Look Beyond What is in Front of You

Most of the time when we walk, we are looking down. We watch the ground directly in front of our feet, scanning the terrain, making sure we do not trip over a rock, step in a hole, or run into a branch. The mind stays focused on the next step, the next task, the next thing that needs to be done.

At the same time, there is usually a stream of noise running in the background.

The sound of cars passing.

The heat of the sun.

The list of things waiting at home.

Problems the mind keeps trying to solve, even when there is nothing to do about them in that moment.

Every once in a while, we look up just long enough to see what is ahead, then the eyes drop back down again, returning to the narrow view directly in front of us. It is a very efficient way to move from one place to another. It is not a very rich way to experience life.

What changes when you choose to look beyond what is immediately in front of you?

Instead of watching only the ground, you begin to notice the ENTIRE space around you.

The sound of birds moving through the trees.

The smell of the earth and leaves under your feet.

The feeling of the air on your skin.

The way the light moves across the ground as the wind shifts the branches.

Your body already knows how to walk the path. Your senses already know how to respond to the world. When attention is not locked onto the next obstacle, beauty becomes visible.

You start to notice the color of the leaves reflecting in the sun.

Small flowers hidden in places you would normally pass without seeing.

The intricate shape of a weed growing through the edge of the trail.

The way the sky changes tone from one moment to the next.

The way the clouds seem to carry a mood of their own.

There is far more happening than the mind usually allows itself to see. In any moment, attention can move in different directions. It can stay focused on problems, tasks, and what comes next. Or it can open to the experience that is already here. Orientation happens in that choice. Every moment, attention moves toward something:

Toward tension or toward ease.

Toward pressure or toward possibility.

Toward what feels lacking, or toward what is ALWAYS present.

When attention opens, the present moment becomes much larger.

There is the feeling of the body moving intuitively in a world that is always giving.

The sounds of life happening all around, that give immense pleasure and joy.

The simple fact of being here, in a world that is constantly in motion, with ease and harmony.

Gratitude appears more easily when attention is not narrowed to what feels incomplete.

Gratitude for waking up.

Gratitude for being able to move.

Gratitude for the things that exist right now, whether they were planned or not.

Possibility becomes easier to see when attention is not fixed on only one outcome. There are always more options than the mind first assumes. More ways to respond. More ways to experience the same moment.

The present shows you that wholeness is your existence. It is full of detail, movement, color, sound, and sensation. Most of the time, the difference is not in what exists. The difference is in what we choose to notice. Orientation is ALWAYS happening.

Attention moves somewhere and creates momentum in that direction, and the world follows. So the experience of being alive becomes richer and INFINITE.