The
Red Thread
“My
attention is like that golden thread. It designates a way out of
driving ambition, lackadaisical boredom or any other state in which I
am lost to myself-as-I-am. I try to tug at it often in the middle of
the daily labyrinth of my life, but I can never hold on to it for
long. Again and again, I lose it, even when I take it up
purposefully.”
Patty
de Llosa (Ariadne's Thread; Parabola, Fall 2015)
Patty
de Llosa uses the myth of Ariadne's Thread as a metaphor for
mindfulness. In the myth, Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, falls in
love with Theseus, a Greek youth destined to be sacrificed to the
Minotaur in the labyrinth on Crete. Ariadne gives him a ball of red
thread to mark his way through the maze, kill the Minotaur, and then
find his way back out. Their scheme works, and Ariadne is able to escape the confines of a dictatorial father and the isolation of Crete
with Theseus' help.
Attention
is a powerful thing. It allows us to focus, and put aside distractions
so we come to the present moment fully conscious. We Westerners tend
to lose concentration on any one thing in under a minute. I blame our
increasing inclination to multi-task, but that's another story.
Suffice it to say that we live most of our minutes and hours in the
past, in the future, or otherwise engaged in observation of things
(think technology here) that take us away from ourselves.
Keeping
our attention in the present moment so as not to lose 'the red
thread' is a challenge, especially when we are confronted by a
Minotaur, an angry boss, or the latest crisis in the news. We easily
drop into no man's land, where our focus becomes diffused. That means
that we are not fully present in that moment; we are not bringing the
power of our attention to whatever we are doing. This is how
accidents happen, how mistakes are made, and when we think back on
our day, we sometimes do not even remember what we did. That's a day
lost.
Training
ourselves to be in the moment, to keep our attention with ourselves,
takes time. It can start with very simple exercises. Take one
typical activity like eating; note the time when you sit down with
your food. Focus on the presentation, the aroma, the taste, the act
of chewing and swallowing. Notice the textures and colors of your
food, and pay attention to the pleasant individual flavors. See how
long you can stay with just the act of eating before your mind
wanders. As soon as it does, check the time again. Each day, try to
extend the length of time you focus on one thing.
When
we are fully present, we bring everything we have to a task, or to a
person. We have more to offer both. And, we will have better recall
even after we move on to the next task. We will remember this day,
not lose it.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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