Pay Close Attention to Your Life

How do you describe your life? What are your recurring dreams, visions, and wishes? What themes have been running throughout your life? What do you think about and focus on most of the time? What do you think about when you wake up in the morning, during the day, and when you go to bed at night? What brings you joy?

Here are some things you should pay close attention to:

1. Your Thoughts and Feelings

Pay close attention to your thoughts and feelings. How do you feel about those who have harmed you? Do you forgive and move on? Or are you harboring the root of bitterness? Psychiatrists and psychologists often ask, "How do you feel?" because your feelings determine how you will act and react.

2. The Words You Speak

Pay close attention to the words you speak. Listen to what you say. Your speech reveals something about your heart. Is your speech filled with murmuring and grumbling, nagging and complaining, or are your words humbling and gentle?

3. Your Actions

Pay close attention to your actions. Chart how you react to certain things. Is your action pleasing to God, to others, or even to yourself?

4. Your Life

If you pay close attention to your life, you will recognize when changes are needed in your thoughts, feelings, speech, and actions. Pay close attention to your life and make changes whenever and wherever they are needed.

Paying Attention to Small Things Can Change Everything

There’s something quietly revolutionary about simply paying attention. Paying close attention is a tender, necessary practice. It’s not complicated. It doesn’t require costly tools or hours of instructions.

Paying close attention is more than observing what’s around you. It’s about paying attention to what’s within you. The world says hurry up and do something, hurry up and go someplace, or hurry up and hurry up.

Personal Reflections

I am in the minority because I don't hurry up and do something or hurry up and go somewhere. I am living my best life now that I have learned to "stop and smell the roses," as the saying goes. My real strength has come from my pause and from the moments when I don't have a strict agenda. I still get a lot done, but I prioritize my work.

Admittedly, some family members and friends have kicked me to the curb because they don't understand my silence and solitude. They have criticized me for not joining them in worldly activities and events that don't align with my spirit.

I am comfortable. I am at peace. I am loving my life more than ever before. Because I am not going to every dog fight, buying every new gadget, or gossiping on the telephone, I have noticed many small things that give me pleasure. I have also noticed that my senses are magnified.

• I enjoy seeing butterflies on a sunny day and snowflakes on a chilly winter day.
• I hear birds chirping, frogs croaking, and cats purring.
• I smell fresh-cut grass and flowers in the park.
• I feel the breeze on my face on a windy day.
• I now take the time to taste the ingredients in the food that I eat.

It is not that those things were not there before. It was that I was too busy or distracted to pay attention. I no longer rush through assignments just to get them done so I can move on to the next task.

There is one thing I do that keeps everything else in motion.

I pay close attention to my life.

When I began paying close attention to my life, I felt like I had more life to pay attention to. It was not because things changed. It was because I changed. The beauty of this new life for me did not require anything big. As you have seen, it has been the little practices that have made a big impact on my life.

Your Call to Action

You don't have to hustle and bustle to be happy. You don't have to rush around every day like a chicken with its head chopped off. You don't have to fill every block in your appointment book. If you are tired of using all your energy without significant results, begin to pay close attention to your life.

This is your invitation to listen more deeply and to notice more gently. Everything you’re seeking is already whispering. All you have to do is pay attention.

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