When remembering to notice that we're alive becomes a habit, we begin to erode the internal friction that obscures our view of the richness we're swimming in every day.

Any perception you can observe directly in real time can be used to train a variety of attention-related skills.

I like to make a game out of turning ordinary activities into opportunities for practice.

There are a number of exercises I use when watching a film — whether it’s one I enjoy, dislike, or have seen before.  

We look at the world once, in childhood.
The rest is memory.

Louise Glück

"Although emotional sensations can arise anywhere in the body, they are much more likely to arise in the belly, chest, throat, or face. These are the emotional hotspots in the body, the regions where emotional sensations can get huge. That means that other areas are much less likely to host gigantic emotional sensations, which turns out to be a useful and convenient thing."

Michael Taft

yù yī - 玉衣

n. the desire to see with fresh eyes, and feel things just as intensely as you did when you were younger—before expectations, before memory, before words.

It seems like stepping outside for a walk should be enough to clear our minds, but when we head outdoors, our attention tends to stay anchored in our heads. What we need is a practical focus strategy and more realistic expectations about how our minds respond to such a challenge.

When you catch yourself absorbed by some immediate aspect of your environment, try to yield to the observation fully for a few seconds.

I swoon and recoil at the tresses blowing
in an arbor without glow
or flame. These are reprieves. Respites
in the demands of sensation
and flow. Know this: you can you can
you can you can you can.

~ Margot Schilpp

“Just because you've looked at something doesn't mean you've seen it.”

Jennifer Robers

“People don't understand that the hardest thing is to actually do something which is close to nothing. It demands all of you because there's no story to hide behind."

Marina Abramovic

Try pausing right before
and right after 
undertaking a new action

Brother David Steindl-Rast

“Every known visual system depends on movement: we see things either because they move or because our eyes do.”

Susana Martinez-Conde

“The eye exists to detect movement. Any image, perfectly stabilized on the retina, vanishes. Our eyes cannot see stationary objects, and must tremble constantly to bring them into view.”

Simon Ings