Martina Sheehan - One Moment Please: Its Time to Pay Attention

Praise for
One Moment Please

One Moment Please is a gentle wake-up call, beautifully
written and so timely and necessary.

Dr Jean-Philippe Lachaux
Cognitive Neuroscience Research Director, INSERM
Lyon, France

Also by Martina Sheehan and Susan Pearse:

Wired For Life:
Retrain Your Brain and Thrive

Please visit: www.hayhouse.com.au

Copyright 2015 by Martina Sheehan and Susan Pearse

Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au
Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com
Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk
Published and distributed in South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.za
Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast: www.raincoast.com
Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Design by Rhett Nacson
Typeset by Bookhouse, Sydney
Edited by Margie Tubbs
Author photo by Tanya Love Portrait

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews without prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice nor prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for physical fitness and good health. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

CATS IN THE CRADLE Words and Music by HARRY CHAPIN and SANDY CHAPIN, Copyright 1974 (Renewed) STORY SONGS, LTD., All Rights Administered by WB MUSIC CORP., All Rights Reserved, Used By Permission of ALFRED MUSIC

ISBN: 978-1-4019-3865-9
Digital ISBN: 978-1-4019-3383-8

18 17 16 15 4 3 2 1
1st Australian edition, March 2015

Printed in the United States of America

Dedicated to all the people we withheld time from during the
writing of this book. Rest assured that you didnt lose our
attention for one moment.

Can you imagine Newton even noticing a falling apple if he was dashing from one meeting to the next anxiously barking instructions on his cell phone? Would Shakespeare have finished The Tempest if he was battling the trolls on his Twitter account?

Martina Sheehan and Susan Pearse

I live a charmed life, partly because I get up every morning and proclaim, Something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today.

One beautiful Saturday in September 2014, one of the awesome things that happened to me was meeting Martina Sheehan and Susan Pearse, the authors of this book, at a Hay House writers conference.

You know that warm feeling you get when you immediately connect with someone who minutes before was a total stranger? That feeling that reminds you that, in Truth, in the Big Picture, were all one, were all friends pretending not to know each other. So even though I live in the centre of the United States and Martina and Susan live beside a gorgeous ocean in Australia (no, Im not bitter), I feel completely connected to and buzzed by the energy of these two geniuses.

As it turns out (coincidence, Ive heard, is Gods way of staying anonymous), they had, just that morning, finished the manuscript of this book. And because we did feel (or I did) like soul sisters from another if not planet, at least country, they asked if Id be willing to endorse their book.

I thought, of course, I was doing them a favour. But then I read the manuscript (thanks to the very attention-stealing culprits they talk about, it was a full three or four weeks later) and I realised they were the ones doing ME a favour.

I need this book as a reminderto pay attention, to be more present, to more fully love the people in my physical life. Like everyone else on this crazy planet, I had practically handcuffed myself to my smart phone. I was shocked to learn the world currently has more cell phones than working toilets and like Martina and Susan point out, Id invited mine to travel in my pocket and sleep by my bed. This marvellous wonder of technology had turned into this huge Frankenstein-like attention suck.

I was so busy dutifully checking my email, my Twitter updates and my Amazon reviews that I thought were so important to the success of my just-launched book that Id forgotten to notice the crimson red and orange in the last full moon. I was working so hard to answer emails, to respond to fans, to keep on top of interview requests that I, more often than I care to admit, was completely ignoring the guy who shares my bed every night.

This book, One Moment Please, is the cold splash of water, the reminder I need. Id like to thank them for reminding me of whats truly precious. And my partner, Jim, would like to send flowers.

Way to go, soul sistahs!!!

Pam Grout, New York Times best-selling author of E-Squared

Its often said that you teach what you need to learn yourself. There is no doubt that our own personal search for better ways to navigate lifes twists and turns led us to the work we do, and revealed our true purpose: to wake up the world. Because there is an excuse every day for being mindless instead of mindful, for switching off when we should be paying attention, for dwelling on what might have been rather than facing what is, and for letting our minds wander rather than being fully present.

Our lives changed once we understood what it really meant to be present. Actually, thats not true. Understanding what it means doesnt change anything. Our lives changed once we started to be more present. The difference between understanding it or talking about it or thinking about it, and actually doing it is like night and day. The moment you bring your attention fully into the present is the moment you connect with life.

You probably know this too, but if youre like so many others, us included, you need constant reminding and encouragement. So for the last fifteen years weve been teaching people how to literally and practically be present in all the moments that make up a life. And as a consequence, we continue to learn how to be present in our own.

But we learnt more writing this book, One Moment Please, than at any other time in our journey. We started with a simple message and youll find it in these pages: attention is being misused and abused more than ever before, and its time we saved it. We thought we would write the how to book on attention, but as it revealed itself, something more important emerged.

We realised that attention is the most precious gift. We learnt that spending time is no substitute for giving attention. We experienced the vibrancy of a life lived fully. We felt the deep pleasure of making clear and conscious choices. But we also learnt that withholding attention is a destructive act, and that the breakdown in the ready flow of attention is the end of care. And we saw more clearly than ever before that there is no time to waste. If we want to live in a world where it is possible to find true happiness, experience real meaning, connect deeply and love fully, we must all act now to revive the dying art of paying attention.