There is an old phrase that teachers used to use,
And they possibly still do,
Where they tell you to pay attention.
Hey,
Come on,
Pay attention.
And it's when you're off,
Distracted,
And let's consider what we were actually saying.
Go ahead and close your eyes,
And roll that around in your conscious awareness.
Pay attention.
In an attention economy,
What we're paying with is our attention.
So,
Pay attention used to mean,
Listen to what I'm saying.
Or,
Look at this over here.
Or,
Hey ma,
No hands.
Or,
Whatever.
That was what pay attention was.
It was a singular activity.
And now,
There are so many things that we can invest our attention in,
That it's really more of an economics and accounting thing,
About where we're going to pay attention.
So,
Sitting here,
With our eyes closed,
And not seemingly having our attention distracted by things in the world around us,
Take a deep,
Full breath in.
Let yourself be filled with something brand new.
Pay attention to the feeling of being filled.
Let that breath go.
Deep,
Full,
Complete breath out.
Pay attention to the feeling of releasing,
Of surrendering,
Of relaxing,
Of becoming empty and available.
Pay attention as you take another deep breath in.
And again,
Attend to the sensations as you breathe out.
Continue breathing at the pace that's comfortable for you.
And,
In the quiet of your mind,
Notice where your attention is going.
Where that investment is being directed,
What you're paying for.
Don't be critical.
There's no need to judge.
This is simply an opportunity to observe,
As we spend a couple minutes in the quiet together.
If your attention were measured in gold coins,
And every conversation,
Every screen,
Every sign,
Every message,
Had a coin slot,
Where would you put the coins?
Where would you pay your attention?
And would you feel like you're getting a good deal?
And,
If so,
Then congratulate yourself.
And if there is room for change,
Or what you think of as improvement,
Then congratulate yourself on the opportunity to be discerning.
You've still got a big,
Big sack full of those gold coins.
And you get to choose.
Each of us gets to choose.
And that infinite creative power that creates everything,
Has created all of those distractions,
All of those activities,
All of those ideas,
All of those things that could accept our attention.
And has created each of us with the ability to discern,
To choose,
To direct and invest wisely.
And that's what's going on.
I'm so grateful for it.
I'm grateful for the wonderful way that each of us is engaging in this process,
For the new awareness and the ah-ha's.
And I'm grateful for that rich supply of attention we get to direct in whichever direction we find to be uplifting.
And so,
With gratitude for all of this good,
I speak this word and I release it into that creative law.
And I now invest myself in creating this.
And so,
I let it be.
So it is.
Another deep breath and back into the world.
