Are You Paying Attention?

It is one of the greatest and most rewarding attributes you can work on — attentiveness. There is a slight yet significant difference between mindfulness and attentiveness. Mindfulness is maintaining a sense of awareness, a sort of consciousness that you are watching your own thoughts, your actions.

With greater practice, your level of mindfulness rises to a degree that it becomes effortless. Mindfulness is the basis of a stable life, a sound mind, and living gracefully. It is also the essence of meditation. That reminds me: a while ago, I recorded a discourse on dhyana yoga, meditation. It is in Hindi. You can watch it here.

Getting back to my present topic, attention is a conscious effort. You are paying attention and you are conscious that you are trying to be attentive. If you pay attention to yourself, your actions, and the environment, and if you are listening to your body, you naturally inculcate an effortless, rewarding discipline and order in your life. Attention leads to mindfulness eventually. My focus today is predominantly on paying attention or – listening to your body, understanding what it is trying to say to you.

Are you listening to your body?

Fitness of the physical body is more important than any religious ritual, in my opinion. We enjoy all pleasures through the body, however transcendental they may be. It is through the body alone that you experience what you do and it is your body that puts up with the good and bad results of any action you perform.

This world with all its whims and fancies, joys and sorrows, pleasures and pains, exists for you as long as you have the body. A lot of people do not treat their body with the same care as they would treat their money, relationships, work, etc. Or perhaps, it is a question of priority. Your physical fitness, regardless of your age, deserves to be at the top. 

Nothing happens instantly in the play of nature. The same goes for your body too. I have observed countless times that often small ailments, when not tended to, turn into major problems. Many a time, your body shows symptoms and signs long before anything is diagnosed. If you choose to ignore its nudges, it expresses in the form of disease later on. Are you listening to your body?

Imagine running on a treadmill at a fast pace for an hour and then simply getting off it without cooling down. It might do you more damage than good. Similarly, in life, after you have caught up pace, when you wish to stop, you need to give yourself time to slow down, to cool down. You cannot afford to keep running at the same pace throughout.

Evolution over numerous lifetimes has helped your body develop a sophisticated mechanism of survival. When you are eating a wholesome meal, no matter how delicious, your body tells you when you should stop. It makes you feel sleepy when it wants rest, it wakes you up when it has gotten enough sleep, you feel thirsty when your body needs water, you feel hungry when it needs food. The easiest way to keep fit is by listening to your body, by paying attention to it. If you do not ignore it and exercise, your chances of keeping your body fit and healthy skyrocket.

The human body can take a lot when young but that does not mean it is justifiable to abuse it. Often the results of such abuse show through in the later years. If someone smokes a lot and lives off junk food, the body may still remain fit when young but sooner or later, the perils of such living catch up. Is it any coincidence that all yogic scriptures give great importance to eating right and physical exercises!

Ripu ruja paavaka papa prabhu ahi gani’a na chota kari ॥
An enemy, disease, fire, sin, a master, and snakes should not be taken for granted, no matter how small they may appear at first. Attend to them at the first sign.
(Ram Charitmanas, Aranya Kand, 21)

It is never too late or too early to adopt a healthy lifestyle. And what is a healthy lifestyle? A balanced life is a healthy one: work, exercise, and a balanced diet. Your body is an instrument of life, of living, of experiences. It is not a cage for your soul but a potent vehicle of knowledge and insight. All acquisition of knowledge is through the senses. There will be no senses if not for the body. Befriend it, treat it with care. Love thyself.

Peace.
Swami