#6 Awareness

     Our ability to keep our attention focused on one person or one activity, for more than a few seconds, is minimal, and may be deteriorating.

     When busy with multiple commitments and deadlines, we typically only pay partial attention to the person or task at hand. A sizable portion of our attention is on what happened in the past, and what may happen later. The internet, emails, smartphones etc just compound our "continuous partial attention." (Ellen Rose's article - free pdf: http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/antistasis/issue/view/1390)

     This way of being short-changes the person or task we're with, is very inefficient, error-prone, stressful, and makes us feel phony. We only feel authentic and truly happy when we're fully present. (Killingsworth MA, Gilbert DT. A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science 2010; 330(6006): 932)

     Mindfulness practice can help stabilize our awareness, our ability to be fully present, authentic and happy.

Illustration: Canadian Medical Association Journal