29 September 2011

Your Spot light is on! It’s ‘Attention’

 

        In real terms, a spotlight illuminates a small area of the stage with a strong beam of lights. The splendid feature of a spot light lies in its quality to highlight a person or an object on the stage, while the rest remains more or less dark…

        Interestingly, as a human being each of us has a built in spotlight in our conscious spot light known as ‘Attention’…  The stage spot lights, flashes as per demand of the situation, but human attention, like a spot light is always on!

        The trouble is we almost always train our spot light on what’s wrong in our life, while keeping everything that’s not wrong in the dark…

        We inherit this deep routed mindset (problem!) from our problem driven & oriented society. Every where you look, the spot light is on all that is not right- the TV, newspaper filled with stories of corruption, crime, calamities, inflation and tensions. There are serious discussions on prime time TV, internet, and magazines about troubled conditions in various parts of the world.

       On personal level, we are pre occupied with those aspects of our life that are not going well for us at the moments. The Students are worried about academics, Young men and women worried about their carrier, their relationships or finances. And the Old people are bothered about health…

        There’s one thing common though:  Whatever your problem are, it is a good bet that your attention is on the ‘gravest’ problem you are currently facing. It is also a good bet that if a bigger or graver problem surfaces you will turn your focus, your attention to it. So, what happened to the ‘grave’ problem you were struggling with earlier?

        You might think that giving our problems all the attention is natural… How else we solve them? But, as a matter of fact, no problem has been solved by giving it all the attention…

        What works is to understand the problem and then turn your attention away from it, so that you can create space in your mind and in your life to receive the solution.

Attention:  mini TajMahal at Aurangabad
        There are so many things that are going well for you… How about turning your spot light (Attention) on those happy occurrences or joyful events?


       Let take a personal example: Say one feeling troubled with chronic BP. You must stay dwelling on it or discussing it with everyone. By all means, give it the attention it deserves and stop at that.  What is important, visit doctor, take medicines on time, exercise and do whatever advised. Then wait for the healing or prevention to take place. If BP calls for any more of your attention simply and in fact I don’t entertain it… Instead one should aim your spot light at other organs…and other body parts that are healthy...
 

        Problems will call for your Attention from time to time. The trick is to know when to turn the spotlight away from them and to something good. There is merit in the old adage after all who says… “Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional”.




4 comments:

Saru Singhal said...

This is my favorite line from the post,The trouble is we almost always train our spot light on what’s wrong in our life, while keeping everything that’s not wrong in the dark…' We need to admire all beauties in life. And, in punjbai they say, Nanak dhukiya sab sansar which means everyone has some problem. But we must concentrate on living life with zest. Again, a great post!


Saru

Atanu Chatterjee said...

Many thanks Saru,

You are the favorite visitor to my posts:)

Honestly wish to follow,
Come Again.. - Atanu Chatterjee

Atanu Chatterjee said...

Nice Ashwini!
Simple & faithful commitment. Hope ur enrichment..

Stay 'Attentive', bcoz "One of the chief functions of the physical mind is to doubt"..

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