Gift of Attention

“There is no joy greater than the Joy of Giving”
Recently I came across the above statement in some flyer. Some more pondering on the statement left me in dilemma as to what can I give to someone that is worthy. When I look around to people in my life like friends, family and colleagues, I find no special attribute I can gift them that is as valuable and value add to them.
The thought trail took me to a TED talk I came across few days back. Joseph Gordan-Levitt delivered the talk where he talked about social media attention and its impact on someone‘s creativity. Other than the main context of the talk, what struck out was the importance of attention in our lives.
Our attention is our biggest asset and it is significant on where we focus our attention. Other way round getting someone’s attention can turn out to be a big boost for someone looking for concerned receiver and genuine guide. By deciding to give our attention to someone, we choose to share a part of our life with the person. There can be nothing greater we can offer to someone that a part of our lives.
When a mother decides to give all her attention to her child, she picks the child above her, own other ventures. When a teacher decides to attend to her pupil’s inquisitiveness, she prefers their growth above other things.
So next time when you are selecting for best thing to give someone; choose your attention for them. In-fact it is a win-win situation for us, while in a shared relation with someone we also get to learn lot from the other person. Focusing our attention away from ourselves and on life around enriches us in many ways. We can see the ways of life and learn from it.
With the social and family life becoming nuclear, we have lesser intrinsic connects left. Each one of are going through our own struggles and keep a lot inside us. This at times tends to suffocation and pressure. In such times, we need someone who can just help us to bring out the heaviness and breath. On one hand when we should be aware and proactive to offer our attention to the people around us. We also need to be sure that we can always ask someone for his or her attention. It is as much our right and we can always demand for it.
As we advance to the New Year or rather new decade in our lives, let us choose to share our attention.
Let us create a web of attentive ears and accessible hearts when no one feels deprived of concerned listener and advisor in need of sharing.

Referenced Ted talk link. Joseph Gordon-Levitt: How craving attention makes you less creative
https://go.ted.com/CPNm