Coming Back to Now: Part 3

Like we promised, here are the benefits of paying attention: 

What Are the Benefits of Paying Attention?

Paying closer attention to your life enhances your understanding, emotional control, compassion, performance, and effectiveness. Let’s look at some specific benefits linked to becoming more attentive. 

As you read about each scenario below, please consider how each affects your personal life situation and whether you need more practice in a certain area. Mindfulness is powerful and can help you get inside of yourself whenever you want, instantaneously.

Deeper self-knowledge

Psych Central asserts that your future happiness depends mainly on how well you know yourself. Only you know what lies at the most profound levels. Paying attention to yourself, your inner motivations, and what makes you tick is hugely beneficial in all areas of life.

Use the power of your consciousness to explore how your body and brain are connected. Contact yourself on a primal level and explore your innermost needs, wants, and feelings. Knowing yourself on such a deep, intimate level is a wonderful feeling.

Focusing on your body and asking yourself how you genuinely feel, physically and emotionally, helps to keep you grounded. It links your real-time thoughts with your true self, commanding you to join in the present moment, instantaneously increasing your strength and presence.

Enhanced decision-making abilities

Paying attention and staying grounded in connection with yourself allows you to tap into your primordial knowledge base of what you like, love, feel happy about, or dread. Deep inside, you already know what feels right for you.

Being attentive to your emotional responses to external stimuli educates your brain and empowers you to make the best choices to advance in life.

You will not be as vulnerable to what other people are thinking while simultaneously respecting their thoughts and opinions. You just won't rely on what others want for you as much as you want for yourself.

Richer connections with other people

When you are mindful of yourself, other people, and your general surroundings, you will be more consciously aware of your thoughts and feelings at all times. This makes you more accessible to other people because you will not repress them, ignore them, or wall them off.

When you pay closer attention to life, other people will recognize that quality in you. People are intuitive. If you are not being your true self, others can perceive that and, unfortunately, judge you accordingly. They may not even know they're doing it.

Conversely, people will also perceive that when you are in touch with your authentic inner self. 

They will recognize you as a confident, thoughtful person who offers truth and a genuine spirit of nonjudgmental friendship. They will be more willing to open up to you, encouraging more meaningful, mutually beneficial relationships.

Better physical and mental health

Staying attentively in touch with your emotions enhances your mental health and makes you more physically healthy. Emotions have their own energy and weight. Expressing emotions like anger, disgust, and hatred can weigh you down, while expressing love, joy, and gratitude makes you lighter.

Paying attention to your physical body, emotions, and thoughts will help you stay more directed in all areas of your life. Attention will energize you instead of making you feel like you're carrying a wet blanket on the top of your head. You will experience more confidence, self-worth, and validity.

Recognizing how important you are, too

When we pay closer attention to ourselves and those around us, we grow as individuals, developing a greater understanding of universal interconnections. This is a very powerful vehicle for staying in better touch with ourselves and others.

However, it also helps us not to overvalue others while undervaluing ourselves. We become aware that we are just as important as everyone else.

When you realize your importance, it helps you trust your gut more and understand yourself. You will know that you are very meaningful on a deep level. As a result, you will begin to protect your health more. 

You will bring unprocessed feelings to the surface and deal with them, which in turn can reduce physical maladies, including high blood pressure (hypertension), overeating, heart disease, diabetes, back pain, insomnia, and much more.

Trusting yourself more will also make you more attentive to the emotional needs of others. It will help you to break the boundaries between yourself and others so that you can help them more. 

You will begin making your decisions based on what you trust inside of your gut instead of the opinions of others.

You will fine-tune your powers with continued practice, recognizing even more profound benefits. You'll make better decisions, understand your feelings better, remain grounded, show more compassion, and generally enjoy a more enlivened and enriched life.

This is all well and good. But how do we pay attention? How do we do it better?

Join us next time, and we will dive right in. 

Peace, Love, Happiness.

Jason and Tim