The Power of Noticing

Things, people and the spaces in between

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Ferris Bueller, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

Noticing is something we do all the time. For example, as you read this you may become aware of the fact that you are looking at a screen, and also of the fact that you are reading words. You can also simultaneously become aware of sensations in your hands and feet, and also of noises around you. In order to notice each of these you have to distinguish them from the background, yet you can, with practice, hold all of these things more or less simultaneously in your awareness. It is unlikely, however, that you would have noticed any of these things while reading this unless I had drawn your attention to them.

Most of us easily notice certain things in our professional environment. Cooks and chefs notice bad ingredients more readily than the rest of us (or at least we hope that they do!), accountants notice mistakes with numbers quicker than others and musicians are quick to notice when something sounds off. The rest of us might notice these things too, but the point is that you can be trained to notice things better. The goal of this article is to do this beyond your professional environment, to notice more things, as well as smaller, subtler things. If you achieve this, then you will also become more aware of the opportunities that are forever around you.

The Power of Noticing is important because of our tendency to forget, or to not notice, important things.

Why do we notice things and then forget them?

Why do we notice things but disregard them?

And why do we sometimes not notice things at all?

One answer is that we are often so caught up in our own world that we don’t actually want to notice anything that might disturb the delicate mental or emotional state that we have established for ourselves. We fail to notice things, people and the spaces between because we don’t really want to see them, and perhaps because we have somehow been programmed to read opportunity as threat and new information as risk.

If you have ever been involved in coaching, guiding, teaching or mentoring others then you will know that people cannot be fixed or changed. Of the thousands of people I have worked with over the years I cannot recall one single, successful incident where I have managed to induce any change or improvement in the person that they did not themselves want or co-operate in. But what I have done instead, steadily over time, is to refine my ability to hear what they are really telling me, spot what they are really doing and understand what they are really going through. Then, and only then, do I find myself in a position to offer some practical suggestions that might resonate.

Foundations

To notice we first need to be present, in the moment. When dealing with others we need to be physically, emotionally and mentally in the room. If we are physically sat in a chair opposite someone but, for example, also flicking thorough our phone, then we aren’t present and we won’t notice anything. It’s obvious, but we cannot notice unless we look!

The goal here is to notice the things which ordinary people overlook. It’s not that regular folk can’t see, as such, but that they skim over, pass by or subconsciously believe that what they see is not important.

To master the Power of Noticing we must be willing to treat life as play, as a continuous experiment, and to not rush to judgement about anything or anyone. If we are going to notice more then we must be willing to look first and understand later. Also, noticing is not primarily, at first, about you. You cannot notice, for example, the reactions of those you are talking to if you are experiencing anxiety, self-doubt or are running a persistent internal narrative. The noise from your own stuff will overwhelm any signal from outside.

So, to get started with the Power of Noticing we might try some of the following suggestions. Notice your own reaction when I say that it is no good to just think about trying these things, but we must actually implement them over the course of weeks or months and be willing to modify them to suit the unique situations of our life. Practices, such as these, only reveal their value over time, when they are practiced. The Power of Noticing is a slow process, and the results are all the better for it.

Getting Started

Clearly all practices require a safety-first attitude. Do not perform any of the exercises listed here while you are meant to be concentrating on any other task!

If you wear them, sometimes take your glasses off, and contact lenses out. In certain cases, reducing the use of your outer eyes might enable the use of your inner eye.

Sometimes, without forcing anything, try looking at things a little hazily, as if you are glazing over. You might spot something you didn’t before.

Look at people, but also look into them and through them. Try also looking, occasionally, just to the side of them. What do you notice?

When resting, quietly alone, close your eyes and imagine that you are watching yourself from above, as if from the top of a step ladder. Hold this for a few seconds and then practice switching between watching yourself, as if from above, to looking out at the world from your own normal perspective.

Trying these things in a gentle, experimental way, will start to open up the Power of Noticing.

