Conscious Cat Sunday: Are You Asleep at the Wheel?

Are you content like a cat in a sun puddle with your life? Are you happy with the choices you made that got you to this point? Or are you so busy just getting through your daily to do list that you don’t have time to pay attention to your life?

I was listening to an old Matchbox 20 album the other day, and there were two lines in the lyrics of “Sleeping at the Wheel” that really struck a chord with me: “Our hands are full, our lives are not.”

This seems to be true for so many these days. We are always doing something, and yet, our lives can often be on an endless repeat cycle of the same routine: get up, feed the cats, go to work, come home, feed the cats, collapse in front of the TV. This makes for an unhappy routine for us and for our cats.

Our cats most definitely need more from us than just food. They need cuddles and playtime and attention. But we also need more from life than just work and TV. And yet, it’s often easier to remain stuck in a rut than to make changes. Change is uncomfortable – but being asleep at the wheel and not changing the things that make you unhappy is far more uncomfortable.

Are you asleep at the wheel?

Rob Thomas’ lyrics go on to say

So come on, come on we can be saved
The lives we live, the wars we wage
When everyone just tells us how to feel
We’re sleeping at the wheel

I, too, believe that we can be saved. I think the cure for sleeping at the wheel is mindfulness, and really paying attention to our lives rather than letting others dictate how we live them. Maybe it’s time to crank up the music (but not so loud that it hurts your cats’ sensitive ears!) and pay attention to what’s really going on in your life.

Pay attention to your life

Start by really paying attention to your life. Paying attention is a fundamental part of being authentic and living a conscious life. Ask yourself these questions:

• Who or what matters most to you? Who or what could you not live without?
• Who do you admire, and why?
• What would it take for you to be able to say “I’m happy” and really mean it?
• Who are the positive positive people in your life? Are you spending enough time with them?
• What one thing can you do this week that will make you happy?

I can’t imagine that cats would even know the feeling of sleeping at the wheel. They pay attention to everything: how the sun feels on their fur, the sound of a can opening, a warm breeze wafting in through screened windows. Spend some time with your cats today, and watch how they pay attention to every single moment. Take your cue from them to learn to pay more attention to your life so you won’t live it asleep at the wheel.

 

 

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