PUT YOUR SELF ON NOTICE

PUT YOUR SELF ON NOTICE

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Attention is crucial.

Attention/Awareness is the basis – the only basis of existence. Attention is being a-live. Do you remember “alive” ? That was the bit you experienced before “deadening” set in.

Attention is even more proactive than that. When you notice something, you enliven it. When you ignore something, you separate and deaden yourself to it. When you just plain “don't notice”, it doesn't exist.

We even have agreement now from the metaphysicists: without Attention, nothing exists. A thing only becomes “real” for you when and while you give it your attention. In that instant, No-thing becomes Some-thing. Awareness is creative. Creation is the art of bringing something forth from nothing, by giving it your attention, by noticing it.

Both the quality and the direction of your attention deserve examination, because whatever you pay attention to – grows; wherever you choose to head, you will get to. If you focus on your job, your relationship, or a favourite hobby, wherever you direct your attention, it is nourished by that feedback loop.

But you need to know exactly what it is that you're homed in upon. Most people display a stunning ignorance of what they really want, and why. They have no idea at all about who they really are. And they haven't the foggiest about where they're going. They think they know these things – or, more accurately, they are being deluded and directed by ideas about who/what they are and why they're here. Most people have led themselves so far up the “think-about” garden path, they have no idea any more which way is up, let alone what happened to the horizon.

But wherever you are, lost or found, you HAVE to take your next step from where you are, not from where you think you might be, or where you'd like to be, or where you'd like others to think you are. For example, Cardinal George Pell, ensconced in his suite at the Vatican, has not the slightest idea how perilously close to hell he is. He has even less idea how he got there. So he clings to Right-ness. As the flames of hell lick around him on his deathbed, he will be heard to protest “But I was right!”

Politicians claim to be doing “what is right for the country”, when what's really going on is they are claiming to do what they think is right for the country. No wonder their efforts end too often in failure – because they are coming from an abysmal disillusionment, and failure to see any difference between “What I think is “right” versus “What is the most appropriate out of all known possibilities.” It's the “thinking about” that is the problem, and most human never examine their thinking. In fact, the surest way to get a stunned look is to ask someone directly “What are you thinking?” They'll tell you their opinions and beliefs, but what they're actually thinking in the moment – they haven't a clue.

What about you? Would you rather be right – or aware? This is where your Choosing comes in: whatever you choose to attend to is strengthened or weakened by the kind of attention you give it. (Your mind reinforces or weakens in specific areas depending on the input you feed it, and paying attention provides concentrated input.)

When you give anything your attention, you give it form, substance and energy, and endow it with the quality of your attention. What you notice – matters – in more ways than one. Whatever you notice – materialises, faster than the speed of light. So fast in fact that not one of us is quick enough to pick the gap between noticing and materialising. But it is there. And the only thing that can get into that gap is another thought. The trick is to make sure you are the author of the thought that breaks the habit and, like pressing F-9, keep at it until the command registers.

It's one of my Ruthless Rules of Reality that you always get more of what you focus on. The corollary is also true – if you want to know what you've been focused upon, look at what you've got.

This is not rocket science but it can be, for some people, incredibly difficult to get. Some habit, some belief, some old opinion, some out-of-date viewpoint has to be surrendered before you will see it. But once you've seen it, you'll wonder how in hell you could have missed it!

Here's the bottom line – If you focus on what you want, you'll get more of it, in one form or another, from one direction or another. If, on the other hand, you focus on what you DON”T want, you'll be rewarded for your efforts with more of what you don't want. Hadn't you noticed? You hadn't? Then you might benefit from paying attention to the next few minutes.....

Do you give your attention away to whatever or whoever grabs it? Of course you do – we all do. Something happens, and the next thing is that we have been suckered into “thinking about” what just happened, or what might happen next, while what IS happening is slipping past – unnoticed. If you're wise and committed to outgrowing your shell, you'll have a constant reminder (F-9) habit going for you that gently notices “Oh, I just left the room!” and draws you back to the here-and-now.

Or do you invest your Attention in something worth the while you put in?

And include your Self in that “Things Worth My While Being Aware of” tray..... Get to know this non-thing you call your Self. It will help to assume that you do not have a single valid notion of “who” you are. When I ask most people “Who are you?” they tell me their christian name????? That's a joke. Your name is just an ID tag. Your name is no more who you are or what you are than the word”rose” has colour, softness or perfume. Even the name you call yourself was given to you before you had any say in it. Wake up – whatever you think you are started as an impractical joke, remains a joke and the joke's on you. Now, are you going to laugh at the joke, or be off-ended?

