Because the media have become so wedded to describing the next catastrophe, and because the world is facing so many challenges at present, it’s more important than ever to be mindful of where we focus our attention and awareness.  I’ve written before about how our focus of attention is like the dial on a radio.  We have moment-to-moment choices about what we want to tune into.  We can choose something that calms or inspires us, or we can choose something that frightens and activates us.  Or, we can choose to experience what comes our way as a gift or a burden.

I was recently at a residential center where some elderly people were eating their dinner.  One woman ended her meal – which she barely touched – with the comment that the food was “garbage” and she didn’t know how anyone could eat it.  She lives at this center, and has every meal of the day there, so I was struck by her experience of the food as garbage.  A woman sitting near her mentioned that it hurt her heart each time she heard the comment about the food being “garbage,” as so many people in the world are hungry and would give anything for that food.  We got to talking about gratitude and about the choice of experiencing things as a gift or as a burden, and that it’s a matter of perspective as to how we interpret what’s happening to us.  I, too, felt sad for the woman who, at every meal, found herself disappointed and angry that the food wasn’t of the quality she wanted.  Each meal reinforced for her that she wasn’t getting what she needed or wanted; each meal also became the source of one more experience of feeling deprived.

And so, for this week’s experiment, I’d like to return to a practice I’ve written about many times – focusing on what’s going right in your life and in your world.  Remember, a glass that’s filled halfway with water is both half-full and half-empty.  How we experience that water is up to us.  We can feel gratitude that we have water to drink or we can feel disappointed and angry that we don’t have a full glass. 

As you explore this week’s experiment, I want to invite you to pay particular attention to how your body responds to your choices.  Notice your sensations as you respond or react to what comes your way.  When you move into an experience with a “glass-half-full” attitude, what do you experience in your body and what’s the quality of your state of mind?  When you find yourself feeling that something is “glass-half-empty”, what happens in your body and what’s the quality of your state of mind?  Also, pay attention to how you experience the rest of what comes your way when you choose either the half-full or half-empty perspective.

Remember, both the half-full and half-empty points of view are true.  The key is which one you choose to have as your companion along the way.  For me, we can’t return to this practice enough, as it has so much to do with how we see the rest of the world and interpret our ongoing experiences.  Please remember that the point of these experiments isn’t to do them “correctly.”  They are offered as a way to allow you another opportunity to live consciously and to be aware of the moment-to-moment choices you make that generate your quality of life along the way.