All of a sudden last week when I was walking down the sidewalk in the rain, my eyes unfocused and my field of vision transformed from “sidewalk, grass, street” to “one palette in shades of green”. Right where boring and everyday had been, was a magical olive green path with tree green puddles in it, and bright green grass all around. It was like looking at a painting!
It was just then that I remembered something my yoga instructor had told us.
That meditation was a state of single-pointed awareness with multi-faceted attention. You park your conscious mind in the one state of awareness instead of letting it think about things, but the single-pointed attention within that awareness is multi-faceted. You’re not only noticing your breath or the sounds of birds tweeting. You’re noticing all of it with equal attention all at once.
“Single-pointed awareness with multi-faceted attention”
This is the perfect way to describe what it’s like trying to find rock jewelry on a beach full of stones. At first the rocks on the beach overwhelm me with sheer numbers, but if I can park my mind in the state of awareness, then I can actually SEE all the stones at once instead of getting confused by the jumble. When I can see all the stones, then my instincts, my subconscious mind, starts to pick the stones out for me. This techniqyue is just as important for stone-finding as it is for finding awesome clothes at the second-hand store or even for finding which life path to take out of the infinite possibilities available to us.
Want an easy way to get started in Mindfullness?
Learning the technique of turning any moment into every moment is easy! Check out my post from the other week about turning your neighborhood walks into meditations by simply listening to the bird calls around you! Listening to bird calls, that’s it! It’s easy to get started in meditation, but the key to getting better and better at it is through repetition. The techniques themselves aren’t hard to learn, but getting yourself to practice them daily or weekly. Now, that’s the toughie! 🙂 (I have trouble, not just with finding the willpower to bring meditation into my every day, but with REMEMBERING to even consider it! Once that conscious brain gets started with projects, “frivolous” things like mindfulness get thrown out the window!)
Continue your journes down the path of awareness, read about how to turn your next neighborhood walk into a meditation by just listening to birdcalls!