Paying attention to Thoughts, Words, Actions – as published in the Rocky Mountain Outlook, May 6, 2021
A year ago, I offered a “Gratitude Goes Live” online series via Zoom. The goal was to connect people to each other and find reasons to be grateful, even when COVID was separating us from our usual routines.
On Day 1 of the first and each subsequent series, I challenged participants to simply start paying attention. Last Spring, gratitude participants were loving our natural landscapes. Birds, gardening pleasures and the fine feeling that accompanies a morning cup of coffee were some of things people were savouring. By taking time to notice the good, people also gained awareness of the things that were clouding their days.
Fast forward thirteen months and with new information, new understanding, new COVID challenges, and renewed urgency, we are being further pushed to adopt habits that place the well-being of the collective ahead of our own plans and wishes. COVID is clearly telling us that our social habits, our current rules of engagement, our usual planning priorities need some serious recalibrations.
The unimaginable realities facing the loved ones lying in hospital or working in an ICU ward in Calgary are directly correlated to our social patterns of activity that have not changed. The unimaginable circumstances facing the patients, health care workers, families and communities in India will only improve if we can collectively build new patterns for distribution of vaccine and oxygen in special tanks.
A habit is a pattern of thought or response that drives action. We hear a piece of news, are given instructions or have a conversation and we respond, mostly in our usual way. The cue or trigger may mean we reach for a piece of chocolate or glass of wine or our cell phone. Habits seldom require much thought, unless there is a disruption or a disturbance – like COVID, like loss, like unexpected news that forces us to stop, pay close attention and start seeing the world differently.
About eight years ago, I attended an evening talk at one of Banff’s sportwear stores. I was in the audience because at the end of the program, I would be called forward to accept a cheque. I was working for the local community foundation, the charity-of-choice named because a new community habit was forming. As a new way of doing business, a portion of retails sales was being reinvested for the benefit of community groups.
The speaker was a highly accomplished mountaineer who told a tale of adversity, adventure, physical achievement and passion. Dressed in a fleece jacket and climbing sandals, he showed images that highlighted the beauty and aesthetics of his mystical destination, Shangri-la. Images of blue skies, prayer flags, high caves accompanied the images of lined hands of people who lived a much simpler lifestyle, counterpointing our local levels of economic prosperity.
Then, the speaker read the words on his final slide, attributed to Lao Tzu:
Watch your thoughts, they become your words.
Watch your words, they become your actions.
Watch your actions, they become your habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
I sat quietly and paused as the program ended. The sequence of thoughts to words to actions to habits to destiny remained with me. Developing new habits starts with your frame of mind. Looking for gratitude in times of COVID or climbing mountains in adverse conditions requires the first same first step – to see ourselves in context of the our shared destiny and then start paying attention.
From Alberta to Gujarat, new habits of mind can make a significant difference. By pausing to take inventory of our beliefs, emotions, attitudes and thoughts, we have a chance to influence our goals and our ultimate destination. Gratitude can help us realize that getting to Shangri-la is a much longer process of thoughts, habits, actions and reactions. The idea? That is an excellent first step.
