Noticing things is all about attention, and where we choose to put it. This is one of the areas where we do have control in life, along with the responses we decide to make in the situations that face us. We can choose what we attend to. I recall my mother saying to me as a child, when I was off on some reverie, 'Pay attention!' 

And she was right! We do need to pay careful attention to what's going on. Then we have better information about this reality we're in (whatever that is!) and therefore to make better choices for our actions. 

Mindfulness comes into this too. Basically mindfulness is the deliberate practice of paying attention, without judgment, to whatever's going on right now. Not what happened before, not what might happen tomorrow, but right now. It's the training of our attention - just as we train our bodies for physical health, so we can train our minds. 

Why not just sit for five minutes (it will feel a long time if you haven't done this before) and just notice, maybe, one thing you can see, one you can hear, one you can touch, maybe even something you can smell and taste. See how it feels! 

Here's another N - N for Need. Do I really Need it, or do I just Want it? 

It's very easy to confuse the two, yet with our new-found powers of attention, we can get used to just sitting with cravings and desires and see what they really are. 

Do I really Need that yummy-looking doughnut my daughter has left me or do I just Want it? To find out, I didn't eat it straight away. I let the feeling that I would like to eat it wash through me and see what it felt like. Actually after about five minutes I realised I didn't even want it, as I remembered hearing that a lot of what passes for food these days is in fact just 'food-like substances' and I certainly didn't need it. And honestly, I really didn't eat it!
 

Maybe there aren't that many things we really really need, such that if we don't get them we'll die, sooner or later. Air to breathe, water and supportive relationships come immediately to mind - what else, do you think?