What matters to a person in life hinges very much on what he/she gives attention to.
This thought came over her one day. It was that very thought, that changed her life the minute it took over her mind. In an instance, she realised that there was a plethora of things in which she was giving attention to—things that shouldn’t weigh any significance in her life. Some of them were probably what many people her age, or even those much younger or older, went through.
For example, upon posting a photo on Instagram, she would often go back an hour later to check up on it—seeing how many likes it had garnered. She stopped doing that. Upon posting up a status, she would often do the same. She stopped doing this, too. It was not that they were harmful to her—they were quite harmless in truth—but these seemingly harmless activities eventually made her world a boring, colourless one.
Instead, she started to give attention to things that truly mattered. It was not easy rediscovering these. They were often things that she still gave attention to, but with so little time and attention that they lost the meaning she once intended for them to have. She began by reconnecting with her loved ones—and truly, truly listen to every single thing they have to say. She began, by doing the things she loved, like enjoying a cappuccino during a café’s quietest hours, and the things she always wanted to do—taking photos on film, reading books that had been left to dust on her shelves, and writing what she knew.
Slowly, but surely, her life gained meaning again. And for the first time, in a very long time, it was not others’ actions and love towards her that had given her hope—it was her own actions, her love towards herself, which had given her a newfound hope. She held onto that hope, still a nascent concept to her, for more hope.
