When I was driving to work the other day, my attention was attracted by a story on the radio about how Christmas lights on a vehicle are illegal because they distract and attract too much attention. The reporter said, “The animal in us notices everything that moves.”
Yesterday, when I was distracted by all the activity in the hall outside the group room (which I could see through the glass door), I invited the group members to do a mindfulness exercise where we noticed what attracted our attention and then stayed with that. What attracted my attention was not the activity outside the room, but rather the little ripples in my water bottle that was standing on the table and reflecting the movements in the room. Those ripples totally kept my attention throughout the mindfulness exercise.
What attracts my attention these days includes:
movement,
danger,
anger,
loud noises,
mysteries,
stress,
trauma,
pain,
politics,
faces,
the unexpected,
color,
light, and
the things in these photos:
That giant Santa cookie might have attracted my attention, but I didn’t buy it. However, I did buy some black and white chocolate drizzled popcorn, which attracted my attention way too much last night.
Sometimes you see a card that perfectly captures your experience.
Sometimes you listen to the same damn song over and over again to comfort yourself, like when you’re driving to say goodbye to an old friend.
Hajanga
by Jacob Collier
Everybody, near and far
Come together as you are
To the ocean, to the sky
Sing that cosmic lullaby
Sing the hajanga
Sing your pleasure sing your pain
Like you’ll never sing again
Let it echo, loud and clear
Across the ancient stratosphere
Even when the sun refuse to shine
There’s a song of love that never dies
Even when the good days pass you by
Lift your voices to the sky singin’
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la…
As the words go round and round
Let the tears roll down and down
Sing the way you wish to be
Let that singing set you free
Even when those dark clouds bring you down
There’s a spark of joy that can be found
Even when things break and fall apart
Lift your hands up from your heart, singing
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la…
Said every morning
Every night
Through the darkness
To the light
Like a beacon
Shining bright
Sing the hajanga you’ll be alright
From the winter
Comes the spring
It don’t matter
What life will bring
You can do most anything
So give your hajanga
A song to sing
So tell your mama
Tell your pa
Sing it near and sing it far
Be exactly the way you are
See the hajanga
It’s your guiding star
To every woman
To every man
In every nation
In every land
I said please you’ve gotta understand
Now sing the hajanga
And take my hand, sing it!
Then one day your life is through
Nothing more that you can do
So give away the things you know
And tell your friends you love them so
Tell them hajanga
I let the tears roll down and down, yesterday, as I told Tony‘s friends and family that I loved him so.
Sometimes life sucks and we CAN do a damn thing about it, like telling people we love them so.
Here are all my other damn photos from yesterday:
Sometimes life sucks and we can feel and express gratitude for what we still have, like this blog and YOU.
Yesterday, at a Coping and Healing group where we were practicing reframes, forgiveness, the serenity prayer, acceptance of ourselves and others, and some new perspectives, one of the group members spoke about the concept of practicing happinesss — much like one practices a musical instrument. We practiced that by going around the room and naming specific ways we could practice happiness, starting now.
One of my named ways to practice happiness was listening to music I love.
I’ve also been practicing happiness daily by blogging and by taking the photos I share here at The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally. Can you see any examples of practicing happiness in today’s pictures?
Voila! When you practice happiness, just like when you practice anything else, you get better at it.
I look forward to practicing happiness later by reading comments, below, about how you might practice happiness, here and now.
Practicing happiness includes expressing gratitude, so thanks to all who helped me write this practicing-happiness post and thanks to you, for reading it.
How many people does it take to thank Jacob Collier, good cats, good humans, good cooks, friendly people, people who heal in groups, survivors, and — of course! — YOU?