Don't be offended –we all fell for the same joke. It's how this particular “reality” show that we call “Life” was set up. It is a setup, you know.

Now, what about the activities this “you” is putting its time into while you're acting out this oddball pastime? Time is energy in potential form. Time is measured in the amount of your Here/Now that you invest with a particular awareness, or focus on a particular activity. That investment involves energy. Notice how much energy you use, and from where you source that energy. Do you create that energy, or do you leach it off others? Are you a creator or a consumer?

People who are self-aware, ie. switched-on to what they notice and dwell upon and whence comes the energy involved, are more generally conscious of and responsive to how they affect the world and others around them. Aware people are alive to much more of what is going on around them. People who intent-fully develop their awareness become conscious of shifts, forces and presences that elude most others. They miss less. They “pick up on” stuff. They're harder to catch “left-footed”. Not because they're “on guard” (a state of tension), but because they're sensate (a state of equanimity).

Aware-full people express their selves kindly and appropriately. They tend to be relatively free of self-importance. They are subtly, effortlessly, guilelessly notice-able in any company.

But before you go running off at the ego at this heady thought, please spend some time differentiating between self-awareness (healthy), and way-off deviations like self-absorption, self-centredness, selfishness, and self interested, self-seeking self-indulgence (unhealthy).

How do you become aware of the difference between self-awareness and its synthetic pretensions? One way is to deliberately do something self-absorbed, then try doing something self-centred....and so on. With each act, remain aware of what happens inside you. Notice the subtler internal changes. It you feel any tightening, hardening or stultifying anywhere in your body or being, then that was not in self-awareness. When you are self aware, you become more relaxed, allowing, relieved, grateful and generous of spirit – quite the opposite effect.

Don't expect awareness to suddenly become a permanent feature of your mien. We slip quickly back into the habit of distracting ourselves from the here and now. I'm doing it now as I write this – there's a whole world just slipped by, unnoticed. It's gone now – let it go. And you're doing the same now while you're reading this. Look up. Notice? Oops! 

Noticing is a way of being in the world. A sometimes lonely way - being in a world in which most other humans-being do not notice what is happening within and around them. How else do you think accidents happen?? Why is it, do you think, that a lot of what passes for “entertainment” these days is actually distraction? How futile. Something to take your mind off what your mind is bugging you about like a swarm of mosquitoes on a hot night. That “something to take my mind off” is just one more thing for the mind to claim as its own, and further load you down.

Know this: your mind does not want you to get this. Have you noticed what it's been saying to you over the last few minutes? Mind “minds” very much if you look like becoming aware. The more you notice, the less your mind can dominate and hold you down. The more you notice, the free-er you will become. And your mind, like all other authorities, does not want you to be free.

If you want something to change, you have to change something. I'm suggesting that one of the things you might consider changing could be the kinds of things you give your attention away to.

Attention cannot be be faked or forced for very long. When a frustrated schoolteacher scolds an unruly class with, “Pay attention, people!” he may get results for a few minutes, but the demand loses its effect very quickly. Asking a restless mind to settle down and pay attention is even more futile. It's a bit like asking a firefly to stop being a firefly and take a holiday.

The secret to directing attention is to know how attention really works.

Attention is Awareness that is focused. There are some basic requirements to be met. The first requirement is to be centred – balanced between opposing and buffeting forces. A mind full of fluff'n'stuff is no way to be Mindful. I will deal with the current “Minfulness” fad in a few minutes. For the meantime, it's important to know that there is no such thing as single-mindedness, and any distractions are self-defeating.

Secondly, your awareness focuses more naturally and easily when you have a Desire and a conscious, clearly communicated Intention. We focus on what we want at the deepest core of our being – always. When we don't get what we want, that may be because we have not yet told our selves the truth about what it is we're pining for. Or it may be that we have to deal first with what's in front of our nose before we can get a clearway to work on the main game. Rule of thumb = deal first with what's on your plate – until it is no longer a hindrance. Life has this (annoying) habit of knowing what you need, when you need it, and in what time frame. But you do have to clearly signal to life what you want to take away with you when your time here is done. And you need to be unambiguous about that. Vague intentions deliver vague results. Life will simply notice where you spend most of your attention, and gie you more of that.

Thirdly, attention works best when combined with intention – envisioning a way to fulfil your desire. I often ask people when they engage with me “What is your intention in talking with me now?” I'm still amazed how few people have a cogent answer to that. Here's a question for you now – What outcome are you expecting to derive from reading this now? If your answer is ready and firm, you'll get it from me. If your answer is hesitant, confused or pointless – that's what you'll get from me. I'm that flexible! Ain't I marvellous!? You get back what you put out for - AND - you're putting out whatever it is you're getting back.

