dailydatewithgod

Taking into consideration how much information we have coming at us we can be grateful at the interference run by our minds.  The interference filters out from our awareness all that we are familiar with and have a space for in our minds.  It pulls up the programming needed to handle the information and situations all in an effort to conserve energy and keep us alive. Clearly an invaluable system.  The down side of this effective interference so we can survive is the tendency to take life for granted.  We assume we know what is happening and what will happen because we are operating on past validated experiences.  We do not see the value of the face of our friend because we are familiar with it.  We could miss a particular nuance in it on a particular day because we do not stop to actually look at him or her.  Changes in ourselves can even go unnoticed because we don’t stop to pay attention to what is actually looking back at us in the mirror.  This is why we often have a different image of ourselves in our mind than the one we see in pictures of us.  So how do we appreciate the benefits of our mind’s interference while still being present in our lives?  On my daily dates with God I have learned the practice of daily gratitude seems to flip the switch.  Somehow by making note of all the seemingly obvious or trivial pieces of information about my reality and seeing them as something for which to be grateful, I notice them more often. I have a practice of writing a gratitude list each night before going to bed.  The challenge is to list things I have not listed yet.  Over time I realize I have a lot to be grateful for. I laugh when I see myself writing gratitude for fingernails, windows, or keyboards.  On any given day I do not even notice or feel my fingernails, realize I am looking through window or appreciate how my keyboard smoothly allows me to send communication through a computer. I do not notice until I pause to contemplate on all the myriad of things I may be taking for granted or not be aware of at all on any given day. I think today I will add my brain’s capability of interference of information coming in to keep me alive and alert to things that may impact my survival to my daily gratitude list.