The Little Book Of Noticing

By Gavin McGahey

Are you carrying the weight of others on your shoulders? A big question but an important one that we forget to ask ourselves. This book is about making change and making life simpler. It is about letting go of ego, being more authentic and just being yourself and in turn helping others.

It is a self-help book in a self-inquiry type of way; I draw on my own experiences and learn from many others to understand one's thought process and what we are telling ourselves. It is a selection of personalized short stories that are relatable and actionable.

It will allow you to see life in a simple way and will help you make a more peaceful way without judgment on yourself and others. It will help you feel more aware. It will at times be confronting, sometimes sad as you reflect on the story and your own experience, but there will also be happiness, laughter, and intrigue as you feel a new sense of peace. It is about questioning who you are, how you react and how you get caught up in the drama. This book's overarching theme is about judgment and how damaging it can be to ourselves and others. When we replace judgment with noticing we can understand that you don't have to live a complicated life to be happy - this book will show you how.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ocean Reeve Publishing
• Release date: Jun 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9781922854476

Book preview

Introduction

The Little Book of Noticing came to me as I lay in a hospital bed, recovering from surgery. The idea spoke to me so clearly. A way to bring peace into not only my life but the lives of thousands of beautiful souls in this connected world. It became my answer to so many things. This was my time to share with anyone who was curious to know my thoughts and convert these thoughts into a simple and profound way to deal with events, situations, and experiences that confront us every day in this journey of life.

Is it possible for one small change to affect the way you process things that are taking place in your mind? And is it possible for this one small change to bring about an inner peace and knowingness in all your experiences that can greatly alter the way you react and respond and your outcome in relation to these experiences? Are you open to one small change and applying the principle behind it?

What is this one change that I referenced on the front cover? What is the one simple thing you can do that can bring a profound shift in how you interpret things that happen every day in this helter-skelter life?

This one thing is to replace judging with noticing; replace judging with noticing everywhere in everything every day and turn your life around. If you do this one time and expect a miracle, then you may well be disappointed. But if you work on developing a conscious awareness around this shift, every day, I can guarantee you that your life’s situations will become less stressful and more enjoyable.

There are no chapters in this book, just page reference numbers to guide you to select any part of this book, anytime. It is not a linear book that needs to be read page by page. Just open the book to wherever it takes you. My guidance for you is to read each of my experiences without judgement. I would like to suggest that you read What Would I Know, Seven Steps to Nowhere, and Hospitals, to get to know me a little better and to set you up for where you choose to go from there. Just notice what shows up for you. Laugh with me, fail with me, be with me, and cry with me, or cry for me.

So, here is how the stories may be laid out.

Each story has a title. Some of the stories are simply that: an expression of what I noticed, at that time. Other stories will consist of the body of the story where l share the different things that I noticed. Then, we will flip the story and turn the noticing into judgements.

There may be an inquiry into what showed up as the judgements took over the thinking mind. What emotions were triggered and what associated feelings emerged? What reactions and actions could have been triggered? We follow this with a response to the inquiry and what learnings we can take and apply to events in your, own life.

You may be wondering what the difference between an emotion and a feeling is, as they appear to be intertwined. A simple way to relate to them is an emotion comes first as a biochemical reaction in your body that alters your state. Feelings follow the emotion and have the potential to linger in your mind for extended periods. Dr Sarah McKay, a neuro-scientist, explains it like this: ‘Emotions play out in the theatre of the body. Feelings play out in the theatre of the mind.¹’

Every story in The Little Book of Noticing is real. No BS, these stories unfolded for me and became the catalyst for getting them out of my head and down on paper.

I hope you get as much fun from these stories as I got from writing them. My wish for you, is to step into a whole new world of noticing and live a less stressful, more mindful, less attached, more present, and more fulfilled life, as a conscious human being.

Practice noticing in everything you see or do. I can assure you of this: the more you replace judging with noticing, the more peace you will bring into your life. Remember, you read the cover, and you opened the book, so it must be for you. Are you available to be open to a whole new world? It absolutely can be this simple.

What Would I Know?

You may be asking yourself, Who is this guy? Let me share with you a little about who I am. I am a sixty-year-old father of three great kids, Nathan, Olivia, and our recently-turned-one-year-old son, Ari. Grandfather to Zlyra, Mraz, and Addison, partner to Melissa, and informal stepfather to Melissa’s thirteen-year-old son, Joshua. I am also a co-caretaker of our two husky dogs, Max and Sienna. You will hear more about them later.

Now for what I am not. I am not a doctor, counsellor, psychologist, guru, buddha, wellness wizard, spiritual leader, murderer, extortionist, leader of a cult, or anything along these lines. I am a person without a title. I am a person who has spent many years finding his purpose. A person always searching for answers. A person always getting help. A person who always seemed to be getting in his own way.

I have spent thousands of dollars looking for the answers to living a better life, manifesting outcomes, creating wealth and happiness, and looking for the way or the miracle cure to all things that we constantly seem to crave. Working my ass off to provide for my family, indulging in material-based living, and buying things to impress people who probably didn’t even like me anyway. A lifestyle designed around what I have, not who I am.

When you live this way, there is no way up; there are only let-downs. How is this so? you may be wondering. When you live in materialism and ego, every time you require and acquire something in your life, it provides small windows of perceived joy and happiness. You then go in search of more: the bigger house, the new boat, the new car, that next new outfit, that next pair