Friday, May 16, 2014

Complete Attention

I was attending my regular deeksha blessing group last week. Deeksha blessings are an opportunity to either send  or receive the awareness of the oneness of the universe. I place my hands on another"s head and ask for the oneness of my universe to move through me into the other person's being. I was initiated to be a blessing giver by my friend Ginger who is a oneness trainer. I have found deeksha blessings to be a powerful healing tool during the five years I have been practicing with it.
In the group  before we give each other deeksha blessings we do a guided meditation or chant and then hear the quote of the day. This quote is provided by Shri Amma Bagavan who is the leader of Oneness University in India. His vision is for all people to connect with their inner divine to become aware of the oneness of all beings.

On this day the quote was: Incomplete attention is the root of dissatisfaction. This quote rang very true for me. My mind can go all over the place and I end up having a challenging time focusing on the present. One reason I love my work is because it is easy for me to focus on the person I am working with and not be distracted. I often feel a grat deal of satisfaction from my work. The scattered feeling I get from being lost in my mind chatter, planning or comparing or judging is uncomfortable. I long to be more focused in the present and less dissatisfied. So, I thought, if incomplete attention is the root of dissatisfaction then a way to be more satisfied would be to bring complete attention to whatever was in my experience in the moment.
Complete attention is a path to satisfaction.

So, a practice was born. In meditation, when I inhale I say to myself complete and when I exhale I say to myself attention. When I notice my mind has wandered off I kindly say to myself complete attention and bring myself back to my breath. The structure is lovely and helpful and I have been starting my sessions  and yoga classes with teaching this tool. In my daily life when I remember, I say to myself complete attention to bring my mind back to being present right here and right now. It is a way to mindfully notice I have wandered off without scolding myself. It is helping me to be more willing to completely experience whatever is in my experience without judging it as good or bad or positive or negative. Everything in my experience is worthy of complete attention.

See if complete attention could be a useful tool for you. I notice  as I practice this tool I am feeling less distracted and scattered and more centered. This creates more space for me to feel gratitude.
In this moment I am feeling gratitude for the expansiveness I experience from writing this blog. I am also very grateful to you for reading it. It is so satisfying to be bringing complete attention to your attention. Many blessings, Andrea