Excerpts from The Book of Testaments

Attention, Here and Now

Have you noticed that when we really set our mind to something, really focus on the achievement of a particular outcome, then that is what we have achieved!

Our minds are powerful instruments aren’t they! In fact we have previously likened the mind to a heat-seeking missile, in that once it has been locked onto a target it is very likely to reach its objective.

Our attention is merely an extension of the mind focused on a particular target and our daily lives present us with a myriad of possibilities. Possibilities that require decisions as, for example, do I take this road or that, do I take this course of action or another?

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Our personal ‘sense of purpose’ is the great driver of our life and is our soul’s principle purpose while we have life in this physical form. It is like a house with many rooms. Each of the rooms in this house, and some of what is contained in each room, can be encapsulated within the following descriptors:

• Physical – our health and energy level
• Mental – our memory and acumen
• Emotional – mastery and awareness
• Relationships – life partner, parents, children
• Business – people, procedures and growth
• Money – income, philanthropy and wealth
• Cultural – ancestry, music and art
• Spiritual – awareness, openness and awakening.




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The five levels of communication

In any communication, at least some of the meaning of the message sent is lost or misinterpreted through the process of decoding and encoding.

This could be as simple as the interpretation of the non-verbal signals that accompany the message sent by the originator and decoded by the receiver. At more enhanced levels this could include our capacity to meet more challenging situations of conflict, negotiation or feedback, and many more.

According to (Poland, 2005, 206-207) there are five levels to communicating effectively, namely:

• Hearing – the physical capacity to hear;
• Listening – the need to demonstrate that we are listening by giving the other person our attention;
• Understanding – demonstrating that we understand the other person’s point of view; 
• Empathising – the ability to identify how the other person is feeling; and 
• Openness – being open to the exploration of a ‘way forward’ from a wider perspective other than our own.

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'Being' rather than 'doing'

Many business or life coaches and professional trainers will give you time management techniques and skills...

...that improve the use of priority lists of tasks that are important and/or urgent and can be constructed into “to do” lists that we can then action and undertake.

However what we must know is that a “to do” list is a means by which we “fill up” the available time we have. No wonder we are all so stressed and tired at the end of a day, we fill each moment with ‘something to do’.

Rather than creating these “to do” lists, let us start each day with a “BE” list. For example, today I will BE:

• Happy
• Peaceful
• Loving
• Compassionate
• Contented

For example: Today I will be Peaceful, Articulate and Compassionate.

Repeat this mantra over and over during the course of the day and watch how our daily tasks become so much more pleasurable. Watch how our mind reacts to all the inputs that the day provides. What a difference it makes.

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