Noticing in Everyday Life

The world sometimes informs but it mostly distracts. Not everything that you notice will be important. There is noticing and then there is noticing. The goal is to notice without attachment, to be able to say, “that is happening”, or “she is saying this” or “there’s been a shift there” while all the time remaining free from like and dislike. The alternative to all this - not noticing - is disastrous, turning you into a zombie. We must know what is going on around us, with things, people and the spaces between, without being run by them. This is something you can train yourself to do. If you can improve your ability to notice then you will more deeply understand the nature of eating, drinking, breathing and sleeping (see Live Replay from 15/6/2022). Noticing is also necessary if you wish to spot the difference between your thoughts and your feelings (see Live Replay from 18/5/2022).

People watching is a safe way to develop the Power of Noticing. Just sit in a café, bar or railway station and observe. Allow the thoughts or feelings of like, dislike, fascination, revulsion, adoration, envy or hatred to pass by and don’t pick any of them up. Observe one thing and then next thing and try not to create a story about them in your head. Do it slowly. Do not liken any image to any other image, just notice. A red car. Blue shoes. Short hair. Notice people, things, and the spaces in between. See how people come together and watch the space between them shrink. See how other people move apart and watch how the space between them expands. Certain people may even possess a noticeable aura, a bubble of influence, which others can be pulled into, or repelled from.

Many things in our world exist for the express purpose of disrupting our noticing ability. Things like narcotics, alcohol, drugs, certain foods, the quest for comfort or ease, all these things liquify our experience of the world and cause things, people and the spaces between to be mixed into one big soup. Some spiritually inclined people make the fatal mistake of believing that this liquification, the merging of everything into everything else, is the ultimate state of bliss that they are seeking. This is however quite wrong, for things and people are separated by spaces in between for good reasons, so that those things and those people can teach us something. By collapsing the spaces between things and people we drastically limit our opportunities for learning and development and hamper our chance of becoming Soul Strong. Noticing is an important developmental step in your unfolding sensitivity. To notice is to become aware, and awareness is the key to change.

Listen Closely

Listen to what people say. Particularly listen to bosses, experts, opinion formers, tv and radio talking heads and social media influencers. Don’t listen to be guided or informed, simply listen to notice. Notice when they say phrases like “We all know…” This may also take the form of “What we know is…” Then ask yourself, who is this ‘we’ that they are referring to? Because it almost certainly does not include you. Listen to the same people and notice when they tell you “What people want…” or “What we all want is…” Realise that what they are really telling you is what they want, for themselves.

Ask yourself: What am I a Slave to?

Every one of us is a slave to a hidden master. Every time we cannot wait for dinner and simply must have a nibble as we are preparing it, we are reaffirming our position as a slave to hunger. Every time we argue the toss with someone, just because we can, we become more of a slave to our anger. We then make great pains to rationalise our behaviour or explain it away as being in some way an essential part of our personality. We can find big clues to these things in the negatives of our numbers (see article Know Thyself: The Negatives of your Numbers). Take an example of someone with a strong number 5 (maybe in one of their Four Roads or name). Such a person will know, deep down that they want to travel, and if they are aware of their 5-ness via numerology they will be even more committed to using trains, planes and automobiles to unlock opportunities and experience all manner of possibilities. They will probably be in love with that aspect of themselves and this is all right and proper. But this may also blind them to the possibilities that exist closer to home. Whenever they encounter problems their tendency will be to run, to leave and find a new location, situation or experience where those problems don’t exist. But over time this all becomes rather burdensome because running away from problems never resolves them. Through being obsessed by all things shiny and new, they fail to notice the important opportunities right in front of them. Their greatest strength becomes their greatest weakness.