When these three ingredients come together – you are centred, you have a consciously chosen desire, you willingly intend to fulfil your desire – your attention becomes extremely powerful. Anyone who has fallen in love at first sight knows the definition of laser focus. The air cracks with it! For some people the same focused attention applies to ambition, money, and power. For others it's survival, safety and control. Whichever way, Willing Attention is like the advent of the rainy season in the the tropics. Ka-boom! Fireworks!

The resonant frequency of your Attention tends to match the vibration frequency of what it is you're wanting. Low-frequency addictions like security, ambition, power, or jealousy produce a heavy, elephantine aura around you. Some people's bodies even bloat up in sympathy with the heaviness of their “vibes”. Higher-frequency desires like wonder and curiosity emanate a lighter radiance.

Almost everyone has wondered “Who am I?” but the people who actually find out are driven by a burning curiosity to know. This desire is just as strong as other people’s desire for more money, status, and power but a helluva lot more enlightening.

If you ask spiritual questions casually, they amount to very little. But if you ask a question like “Why me?” with some emotional kick behind it – God sends you a flood of emails and home-delivered answers -- and you don't get it? Nothing changes in your life because you're not paying attention, either to the question or to the answering mail (No, that's not meant for me.) Colin Hayes used to say – and probably still does – “If it's in your face, it's your case.”

Your path must be driven by Open Willingness to follow through on possibilities. Since you've probably already tried the more likely possibilities, why not try out some that look least likely?

Let’s say, for example, that you experience one of those moments of inner peace that has crept up upon you without expectation. Suddenly you realise it’s just there, appearing in the midst of an otherwise ordinary day. You might casually notice it, or a train of thought could begin, as follows:

I’m at peace. How unusual. I like this.

(I wonder where it came from?) The very act of “wondering” will hoik you out of the experience in less than the blink of an eye. Let the urge to analyse go through to the keeper.

I want to have this experience for as long as it's available, because it would be good to be at peace for longer and more often. I'm going to stop what I'm doing and have a soak in this for as long as it lasts. When it passes, I’ll follow through on it. It’s too valuable to forget.

This is a natural train of thinking, and every self-aware person I know has followed it, from moments of inner peace, sudden joy or similar special unifying moments that left you feeling protected and looked after, or sensing a spiritual presence that caught them totally by surprise. The same applies to separating feelings – have them while they're on offer. What self-aware people have in common is that they really pay attention to whatever experience they are having, while they're having it.

NOTICING #101

The process of Noticing can be simplified into three steps. The next time you have an inner experience of peace, joy, love, inspiration, upset or insight, pause for a moment and become the observer of the experience.

Step 1: Notice what is happening. Sit quietly without distraction. Soak up the experience without commenting or interrupting it by thinking about it. Thinking about any experience takes you out of the actual experience. Save that for later. While the experience is there, have it. You don't know how long it will last. You can be assured, though, it won't be forever.

Step 2: As the moment fades, don’t rush away from it. Allow it be potentially significant; to be worth noticing still, even in its twilight. You may not find out its true significance for some time to come. That doesn't matter. Enjoy what is happening for its own sake. Put it into context, noticing how different you feel from your ordinary self. When I was supervising the tavern at the Cable Beach Club in Broome, I was amazed and disappointed that most of the tourists who came in their hundreds every afternoon to watch the sunset, shot through as soon as the sun dipped below the horizon. They missed the best part – the 90 minutes of ever-changing pastelled afterglow that always followed. To me, that's a bit like dashing off after sex – you're missing something wonderful.

Step 3: Give the experience value. Consider how transformed your life would be if you could have the experience again, maybe in another colour. Ask how might that feel? Even more, think about a life filled with joy, peace, and love. See it in your mind’s eye; feel how beautiful your life could become.

Notice what's happening, stay with it, and give it value == in these three steps you are activating the emotional area of your brain, and the cortex, or higher brain; the emotional area by fully feeling your experience, the higher brain by applying thought and reflection. Involving these two areas together is how dreams come true. You combine a vision of possibilities with the kind of focused intention that creates new pathways in the brain, and related pathways begin to show up in the outer world. The world “in here” is connected always to the world “out there” -- I don't know how, but it is, probably because there's really no difference. The laws of creating do not recognise conceptual niceties of “one” and “other”, or “inner” and “outer”. In practice it follows that you can’t seize an opportunity without being aware of it as a possibility,and you can’t nourish any possibility without wanting to.

