anything, you're just noticing what's already happening at this moment. It's an active engagement in your immediate experience, an alertness, a preparedness to openly accept whatever arises without judgement. This attentiveness includes what's going on" internally" - by which I mean: the general feelings observed, emotional states, thoughts that present themselves, particular narratives the mind reels off; mental phenomena in general - as well as what's going on "externally" - by which I mean: physical sensations via the five sense doors: touch, sight, sound, taste, and smell. Attentiveness only ever happens right now, not in the future and not in the past, now. Not then. Only now. To be attentive or mindful is to be actively present; to be cognizant of what is happening at this moment in time.So, why is it that the vast majority of people aren't actively engaged in simply being aware, particularly when there are so many benefits to be found in doing so?The way our minds usually function involves a continual push-pull between past, present and future, only spending fleeting moments actually being here. When we're not occupied with thoughts like "what am I going to do when I finish what I'm doing right now?", we're occupied with thoughts like "why isn't what I'm doing right now as good as that thing I was doing before?". We're rarely here now, which may sound clichéd but is easy enough to verify as accurate in our own experience; we're either fretting over what might happen in some not-occurring-right-now future, or worrying about what's already happened in, or may occur due to, some not-occurring-right-now event in the past.To complicate matters further, we then identify with those thoughts and narratives, consider them to be "my" thoughts, "my" stories about what's going to happen to "me"; we have feelings about those mental phenomena which give rise to this sense of "me" in the first place and around we go again ad infinitum. All of these, relatively [0] subtle, automatic processes, that we're not usually aware of, are part of what leads to a lack of attentiveness. The noticing of them is the first step to seeing them clearly, and once they're seen clearly they can be let go of via further attentiveness and investigation. What's happeningis what counts, what might happen or what's already happened are never occurring right now so thoughts of them can be acknowledged and let go of. This is not to say that reflection on what's gone before or planning for what may come are not necessary; regardless of whether you're "awakened" or "not" you still need to be able to function skilfully in the real-world.Aside from the natural inclination of our minds towards this dynamic and dualistic process of identification, there's also the issue of effort, of having to do something to be attentive in the first place. If we can see how being attentive, present and aware allows life to be far more pleasant and clearly, fully experienced then we can find ways to incorporate it in fun, interesting and engaging ways; when we can have fun while learning, we can optimize our ability to take on board information. While attentiveness can become automatic with enough effort and practice, it requires a kickstart for the mind to be able to recognize it; it seems paradoxical that something effortless should require effort to become what it already is, yet it's one of those things that really need to be experienced to be understood fully.There are lots of ways you can kickstart attentiveness, whether it's asking yourself "How Am I Experiencing This Moment of Being Alive" (also known as HAIETMOBA) or just noticing that you're annoyed by something on the television; it comes down to being aware of what you're experiencing, both "internally" and "externally" at any given moment. As far as what we're supposed to be aware of, the list could go on for pages, but we can describe a (very) basic framework to start from and you're then free to explore, add, amend or discard whatever helps your own practice. Essentially we're looking at the six points of sense contact, a.k.a. "sense doors" a.k.a. the senses and what sort of information they can ‘take in':These are our six points of sense contact, in which I'm also including the submodalities of each e.g. with regards to sight, we can talk about light, colour and form; distinctions discernible within the experience of "seeing". How each of the senses can be further investigated will be of more interest to us later in the discussion, but for the moment we'll go back to basics and strip the practice to it's bare bones.As we've already seen, to be attentive is to be aware...but aware of what? Your experience at this moment as it happens! And how do you do that? By noticing what's happening! Is it really that simple? Yes! Simply notice that you're already aware of at least one aspect of your current experience, whether it's the sensation of a warm breeze against your cheek or the memory of dinner with a friend, whatever is happening in your body and/or mind is what to be aware of. Something quite cool about attentiveness is that it's got a built-in feedback mechanism; once you learn how to recognize it, you can quickly see when you're no longer being attentive which immediately brings you back to where you want to be: Present, mindful, aware and cognizant of how you feel inside and out; from your emotional state to the itch on your foot, it's all made of the same stuff and is worthy of being investigated. With practice, you can begin to dismantle and investigate these feelings and sensations but, for the moment, I'm going to stick to the practice of attentiveness itself rather than insight.Once you can be aware of one sensation, you can begin to expand that ‘field' of attention to include other sensations like sounds, touch, sights, and so on; notice how each of these "sense consciousness" happens of its own accord, they occur when an object makes contact with them and don't require any effort on your part. It's a fascinating thing to do, just noticing how your experience of the world is being constructed in real-time and how incredible the human brain and nervous system are; the ever-changing, chaotic blast of information that makes up "reality" is received, decoded, and interpreted by this organism to create this experience of the world...and "I" am not involved in any way, shape or form. Literally.You can also look further into the various submodalities which make up the overall "object" being perceived by this implied "subject". For example, in the instant of touch there are myriad sensations which make up that particular conceptual label, "touch"; we can (ap)perceive temperature, pressure, texture/pattern, etc. each of which can then be broken down ad absurdum if you're so inclined. There is a kaleidoscopic range of sensory delight available right now, ever changing and never static, simply by paying more attention to your experience; notice more, look closer and see just how multi-faceted a jewel (ap)perception is.In terms of what we'll call "internal" sensations, by which I mean mental movements, thoughts, conceptualizing, and anything of a not-solely-physical-sense-based variety, the selection of what can be attended to is pretty much endless. What's useful is not to get involved in the content, simply notice them and see how they appear, fade and vanish by themselves to be replaced by something else. With further practice, you can also dismantle and investigate these states in the same way as you would with any other sensation. It's all fair game, the point is (if such a thing can even be said!) that you're attentive to what's happening in your immediate experience right now. Once you can be attentive effortlessly, practice being