Clarity is Emergent – A time to attend to what matters!
12th July, 2020
The coast is a place of dynamic equilibrium. Here at the beach certainty and control are simply “ideas”. The shoreline, in continual transition offers space for more fluid social narratives to emerge.
In the race to return to “normal” we forget that this time right now offers potential to really adapt and place compassion at the heart of our decisions.
What was your old normal? Did you value the things that really matter? Were you spending your time on meaningful pursuits? Did your life have true balance? How exactly were you showing up in the World?
I don’t know about you, but I favour seeking an extraordinary life over a normal one… the latter would miss an opportunity to learn and deeply integrate valuable lessons from the past few months.
Clarity is something that evolves as we pay attention… this is an awakening and who knows the ripple of effect of the choices we are about to make. Best ensure they are wise ones!
So where is your attention right now?
At our best we are clearly attentive, engaged and navigating life from a place of collective kindness.
At worst, we can walk around half conscious moving from Peaks of Outrage (which I fondly refer to as POO) to Depths of Despair. this is partially prompted but the fact that we are lacking in practice or fail to develop the resources to pay attention, so we become “caught off guard” as it were… Not that I advocate being “guarded” or “on guard”… but awareness is certainly useful!
The “sciency” name for some of this I am told by y good friend J is called the Issue Attention Cycle – It is an old idea named in 1972 before I was born – and yet it is still so relevant!
… and you may have experienced it before and recently.
Let’s take marine litter as an example (why not) since a regular occurrence on the local coastline for me following a Spring tide is the community in uproar as the “plastic gets washed in”. Of course if we are consistently attentive we will know in a dynamic seascape the plastic is simply being dispersed.
Alarm – Realisation of impact and costs – Decline of interest – A new issue arises
Much like the post lockdown outrage of litter on our beaches… a contrast from the previous months… but… not NEW… it seeks to simply remind us that we failed to maintain enough interest and compassion and that systemically and socially we have work to do!
Disparity and Displacement are all around us – as are Beauty and Cohesion… it isn’t about arising to the alarm (that is part of it of course)… it is about how we remain aware and active… and build upon our awakening from a place of LOVE.
I was asked to join my friend the fabulous Joey from Horizon Inspired as part of a series of discussions for her meditation course… (check our her site – she is fab). We chatted about… attention… Paying attention is a key component of Blue Health Coaching… If you would like to begin to develop your resources to increase your clarity… paying attention is a great place to start – the informal video in this post can help and if your would like to discovery Blue Health Coaching join us for a FREE Zoom Call
