I remember the first time I experienced the calming effects of undivided attention, and I was nowhere near a yoga mat when it happened. Backpacking across Europe as a fresh college graduate, my friends and I were enthralled with the Deruta style of ceramics we saw all over Italy. We decided in Florence to each purchase a piece as a gift for our mothers, and I picked out a small vase with red flowers and yellow and blue swirly vines. My friends had already wandered outside, and, it being the prehistoric year of 1988, I had no smart phone to while away the whole three minutes it took the shop clerk to wrap it up.
Instead, I simply watched her work. The white tissue paper rustled gently, softening the edges of the vase, and the clerk's delicate fingers mirrored the delicate swirls on the pottery. She worked slowly, with a smile, and her ease and care for the task drew me deeper and deeper into the moment, with each fold and tuck of the tissue accompanying a new, easeful breath that evoked a tingly calm throughout my being.
I think often about those simple yet sublime moments near the Piazza della Signoria. In the time since, having logged hours and years in yoga and meditation practice, I now recognize the experience as awareness waking up to its full potential for expansive wonder, a lesson in how paying full attention is fundamental to mindfulness. It anchors us in the moment, it helps our nervous system distinguish between real and imagined threat, and it orients us to the realm where the breath is most available.
It's not the sort of attention we pay when we stare in the mirror for a daily invoice of our imperfections, or when we replay regrettable moments on auto-repeat, or drift into the mindless diversion of social media. It's the sort of wise attention that allows us to penetrate the moment beneath the places where ego colors it, or fear latches on, or an absence of faith dismisses the possibility for awe.
You don't need to travel to Italy, or banish your smartphone to practice the skill of full attention. A walk in nature, a snuggle with your pet, a listen to music, or a mind-body-breath focused yoga class might just do the trick.
~ Annie Moyer