Gaston Bachelard Quotes

I can enjoy what I'm engaged in and be fully present rather than planning my answers to questions while someone else is speaking or thinking about my next appointment while my current engagement is still in in progress.

We've lost the ability to immerse ourselves in things.

Giving something your time isn't the same as giving it your attention.

In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention.

I don't think you can read poetry while you're watching television very well.

I had to make sure I kept an eye on the real world.

Once you start playing a piece, there is a connection between every note. You cannot say, 'I will not concentrate on this note.' You cannot ignore things the way you do in the rest of your life.

The point is to be involved in the moment.

I suppose even when I was growing up, I noticed I was most happy when I was absorbed in something, lost in the moment and forgot the time, whether was conversation, movie, or a game I was playing. That was my definition of happiness. And I was least happy when I was all over the place, distracted and restless.

Whatever I'm doing, I'm in that moment and I'm doing it. The rest of the world's lost. If I'm cooking some food or making soup, I want it to be lovely. If not, what's the point of doing it?

Presence is more than just being there.

I've got a terrible memory; it's probably because I'm always concentrating on what I'm doing now.

Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.

I'm good at separating things. When I'm in my classroom, I'm totally there. When I'm at an event, I'm totally there. And when I'm with my grandkids, my total attention is on them.

Presence is in the eye and ear and gut of the beholder. When you are totally present in a conversation or in a meeting, others around you perceive you as totally focused on the matter at hand and on being of value to them.

I just don't think people listen. I mean, they can't listen to a whole album closely without checking their iPhone or wanting to skip to their favorite song, or putting something else on, practically. That's why the zone out is a good thing.

Whatever you are doing, put your whole mind on it. If you are shooting, your mind should be only on the target. Then you will never miss. If you are learning your lessons, think only of the lesson. In India boys and girls are taught to do this.

When you let go of your attention for a little while, do not think you may recover it whenever you please.

Pay attention. Don't just stagger through the day.

To understand music, you must listen to it. But so long as you are thinking, “I am listening to this music,” you are not listening.

Right now, though, I wanted not to think forward or backward, but only to lose myself in the words.

If you are bored, you are not paying attention.

[To become a poet] The most important thing is to pay attention. The next would probably be to read; it's so important to pay attention. It keeps you from being bored, and I might add it keeps you from being boorish.

As long as you notice, and have to count the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don't notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not conciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be the one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.

I don't concentrate on if a moment is scary or not. That's not my job.