I am meeting weekly with my friend to set our weekly goals and name our wins for the week. We also name where we know our choices did not align with our stated intentions. It is beneficial to know that each week I will have a conversation about how my choices support or sabotage my desires for change in my mind, body, and soul.
Last week I said I wanted to be more attentive to how I felt when eating. I have never paid much attention to that and yet know that I have sensitivities to some foods and I would like to identify which foods affect me in which ways.
Being attentive has been a fascinating process. I am learning things about how my body responds and feels, about when my energy is high or low and feeling the impact of going diet coke and sugar-free this week.
To be attentive to something specific is a very deliberate process. Often I move through the day aware of so much but being genuinely attentive to nothing. I enjoy the nights I am working at The Journey Christian Counseling Center because I feel fully attentive to one person. But to choose to be fully attentive to something in my own body takes even more discipline. I now believe that to tune all my senses inward after eating to identify how I feel is much more than a one-week goal. I think I have tapped into yet another journey of a lifetime.
I am recognizing that the attentiveness is bringing awareness and the awareness is shaping my choices as I consider new information. I used to think this was an act of discipline, I now believe it is an act of kindness towards myself.
I wonder what it is that you would like to be attentive to. Is there something within your own journey or is there a person who would benefit from your attentiveness. How do our phones, TV’s, Netflix, computers, Ipads, (name your vice) deter us from being attentive to people or spaces that are important to us?
There are so many areas to grow. Consider naming one area you would like to be more attentive and approach it with kindness and curiosity!
Amazing insight, dear friend. I know what I need to be attentive to and will share with you in person sometime.
Thank you for sharing your gift of writing and reflection.