The art of paying attention

学习目标

• 理解 attention 与 information 的区别，概括文章的核心观点。
• 拆解 not because … but because …，读懂原因之间的转折。
• 用一个自己的生活例子，解释“注意力是一种选择”。

On my usual walk to the station, I used to notice almost nothing. My eyes were on a small screen, while the city passed quietly around me.

在平时走向车站的路上，我过去几乎什么也注意不到。 我的眼睛盯着一块小小的屏幕，而城市在我周围悄然流过。

One morning, I left my phone at home and found that the same street felt strangely unfamiliar. There were tiny gardens on balconies, a blue door, and a bakery that smelled of warm bread.

一天早晨，我把手机留在家里，发现同一条街道竟然变得陌生起来。 阳台上有小小的花园，还有一扇蓝色的门，以及一家飘出温热面包香气的烘焙店。

The street had not changed; my attention had. I began to wonder how much of life I had been walking past without seeing.

街道没有变；改变的是我的注意力。 我开始想，自己究竟有多少次与生活擦肩而过，却什么也没有看见。

We often treat attention as an unlimited resource, something we can give away without consequence. Yet every time we attend to one thing, we turn away from another.

我们常常把注意力当作一种无限的资源，仿佛可以毫无代价地将它分散出去。 然而，每当我们关注一件事时，也就在把目光从另一件事上移开。

Perhaps a richer life begins not because we discover more things, but because we learn to notice what is already there. Paying attention is, in this sense, a quiet form of choosing.

也许，更丰盈的生活并不是因为我们发现了更多事物，而是因为我们学会留意那些早已存在的东西。 从这个意义上说，专注是一种安静的选择。