Be More Reflective

Reflective is what I am trying to be in this article, but before we go any further let’s define reflection as an act of ‘vaguely recalling, or commenting upon, an incident.’ Basically, once removed from the heat of the moment, and with the benefit of hindsight, we can look back at what we did, or did not do, in a given situation. This is an absolutely crucial part of the Power of Noticing, but care is required. Too little reflection robs us of our chance to learn from experience, turning us into rolling stones that gather no moss. This is bad, because if the experiences of life just wash over you, or you fail to notice what they were all about, then they will just come round again and again, harder and harder, until you get the message. On the other hand though, too much reflection is just as bad, easily producing a passive, fearful, even paranoid individual who constantly goes over and over the past as a substitute for doing anything about the present, let alone the future. But if you can get the balance right and be a little more reflective you will be less impulsive, and that will be a significant change. Reflection is often a quality of the Soul, while impulse is often a quality of the Body-Mind-Feelings.

Deprive Yourself

The first time you get drunk is a unique experience, where no matter how much you go onto drink in the years that follow you will never attain a feeling quite like that ever again. The same goes for any sort of peak experience, once you have done it you will need more and more effort to get you anywhere near that high again. This is due to de-sensitisation, as we do something, or use something all the time, we cease to notice its effects and become de-sensitised to it.

I would contend that many millions of people in the Western world walk around in a permanent state of inebriation. I’m not referring to brown paper bag street alcoholics. I mean millions of people from the middle class who have a ‘harmless’ Gin and Tonic or a prosecco before dinner and then another ‘harmless’ bottle or two of wine over dinner, every single day. There are countless millions of these people, who appear perfectly sensible and functional on the outside but whose senses and ability to notice anything outside their own narrow, immediate interests, have been completely destroyed by a perpetual low-key drunkenness, a permanent fog within which they do not notice anything that really matters. By accident or by choice such people live life in soft-focus and do not really notice what is going on at all. Those who live in such a state are of course completely unaware of it, but those who step out from it immediately start to re-sensitise themselves.

Re-sensitisation can be a shocker, at first. Things that never used to register in your awareness now scream at you and this can be hard. But once the initial shock has worn off – which it will – then you are free to notice a million things that you did not notice before. It’s not just about alcohol. Not every meal that you eat is meant to tickle your taste buds as it would in a Michelin star restaurant. Not every tv program or film is meant to be shocking-OMG-wowser-hashtag emosh. Not every article or book you read is meant to be a rocking page turner. When everything is stimulation you rapidly lose the ability to notice the subtleties of what is going around you.

Keep a Journal

Use it to note down thoughts and feelings as well as seemingly insignificant things and things which you have noticed but which you aren’t ready to mention to others. The process of journaling is cathartic, giving you a chance to heal and let go, and it is also a way of solidifying your Power of Noticing. Maybe what you notice about things, people and the spaces in between does not matter, or maybe it does, and by journaling on it you may come to see the difference. The act of journaling is what matters here. It is of no significance whether you write drivel or a masterpiece. What matters is that you take the time and the space to reflect upon what has been going on, in order to separate yourself from it. When journaling try to record what you feel and what you think, and try to discern a difference between the two. This will help put your emotions in perspective so you can regain balance. Try to resist the urge to judge or give an opinion on what have noticed. Just notice and record. Use and pen and paper, or tap it on a screen, whatever works for you.

Notice that there’s not always something to notice!

“We do not need more knowledge, but more wisdom; wisdom is found in our attention.” Zen proverb.

At certain times of life, as the Personal Years and Personal Months flow by, as the Moon ripens from New to Full and as the seasons roll around you may feel as though you are constantly noticing fresh and new things, all the time, twenty times a day. At such times the world feels alive, almost to the point where it is talking to you. At other times however, nothing seems to stand out, little seems worth noticing and neither your attention nor interest are grabbed by anything. This is perfectly normal! The thing to notice during such times is that all energy, and all life, ebbs and flows. Sometimes it’s all kicking off, and at other times there’s nothing really happening, and everything is quiet. If only news editors and reporters could see this then everyone would be better off.

