we can no longer ignore it and we forget ourselves and dissolve into something greater. And it is not only beauty which attracts us, it is also need. The needs of a loved one for help, the needs of a community, even a planet. We find our calling, our bliss, our purposes, by giving up on ourselves. Our surrender becomes our salvation. Our disappearance provides relief, even for a few moments. But once you have tasted those moments you have discovered something about attention. And now you can travel through the world and seek out what isn't so obvious. The shadows of birches late in the afternoon, a weed growing in the fissure of a large boulder, and the texture of a rose petal against your cheek, you are on your way to becoming a poet.
This "waking up" to the world around us is also the foundation of great religious traditions which emphasize service and humility rather than personal success and pride. How do we go beyond ourselves? How do we replace self-pity with compassion for others? What is faith if not a shift of attention
Too often we do what we already do too well — pay attention to ourselves. In the course of exploring our pain, our worries, our feelings and our dreams we forego the development of our more needed skill — to notice and engage the world around us. Without practice, our muscles atrophy. Without practicing to be more outward-focused, we become more self-centered. So the next time you find yourself self-absorbed, take a walk. Look around you. The world is an interesting place. It might even give you something to do. If the stars are out, close your eyes. Listen. You might just hear them twinkle. That is how they get your attention.
by Misael Perez