When Awareness, Willing Desire, and Intention come together, you are mastering the skill of paying Attention

THE MINDFULNESS MOVEMENT

FASHIONABLE FAD OR FAIR DINKUM?

One of the founders of Mindful Therapy describes it as “a simple yet effective form of meditation that enables you to gain control of unruly thoughts and behaviours.”

So, as far as this definition takes it, I'm all for it. The definition itself healthily assumes that “you” are not the thoughts you harbour or the behaviours you indulge in. “You” is that which can become aware of them and do something about them. Yippee! If you only get that separation – that you are not your stuff – you have taken your first step to freedom. If your worries and woes are something you have, like your favourite teddy bear, then you are free to do something with them, without fear of losing anything of your Self. And there is no need for awesome temples or months of chanting to accomplish that, unless you want that experience, too. In which case, go for it.

I'm a huge fan of meditating and of doing day-to-day things meditatively (aware-fully). Huge. In fact, I wish there was more of awareness going about – especially on the roads!

But I have two carping problems with their definition of “Mindfulness”, and it's more than mere semantics. My first twinge is with the term “Mindfulness Meditation”. My problem, and I suspect I'm not alone here, is that my mind is already full – full to bursting with what professor Higgins derisively described as “cotton, hay and rags”!

I'm more attracted to some Space – mind-emptiness would be preferable. Perhaps what these people have to offer will give me that, instead. I think it will, but first I have to deal with the second “spoiler” in their definition – “meditation that enables you to gain control over unruly thoughts or behaviours.”

I agree that thoughts and the feelings that accompany them are unruly – I've tried controlling them, and that's akin to trying to herd thousands of cats into a holding pen.

I also allow that thought control can be done, but not by anybody I know. The level of required discipline and training (sometimes brutal) is such that I suspect it's beyond me when I have to also support myself and converse occasionally and normally with other mere mortals. I rather feel that the number of people who should attempt to rein in thoughts and feelings by sheer discipline is probably about the same as the number of people who should try to cross Antarctica alone and without woolly underwear and footwear of some sort.

For most of us, I hope there's another way. And there is. And the Mindfulness people are so close! My take on what they're doing is that it's very close to a process that has been around in the consciousness growth movement for at least the last 60 years. When I first came across it in Inward Adventure, Colin Hayes called it “Thought Awareness”. In short, we eventually got to act out “our” thoughts as they popped up. In a group it was chaotically hilarious. I really got how insane head-fucking really is.

Let me lead into this now by proposing that the goal of meditation could be, not to control thoughts and thinking etc., but to stop thoughts, thinking, etc. controlling you. How does that appeal to you?

This is where Noticing comes in. Noticing requires no temples or cathedrals, no robes, no chanting, no monks, nuns or priests to interpret or interfere (sorry, intercede) for anything. No flagellation or contorting of the body is needed. The only discipline required is a gentle bringing-back of your awareness when it wanders off from what's going on in front of your nose and around you, seduced by your ever-demanding mind and its shenanigans.

People who practice Noting naturally become more focused, even when they are not “meditating”. I've found Noticing to be an excellent, pleasing habit that reduces stress because it stops me from feeling totally helpless and completely useless. Noticing stops me from jumping from one trailer-thought to the next in the endless road-train of thinking – 50,000 of them every day, give or take a few. And we've gotten into the habit of trying to ride them all in turn in the name of “keeping control” and “this is living!” Noticing what thoughts, beliefs, ideas and behaviours distract and bring you down helps you to get to know this “persona” you've created, and helps you cover the day's doings in a more calm, alert and productive manner.

Harvard University psychologist, Ellen Langer, herself a student of this Mindfulness phenomenon, described it in this way: Mindfulness is the process of actively Noticing new things. Now I'm getting more relaxed and comfortable with this. Pure Noticing happens in the here and now. There is no “minding” in it. It just notices this, then this, then this, then this...... like a wide-eyed toddler. Bloody annoying when you've got five minutes to pick up the dry cleaning before getting the older kids from school. But that's not a toddlers “concern”, is it? Why is it SO important to you that you miss something really cool like a caterpillar undulating across the footpath?

Noticing stops when Mind kicks in and starts making commentary on what you've just noticed. That's it. You're out of the here-and-now, and sucked into the past. Yet again, life (always in the here/now) passes you by – un-noticed, while you get towed around by your unkind mind. Then you remember and, shocked awake, you start noticing again: back in the Present. Noticing makes you more sensitive to lost elements of Context and Perspective. Noticing re-minds you.

