I have no idea why I chose 21 as the number of benefits of Attention Training to outline here. The truth is, the benefits are countless but I had to stop somewhere. Many of the benefits listed below are immediate. Many benefits overlap and feed off of one another. Some benefits lead to or cause others. Some benefits are the result of long term practice, realized only when Attention Training becomes the ground of your existence.
Lack of focus?
Poor concentation?
A non-stop busy mind?
Attention Training is the answer.
Information overload?
Multitasking mania?
Chronically attention deficient?
Attention Training is the key.
Poor productivity?
Lack of efficiency?
In need of clarity, vision and creative thought?
Attention Training is the solution.
Has your life become dull, repetative, mechanical?
Do you spend much of your day on auto-pilot?
Do you perform many of your tasks in a robotic manner?
Attention Training is the cure.
Yes, as a matter of fact Attention Training IS the one answer, the one key, the one solution, the one cure, and I'm only getting started.
The 21 benefits below are listed from the 'practical and immediate', to the 'beyond practical and long term'. The benefits of Attention Training are greatly expanded upon in my new book Waking Up to Life! The Art and Skill of Awakened Attention.
I would greatly appreciate it if you would share your experience with me, especially any benefits that are not listed below. Enjoy!
1. Decreased Mental Activity: When attention is awake via Attention Training, mental activity is at a minimum and at times non-existent. This means there is less anxiety producing ‘fantasy’, less regret producing ‘memory’, and less stress caused by random negative ’self-talk’ and useless commentary produced by the sleeping attention. When attention is asleep, the unkind mind will cause untold suffering.
2. Improved Mental Capacities: When mental activity decreases due to sustained periods of Attention Training, there is an increase in clarity, concentration, memory, focus and creativity. This is because the cloud of continuous, white-noise like ‘chatter’ is lifted.
3. Increased Emotional Stability: When mental activity decreases due to sustained periods of training attention, emotions settle down and moods stabilize. This is because the body is no longer producing emotions in reaction to unnecessary mental activity (see #1).
4. Increased Contentment: When mental activity decreases due to sustained periods of Attention Training, there is an experience of ‘ok-ness’ or satisfaction in very simple activities. This is because what you call a ‘problem’ is often produced by mental activity. No mental activity = no problem.
5. Enhanced Lightness and Humor: It has been said that, ‘Even our deepest responsibility, is nothing more than a serious form of play’. Attention Training creates immediate spaciousness in your experience, allowing you the ability to keep things in perspective.
6. Enhanced Sensuality: By training your attention you strengthen your sensual connection to the world, helping you to see, hear, feel, smell and taste your experience of life more deeply and fully. A strong sensual connection to the world leads to heightened enjoyment of mundane activities, turning them into an ever-changing kaleidoscope of magical sense impressions.
7. Improved Health: Decreased stress, improved sleep, and an ability to relax are instant benefits of training your attention to be strong, stable and energetic. This is because the body is no longer bombarded with false alarms causing ‘fight or flight’ signals and the accompanying bodily responses (heart disease, high blood pressure, anxiety, migraine headaches, insomnia, depression, etc...).
Contact me to discuss how you can enjoy the profound benefits of Attention Training.
8. Increased Safety: Attention Training means activities such as driving, working, eating and walking are performed with vastly improved conscientiousness and skill, with the result being considerably increased safety. If your attention is not on what you are doing, you are on ‘auto-pilot’. Do you drive a car on auto-pilot? How safe is that?
9. Decreased Habitual Activity: If you are trying to overcome a habit, compulsion or addiction, you have no better tool and friend than Attention Training. This is because Attention Training is the foundation for detachment, and detachment is another name for freedom.
10. Enhanced Sexual Prowess: By training your attention you open the door to a vastly deepened intimacy, especially in sexual occasions. This is because Attention Training leads to the ability to detect your partners subtle rhythms, desires and energies. Many people chuckle about the idea of calling out someone else's name while making love with their partner. This is an amusing example of a lover that is sleep-sexing.
