Subscribe via RSS‘The process of living is a living process’……Me
No matter how we cut it, human beings are creatures of habit. Mostly, in our routine world, this works for us. When you really think about it, from the standpoint of daily activity and rituals much of what we do is the same day to day. Whether we classify existence as boring or exciting, we remain tied to the stuff of life, unconsciously for the most part. If we’re on automatic pilot, we’re really just along for the ride. If however, we choose Being Observant, every routine can become a new adventure holding new opportunity.
Being Observant is active. As a practice, Being Observant makes for a true approach to life-long learning. This is not necessarily the activity of studying or going to school. It is street-wise learning found in those very same routines alluded to earlier. As we attend to what might be considered, we see newly ‘what could be explored’. With our noticing, new opportunity arises and becomes available.
What if we lived this way daily? What impact would this have on the life we create for ourSelf? What might be possible if we took on noticing as a way of being? If the practice of Being Observant was a discipline developed over time, what possibility would no longer be overlooked? What opportunity would you engage? What difference would it make for ourSelf, with Other, and in our World?
I teach my kids to be observant as often as I can. Being observant is definitely a learned skill, but it’s an important one because by observing others (and oneself!), a person can learn all manner of things about themselves and others, in addition to a multitude of things about the world around them.
I think some of the best practitioners of observation are truly great actors: They watch carefully how others act and react around them, and are able to incorporate that into their craft. If the rest of us watched others carefully, I would say that many of us would not engage in things such as passive-aggressive behavior, start silly arguments over dumb things, and in the long run be far more productive at life.
Being observant and incorporating those observations into one’s life in a positive way undoubtedly can help a person live life more fully, not wasting time mis-communicating or being sad or angry over the most infinitesimal of slights or oversights by others.
‘…by observing others (and oneself!), a person can learn all manner of things about themselves and others’ – Yes!, most definitely
and maybe more importantly by Being Observant and noticing, we discover ideas and even answers that we had never considered
when thinking and moving based on our past versus what is in front of us right now, in our present.
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