Sabbath for Attention

Sunday is my day to be quiet (at least for a while), with the spirit, in contemplation and prayer, and in community with nature and other bipeds.

The sabbath is a celebration, a holiday. I keep it holy with my attitude: I don't rush, complain, or worry. Everything I do has a flavor of peace. I schedule some work, but it's work I find fulfilling, or uplifting. Simple is a great word to describe my ideal activities for the sabbath: Simple tasks, simple foods, and an undemanding schedule.

And then - on the road again!

Agenda:

1. Read "Your Heart Was Made for This"

2. Journal challenges and needs

3. Nurturing my intentions

4. Expressing Needs in the World

1. Read "Your Heart Was Made for This":

I just began this book by Oren Jay Sofer (2023), with the subtitle, "Contemplative Practices for Meeting a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity, and Love". It has 26 short chapters on innate qualities we each have, that we can cultivate and develop as inner and external expression, meant to be read and practiced in order, one each 1-2 weeks.

Part One explores six core qualities, starting with Attention. He compares it to seeds - we want to weed out the harmful qualities that sprout, and cultivate the healthy ones, by giving them attention.

"Wise attention gives us the capacity to to choose where we focus. ... Where we put our attention waters seeds in the heart-mind and shapes our ongoing reality."

"On the collective level, directing attention can reframe a narrative, garner support, and mobilize resources."

He describes a contemplative practice to reclaim my attention, meditating on breath or sound as an anchor, to practice noticing my attention wandering and bringing it back: "This mental action ... strengthens your capacity to pay attention and develops ... patience, kindness, and concentration."

I can begin by tracking how I'm living: 

• the state present in my heart-mind throughout the day - give attention to healthy and nourishing thoughts.
• how I spend my time - give attention to nourishing activities such as walking in nature and talking to friends rather that phone games.

Reflect: I get the idea that I might try to meditate each mid-day, in the chaos of my life, just sitting and drawing my attention to the people around me for 5 minutes, fully present, letting thoughts and plans recede, connecting with the sounds around me - that might be a good antidote to distracting myself with phone games, or going inside my head so much.

Take action: Embody wise attention in order to nourish my heart and mind. I might choose a theme for the day to give attention to.

2. Journal challenges and needs:

My theme this month is depth and discernment. The challenge to awareness is ignorance and confusion. If I'm uninformed or mystified, I cannot be truly conscious or aware of my path. Practice centering, and seeing clearly.

What are my most important reasons for living? What are my priorities? What would my best life look like? What actions give me the feeling of a meaningful life, and best support my beliefs and values? 

If there were no barriers to what I could do in life, what new work would I undertake that would bring me personal fulfillment?

What potential challenges and obstacles do I face this week and month (things I don’t enjoy, don’t know how to approach, or feel blocked on)? How can I best meet these challenges?

What do I need (tools, information, allies) to help me on my path?

From my journal: I'm in the depths of a passion project, a creative obsession with writing articles outside my current knowledge; I need to swim deep and immerse myself in information and experience to get a better handle on what it is I need to write, and the best way to frame the information so as to coax readers into a positive and active response - challenging but not off-putting. It's scary and meaningful, and thrilling. I need to give attention to this week's topic (climate change activism), do meaningful research, clarifying discussion, and write my heart out. 

3. Nurturing my intentions:

During the waxing crescent moon I'm in a yin phase of growth, planting my intentions and caring for them. Today I will look at again at the intentions I set at the New Moon, and plan a symbolic way to care for each one:

1. Practice anger management: Make a daily entry in my Anger Journal, and continue to work through my Anger Book to learn more skills.
2. Practice transformative habits: This week, work at discerning my truth, anchoring my everyday actions to my core values. 
3. Act persistently on my priorities, and finish things I start: This week, finish a hat, cross-stitch, some butterflies, ECEF endorsement project, and a climate activism article.  

4. Expressing Needs in the World:

On Sundays I often go through this Ongo practice to define the Needs I want to express: 

1. Sit for a couple minutes and then invite in three questions, and write the answers in my journal:

• "If I knew this was the last week of my life, what is one Need or quality of life I'd like to be or express more fully?" 
• "What's one quality of life I'd like to contribute more to one of my relationships?"
• "Whats one quality of life I'd like to contribute more to my community?" 

2. Consider each of these Needs, one at a time, and feel the surge of this energy in my body. 

3. Invite myself to take one action each day this week to express the energy of one of these Needs, or bring it alive in my relationships. Be sure it's done in the spirit of invitation, not demand, and that it is specific and doable.

4. After doing the action, be sure to take a minute to visualize the happiness or fulfillment I experience, and extend it out to all beings.

The Needs that come to me today are Self-Expression, Reassurance, and Aspiration. After sitting with the energy of these, I've listed some ideas for action:

• Self-Expression: Speaking thoughtfully; Write and post an inspiring article; Make Butterly info hangers.  
• Reassurance: Share my love and assurances.
• Aspiration: Offer my hopeful higher intentions.