The mistake most people make is to assume that Noticing is stressful and exhausting – noticing all this thinking. Wrong! Noticing the thinking is nowhere nearly as exhausting as doing all that needless thinking. Sure, changing any habit requires some willingness, application and perseverance, but it is possible to persevere with or without stress – that's your choice. And the more practised you get at Noting, the more you'll quickly see how stressful once were all the mindful negative evaluations and commentary, and the worrying about problems that you might encounter and not be able to solve. Now no longer. You simply notice, and let be.

Noticing in the workplace

There's good reason for high-performance companies like Google to embrace Noticing into its performance training regimes – it's effective. Ellen Langer's studies indicate that the habit of Noting improves your performance levels in all manner of activities.

But there are other more important reason why I recommend you start making the Habit of Paying Attention a personal priority. Here are five of them:-

1. Noticing puts you slap-bang in the only happening place – here and now
2. Noticing improves your ability to focus your awareness.
3. Noticing pollinates creativity
4. Noticing improves your emotional intelligence.
5. Noticing makes you more aware, alert and alive.

1. Note that all through this article I've used the active verb “notice” rather than the passive “be noticed” or the imperative “notice me!”, progenitor of the selfie craze. Noticing what's going on in and around you is not stressful. Stress comes into it through our reactions to what we notice, when we stop just noticing thoughts and feelings, and instead go chasing after them like clowns at a rodeo.

If we don't react – no stress. No stress = reduced chances of cancer, high blood pressure, autoimmune diseases, heart conditions, insomnia, depression, anxiety. That seems to me to be enough good reasons to at least try it. What have you got to lose by being more “with-it”? What is the payoff supposed to be for being a dopey-dick? In your book who gets to be deservedly punished if you remain a dysfunctional zombie? Who gets let off your emotional hooks if you get relaxed, clear and calm?

2. The human mind can not dwell upon more than one thing at a time but it can, and does, flit from one dwelling to another with a speed that even light cannot catch. Noticing gives you real, gentle practice at shepherding and focusing your awareness on the task at hand. Your increasing ability to apply your awareness with consistency naturally carries over into everything you turn your intention towards. Noticing helps you identify internal and external distractions, and get a profile on what distraction pattens you've developed – patterns that surreptitiously sabotage your sincerest endeavours. While you may have fallen prey to multi-tasking in the past, noticing what is easier, and what makes things difficult will help you kick this nasty, productivity-destroying delusion/habit.

Time is energy. Time is the quantity of here/now that you invest in a particular pointing of awareness and apply to a particular activity. Wasted time wastes energy. A focused awareness is a more productive awareness.

3. Noticing is creative. Your level of ability to create affects the quality of the here/now you are investing. Creativity hinges on your mental and emotional state. A mind in turmoil creates confusion, misunderstandings, and mistakes. An awareful mind dissolves the limiting thoughts, opinions, feelings and beliefs that stifle groundbreaking creativity and self-expression. Just the fact that “noticing” puts you in the Now helps new ideas to flow naturally to and through you. An unaware mind repels creativity and freshness.

4. Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is that intangible “something” within us that affects our ability to manage our behaviour, to navigate complex social interactions, and to make personal choices and decisions that achieve results that work. Your EQ is a measure of your ability to recognise and read emotions within your self and other selves, and to use this awareness to manage your own behaviour and relationships.

It seems from research in the USA that 90% of top performers in all types of jobs also have a higher-than-normal Emotional Intelligence score. While I would not recommend that statistic as any kind of definitive proof, it seems obvious anecdotally that those people who can clearly identify, feel, understand and manage all of their emotions are far more likely to be effective as colleagues, friends, parents, managers and leaders. Similarly, those who have made insufficient effort to develop their EQ are far more likely to have a destructive influence on the environments they blunder through.

5. Noticing enables you to attract healthy supporters and mentors, organise yourself and create and communicate plans, self-heal old parent thoughts, limiting feelings and habits that brought you undone, assume responsibility for your own growth and evolution, and become a healthy mentor to others.

Self-healing is a trait of people who Notice. This applies specially to those who are practiced enough to catch thoughts we all entertain about our selves, uncritically look at each one, then quietly stand in the question about each thought – “Is this true about me?”

People who take moments to uncritically observe tend to show 50% more genuine kindness and compassion than those who don't. There is something in feeling present, available and interested that brings out the best in people who have a “best” that they'd like to improve upon.

Putting your self on Noticewatch improves your wisdom and insight, your performance now, and your capacity to perform in the future.

Do what I did – give it a try. You'll be surprised at what you've been missing, and you might just find out where it will take you.