Quality of Life

The quality of our awareness determines the quality of our lives.

That may sound like a strange claim; after all, isn’t awareness innate?

The trick (or practice) is to take our lives off autopilot. In other words, to tease apart the process of being aware from the result of that awareness. I like to think of it as behaving like The Director of a movie rather than an actor playing a role.

To do this, we must step back and carefully observe our surroundings and reactions.

Here are two examples:

Raising the window shades in the kitchen at sunrise, I paused to observe the beauty of pink-tinted, twin-towering clouds, a shape I didn’t remember seeing before. Later that morning, on a walk through the neighborhood, I noticed that the color of light was different; it was softer, less strident, more like a pastel drawing than a high-res photo. It signaled that autumn is upon us. 

Choiceful awareness enables us to transcend the boundaries of routine. This can be practiced with each of the five senses.

Here’s an example with sound:

J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations are piano compositions of legendary difficulty. Recently, while listening to a recording of Russian pianist Konstantin Lifschitz’s performance, I focused my complete attention on the notes played by his right hand. After a while, I switched my focus to the left hand. Then, I listened to both hands together. The exercise revealed a previously missed depth to the music.

When we deepen our attention to life, a richness is found that is often overlooked. 

There is an education to seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling, that when pursued, vastly enriches our lives.

In default mode, sense experience is a utility that often goes unnoticed. The same principle applies to knowledge. When we know, there is little incentive to learn. This often occurs with labels and names. When we label something, we stop truly seeing it.

Take a tree, for example. Everyone knows what a tree is. However, upon closer examination, we discover that trees are incredibly complex biological structures. New research reveals that rather than solitary individuals, trees form communities through underground mycelial networks. No two trees are alike. My father could name every tree in the forest, even in the winter, despite the absence of leaves. His awareness of trees was far deeper than mine.  

When an area of interest is pursued for a moment, a day, a week, or even years, an unfolding materializes, revealing a depth of presence that was previously overlooked. This holds true for every facet of life. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche expressed it this way: “The world is deep, and deeper than day can comprehend.” 

The pursuit of depth is the essence of a life well-lived, I find it to be a Spiritual exercise.

True spirituality involves openness, engagement, and connection. A Spiritual person (not to be confused with a religious person, which may or may not be similar) experiences life with greater depth. Meaning derives from the depth of our awareness and the connectivity it fosters.  A life that has lost meaning is a life that has collapsed in on itself. 

To increase meaning, belonging, and joy in our lives, we must pursue depth. This can be practiced throughout the day by pausing and bringing complete attention to one of the five senses. Don’t hurry this process. Take in every detail of taste as if for the first time, pause to notice the color of light as it changes throughout the day, or listen carefully to the sounds of a meadow or forest. 

Doing so demonstrates Nietzsche’s claim.

When we pursue depth, a new quality of life emerges.

Try this daily for a month, and see what happens!

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Former blog posts can be found here by subject category and here chronologically. 

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My first book, Towards A Life Well-Lived, can be purchased by clicking this link. Proceeds from sales are donated to Peace In Schools, a Portland, Oregon-based organization that supports mindfulness training in high schools. 

Stay tuned for my new book, The Secret Within, which I expect to make available in time for the Holidays.