11. Improved Speaking Skills: To be awake and aware while speaking means you are fully embodied while speaking and able to imbue your every word with intensity or lightness, seriousness or humor. Attention Training means that Life is speaking through you, and Life always knows what it's talking about.
12. Decreased Fear of Public Speaking: The #1 reported fear in our society is that of public speaking. In my experience that is because most people speak from their head or mind, which is full of fearful imaginings and a chatty fearful voice. With Attention Training, public speaking becomes an invigorating experience of heartful disclosure and intimate sharing.
13. Improved Listening Skills: Most who attend my seminars admit to being poor listeners, in fact not really listening at all but rather thinking to themselves what their response is going to be when it is their turn to speak. This means they have actually rejected the speaker in favor of their own self-talk and they are no longer in a dialogue, but in fact monologuing with themselves. Through training your attention you develop the capacity to listen with a silent mind and truly hear what is being shared.
14. Enhanced Maturity: One strong sign of maturity is the capacity to contain an emotional experience without acting or speaking from it. This means you can experience your emotions fully and even though you may feel compelled to 'act out' or 'speak out', you have the mature ability to endure your experience without compulsively spilling it out on another human being. Attention Training leads to the skill of detachment, which is maturity par excellence.
Contact me to discuss how you can enjoy the profound benefits of Attention Training.
15. Magnified Pleasure: With the strong, energetic attention that Attention Training provides, simple pleasures can be greatly magnified. Activities such as sitting, breathing, walking, eating and voiding can be found to be deeply rich and enjoyable, far beyond what we normally experience.
16. Enhanced Creativity: By developing a strong, spacious and stable attention you can access the door to the silent and still open space that creativity emerges from. Creative expressions such as great poetry, art and music is seldom the product of the rational, thought based mind. In fact, many of our greatest works of art were created by minds deeply sourced in realms far removed from the rational world.
17. Improved Intuitive Capacities: Intuition can be seen as our capacity to know in a way that does not depend upon the rational mind or thought. This type of knowing is not mediated by the rational mind but is rather a 'felt sense' about something. Attention Training provides that ability to be open and receptive to this type of knowing because the mind is silent and still, providing the space for intuitive knowing to arise.
18. More of your Life is ‘Lived’: When you become firmly established in living life with a strong, stable and energetic attention, you are no longer at risk for what I call ‘Rip Van Winklism’. This means you won’t wake up at the end of your life and wonder where it went. Attention Training leads to beinging present and alert while in the midst of your life, rather than lost in distorted thoughts about your life.
19. Access to your Deeper Wisdom: When you are less reactive due to sustained periods of Attention Training, you will have access to your deeper wisdom that is impossible to access when living in the mind and functioning from thought. This is because your deep wisdom does not come from surface thought, but rather emerges from the silence and stillness that accompany Attention Training.
20. A More Accurate Identity: With a strong, stable and energetic attention you will start to see that who and what you truly are is beyond your thought based busy mind. This means you will start to embody such qualities as mystery, humor, presence, acceptance and wisdom. Your true colors will be magnified by the light of your own strong, stable and spacious attention.
21.The Doorway to Spirituality: The deep wisdom teachings of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Vedanta Hinduism suggest that there is another reality right in front of us. When connected to this reality our inner qualities such as freedom, wisdom and compassion arise. Sadly, this reality is missed because we live in a dream world of our mind where we construct a false identity and live a life of emotional reactivity and fear. Forms of Attention Training lie at the root of these wisdom teachings and are free of any religious dogma or cultural baggage.
Is there a more valuable, life enhancing skill than Attention Training?
Not even close.
Contact me to discuss how you can enjoy the profound benefits of Attention Training.
You'll be glad you did.
Aaron McNaught Education/Consultations
#2, 4917 48th St. Red Deer Alberta T4N 1S8
Call 403-302-2523 or toll free at 1-866-593-3040
www.wakinguptolife.com
aaron@wakinguptolife.com