Stop using Certain Words

The Power of Noticing also involves becoming less automatic and more conscious. One way this can be done is through the deliberate practice of ceasing to use certain words. Think of someone you know who you believe to be an idiot. It could be that you have called them this to their face or behind their back, or never said it all and just thought it. Whatever you have been doing, and whatever you think about them stop using that word. Stop using it in relation to them and stop using it full stop. This isn’t about pretending that someone you think is an idiot is a nice person. You don’t have to change your mind about them, after all you might be right, they could be an idiot. But constant use of the same word de-sensitises us to the real meaning of that word. If all the people we don’t like are idiots, then we probably failing to notice the specific lessons that are being offered by our interactions with them. The problem of how and why we are judging people in this way and whether we are right to do so is for another day. As far of the Power of Noticing is concerned, we need to expand our vocabulary, stop using robotic, automatic speech and try to communicate what it is about such people that we object to. By considering this we are forced to examine them more carefully and notice more. This is not just useful for critical words, but for everyday language. Those who constantly refer to the ‘bottom line’ or ‘the end of the day’ are running on autopilot and not really noticing what is going on.

Once we start to do this, we may notice how words are used all around us in ways which obscure rather than explain. A good example in the so-called spiritual community is the word transformation, once reserved for use in extreme situations of deep, fundamental change, and now thrown around and applied to almost any practice or course which has a large price tag on it. Another one is the word community. Rarely has there been a word so over-used in such a consistently misleading manner. We can’t stop politicians and activists from using it, but we can certainly stop using it ourselves, which will cause us to notice the individuals who make up those communities in a completely new and different way.

More Things to Try

Whenever you walk through a doorway notice it, mark it and say to yourself ‘I am walking through a doorway.’ Even if you only do this sometimes it will start firing off the brain connections that will help you to notice other things.

Write in more than one colour. Sometimes use black, sometimes blue, sometimes a pencil and notice each time you change.

Whenever you walk up stairs or an escalator, notice the choice you have of whether, or not, to use the handrail.

Turn off your music. When driving in the car don’t have the stereo on. When walking or riding public transport take your earphones out. This is especially important if you tend to do these things automatically, without thinking. Every breaking of a pattern, no matter how trivial sounding, is a win for the Power of Noticing  

Notice the Moon and say to yourself “look there’s the Moon.” Do this every time you see it in the sky, including during the daytime.

Notice where the Sun rises and where it falls. This is especially meaningful if you travel a lot.

Notice people’s socks. Do they match their shoes, or their trousers or neither?

Notice the difference between people’s postures, gestures, and speech. Particularly notice when they say yes but shake their head, or when they tell you how engaged they are in what you are saying but are sat facing away from you. Most people who perform such unfortunate misalignments are not even aware that they are doing it.

Go for a walk alongside a river or canal. Look at the water and notice the reflections of trees or bridges. Then look in the water and notice fish, plants or discarded human debris.

Reflect Some More

All these actions feed directly into your use of the Tarot and your interactions with the Inner Guide in the Inner World. Specifically, the Tarot Card of the Day each morning indicates the presence of a thing, person or space in between, and gives some clues to the form that it might take. But it is still up to you to actually notice it in your material Outer World life. Similarly with the Inner Guide a degree of noticing is necessary to be able to discern his movements, actions or words. Recording, in some way, everything that happens with the Inner Guide, you and the space between you, down to the tiniest detail, will be a valuable way of developing the Power of Noticing.

When toying with all these ideas try to notice any tendency to make excuses as to why you don’t need to bother. These might be justifications that you rehearse, ready to give to me, or they might be excuses as to why you should be allowed to give yourself a pass and not engage with this. Consider the possibility that all such excuses are forms of self-justification or self-calming. Notice this!

When talking to people make sure to listen to their responses before joining back in with the conversation. Notice for example, how (or if) someone’s contribution either moves the conversation along, stalls it or derails it in some way, and consider the choices that you have in that moment. You can respond in a standard or predictable way, or you can take a moment to consider further before making a response, or you can decline to make any response at all. These choices are yours, though if you are embedded in patterns of behaviour then your chance of noticing the options before you will be sorely limited. Notice this!

