“The more we learn to detach ourselves from our own attention, the easier it becomes to reach an aspect of our consciousness where our true source of freedom lies. And I’m talking about the Divine Presence within us. Or, as a phrase from A Course in Miracles says, ‘Father, my freedom is in You alone.'”
(Transcript / Excerpt from TT Mindfulness™; Become a Certified Mindfulness Coach)
Welcome to training session #22. Today we’re going to talk about the Active Monitoring method. Compared to the Active Focus method, which belongs to “focused attention” practices, Active Monitoring can be classified as a practice of “open awareness.”
The main goal of Active Monitoring is to achieve greater detachment not only from your thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations but also FROM YOUR ATTENTION ITSELF.
Let’s look at the method from this perspective.
Attention is a currency that connects you to the world you live in. If our planet were a sophisticated digital metaverse, your attention would be the main currency for participation. Of course, I’m speaking metaphorically here. But the point is that without your attention to anything in this world, you can’t experience anything. Also, the way you pay attention to something determines how you experience it.
I mentioned earlier that with Active Monitoring, you get a greater DETACHMENT not only of your thoughts, emotions, and body sensations but also FROM YOUR ATTENTION ITSELF.
And why is this so important?
First, suppose you learn to explore your attention from an objective perspective, as we do in Active Monitoring. In this case, you get a DIRECT INSIGHT, and it becomes easier to manage it in your daily life. This way, you can explore your attention directly and learn more about how it works in relation to everything that happens inside and outside of you.
Second, the more you learn to observe your attention directly, as we do in Active Monitoring, the more you become aware of a part of your consciousness we call the Observer. When you understand this aspect of yourself, you’ll find it easier to distinguish the real you from the artificial role you play in your everyday life. From this perspective, it’ll be easier for you to make the changes you want at the level of your personality.
And third, learning to detach from your attention enables you to do what I like to call BRIEF DAILY RESETS. I’m talking about those brief moments when you just want to turn away from the external world and experience the Divine within yourself without using your thoughts, your willpower, or anything else that requires your attention. And I’m not talking about going somewhere where you’re alone and where no one can interrupt you. I’m talking about the state of mind where we intentionally disconnect from our attention for a short period of time. And when we disconnect from our attention, the Divine Presence is the only thing that remains as our reality.
We’re used to hearing that our thoughts and feelings are like clouds in the sky that we can watch and not interfere with. And I agree with that. But with the right training, we can also observe how our attention skips around our thoughts, emotions, and anything that comes to the doors of our conscious mind. And this experience enriches us with an additional sense of inner freedom because true freedom exists only beyond our attention. Our attention allows us to live, create and experience this earthly reality, or as we call it, the 3D reality. Still, the true source of our freedom lies outside of it. Of course, I’m not suggesting that we should leave this earthly reality. Why should we do that? On the soul level, we have chosen to come here to play this game. But in order to make this game of life feel more real, this 3D reality is constantly trying to make us believe that it contains everything we really need. It tries to convince us that it can give us the sense of freedom we need – only if we meet certain conditions, of course, that are impossible to meet. But the more we learn to detach ourselves from our own attention, the easier it becomes to reach an aspect of our consciousness where our true source of freedom lies. And I’m talking about the Divine Presence within us. Or, as a phrase from A Course in Miracles says, “Father, my freedom is in You alone.”
I hope that motivates you enough to explore this method, so let’s dive in.
(Transcript / Excerpt from TT Mindfulness™; Become a Certified Mindfulness Coach)
© Tomislav Tomic – 2022. All rights reserved.
