Living on autopilot is like being in airplane mode on your phone. Once it's on, you lose your sense of interconnectedness. By toggling awareness on, you restore connection and open up the full experience life offers.
Curious
Airplane mode:
A few weeks back, I sat on the step of the greenhouse in the corner of our garden, enjoying the evening sun. My phone was inside which meant I was looking up, not down.
Five feet from me, out of a glossy black pot, stood a three-foot-tall lollipop-shaped privet shrub. I’ve passed this plant countless times, but it captured my attention this evening. Previously, if you had asked me to describe its features, I’d have given you a surface-level response like “It’s a small shrub shaped like a lollipop.”
But when I settled my attention upon it, I realised how much detail I was missing, like the intricate spider web stretching from the pot to the underhanging branch. Various shades of green and yellow formed a unique pattern on each leaf. Lesions on the thin layer of bark revealed themselves. I noticed what felt like endless offshoots of mini stems on each branch and that’s when a sudden realisation occurred:
The more I pay attention, the more I realise how much I haven’t paid attention.
My realisation had far less to do with the privet shrub and much more with life in the status quo mode of autopilot.
In autopilot mode, you skim through life as if flicking through a magazine, experiencing it in a shallow fashion. Like a phone in airplane mode, you can still access some features but the full range of possibilities is limited.
All it takes is a subtle shift of attention to unlock the infinite depth of experience right before you, and it starts with a small act of curiosity. Better yet, it gives you a taste of your essential nature.
Conscious
The flashlight:
“The source of attention is awareness, but the destiny of attention is always an object.”
- Rupert Spira, What Is the Relationship Between Awareness and Attention?
Let’s say you’re on a flight. It’s night, the lights are off. Your wireless earbuds fall out as you awkwardly rest your head against the window cover. You see them dash under the chair in front of you, but you’ve lost sight of their landing place, so you take your phone out and turn the flashlight on.
The flashlight (awareness) directs its rays of light (attention) away from itself, towards the earbuds (thoughts, feelings, physical objects) for them to be illuminated. But if the flashlight wants to illuminate itself, what would it have to do? Nothing at all.
Turning your attention toward an object, as I did with the plant, can be a helpful step in feeling more at ease and grounded, but it is still a mind activity. Like the flashlight not having to do anything to illuminate itself, being aware is simply being as you are.
Change
Do not disturb:
What put me off meditation was the misleading notion that the goal is to reach a state where all thoughts have ceased, but it is this exact fallacy which will maintain being at peace as a fleeting illusion to be pursued but never attained.
When your phone is on do not disturb mode does it mean the phone stops receiving messages and notifications? Of course not.
Life goes on, and notifications (thoughts, emotions) still appear on your home screen, but rather than be disturbed or get involved, you allow them to be, observing them come in and go again without feeling the need to respond.
It’s a subtle shift but one that can significantly impact your ability to navigate daily life without getting caught up in the chaos.
After you read Tania’s LVN Story below, I encourage you to take one minute to observe your physical surroundings. Perhaps even choose one object. You don't have to label what you observe, just be aware of it.
Live Free,
Niall
If you enjoyed this edition, please click on the heart at the bottom or the top of this email ❤️. It helps readers discover Live Free.
Leave a review here.
Check out Ebb & Flow. AOTTW #016
LVN Stories
LVN (livin’): described as a feeling of aliveness, freedom, fulfilment, or joy.
Turning 63,
shares her lessons on what matters most in life.Read more stories here.
If you or someone you know has a story to share, I’d love to hear from you.
Send an email to lvnclubstories@gmail.com.
Again, I'm honored to be included in your LVN Stories. You've written a wonderful analogy about being and noticing! And your essay and my story are serendipitous, as you mentioned. ✨
Thank you for this today, Niall. It is a breath of fresh air after a harrowing week of hostile drivers, volatile conversations, and lots of intensity in the world outside my home.