The Power of Noticing is all about sharpening one’s sensitivity, becoming more aware of what was always there but had never been fully realised. The Power of Noticing involves us moving our attention away from fixed ideas of what should be, toward a recognition of what is. This may require us to move through the world more slowly.

The Power of Noticing is something we should do all the time, in every area of our lives, but it can be the hardest to do in areas where we are professionally qualified or competent, because though the expert knows what they are doing, they tend to only do what they know. It may seem contradictory to what we said earlier, but long years working in a particular profession in a particular way, especially if you have been successful, actively destroy your ability to notice, largely because you will have trained yourself to always look for, and at, the same things. Any profession in which you must be rigorously trained will tend, over the long-term, to produce in you inflexible reactions when what you really need are informed responses.

For example, the man with a hammer is good at hammering in nails, but after years and years of this he will come to see nails everywhere. The trained Marxist is good at identifying unfairness, but such people easily see oppression everywhere, especially where it doesn’t exist. The entrepreneur is the perfect person for getting new projects started, but it is precisely their entrepreneurial spirit which prevents them from seeing the benefits of tried and tested systems.

Some more examples, perhaps closer to home: the experienced yoga teacher or the seasoned reiki master are at the greatest risk of failing to notice how and when things, people and the spaces between them have changed. This is why we must be constantly updating and adding to our experience. It is, for example, unlikely that a seasoned reiki master will learn much from attending a Mind-Body-Spirit fair aimed at the general public, and this is why such a person almost certainly won’t attend one. But what they might notice in such a setting is the style, attitudes, and expectations of the next generation of students. But that reiki master will never notice such vital information if they ignore the fair entirely, or worse still, attend with a superiority complex which bars them from noticing anything other than how wonderful they are in comparison to the dross on display.  

The student of spirituality and consciousness will always be faced with the need to simultaneously unfold and check their sensitivity. This is why you must train yourself to notice, but not be overwhelmed by the quantity or quality of what you notice. Sensitivity remains un-developed when we go through life like a zombie, but that sensitivity is poorly developed when we notice everything, all the time, and cannot filter out the signal from the noise. The biggest piece of advice I can give here is to resist the temptation to make connections between things which, in reality, have nothing to do with each other. Not everything is a sign.

Dealing with Others

Communicating what you notice to others can be tricky. Others may reject, or simply to refuse to see what you have noticed, or they may, after your prompting, notice it but fail to adjust their behaviour or beliefs in light of it, or they may explain it away in a manner which seems ridiculous to you. What should we notice about this? Well, first, is it you that is mistaken? Have you attributed too much weight to something that you noticed? This is possible, though it will happen less often with practice. The next, and more likely possibility is that the person you are talking to is so riven by fear and apprehension at this new discovery that they must, almost as a matter of survival, either refute it, or refute you. In this case it’s not that you were wrong, but that you were too right, what you noticed was too true. The third possibility is that you simply used the wrong words or picked the wrong time to try to tell them about it. It is important here not to freeze in the headlights of their resistance, but to notice as much as you can about you, them, it and the spaces in between, and come back later for another go. The key is to keep all your options open for as long as possible.

Finally

The Power of Noticing can be an enjoyable and worthwhile process if you keep sight of the fact that all we are really trying to do is notice the ongoing unfoldment and appearance of God in our world. Even though many things act with the express purpose of cloaking this, the truth is that we can accrue a great deal of benefit by pulling back the veil. Noticing, if done randomly or in an uncontrolled manner, may induce fear or paranoia, but when engaged with consciously it can be tremendously rewarding. There are all sorts of wonderful things going on in the world, but if we walk through life with our head down or eyes closed then we will never see them. But don’t forget, there is noticing of the type which focuses on the pop, the buzz, the impact and the headline, and then there is noticing which involves a subtler experience of things, people and the spaces in between.

The inspiration and parts of the content for this piece comes from The Discipline of Noticing by John Mason. I have also drawn upon Toward Awakening by Jean Vaysse, The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant and In Search of the Miraculous by P. D. Ouspensky. No New Age teachings were used during this process.

Feel free to share your own experiences below..