January 17, 2010:  It’s all about focusing

Most of us don’t understand the power of our thoughts in a creative sense.   Most of us don’t give a lot of thought about where we are giving our attention and just allow whatever happens around us to set our feeling state for us.  We just kind of expect to feel so-so a lot of the time and if things are good then great and if we don’t feel so hot we just wait to allow something else to come along to feed us something better.  How we feel seems many times like it is dependent on things/events/people outside of ourselves.  In that way we create by default and not purposefully.

I’ve believed for a long time in the power of focus and to be aware of what I am giving my attention.  When I was still employed as a non profit executive director I was in contact with many bureaucracies and many of these contacts carried varying degrees of negative energy and frustration on my part.   I did what I could to mediate the consequences by taking walks during the day, taking time to meditate at my desk and even going to the gym but I knew I didn’t have the time I needed to really do the kind of focus work I thought I was needing.  I would daydream about being a cloistered nun for awhile or staying in an ashram.  Just get me out of here!

And then wonder of wonders my asking was answered and I was given the opportunity to create a new life.  The details of how this came about while interesting, are not on point here.  The point being I had lots of time and I simply had to learn to focus because I was in a very dark place and very much wanted to feel better.  I knew that some of that feeling better would just require time and grieving but I also knew that everything I could do to focus my energy into a better feeling place would be the best use of that energy.

Paying attention to how I feel and feeling the very best that I can has become my #1 priority.  I finally get how powerful this is and how crucial to what comes into my life.  On days I feel shitty I notice that Dudie (bff dog) and I meet the aggressive dog in a muzzle on the elevator, have near misses in traffic, seem to get the crabby check out clerks, can’t find the parking spot.  When I’m feeling good, things just roll better, I get the green lights, the person to open the door at the elevator when I’m loaded down with groceries, the most friendly people on the street.  Law of Attraction in action.

One guy said to Abraham (see side bar),  “but when I focus it doesn’t feel good.”  Abraham explained that when we are not used to focussing then our base line beliefs have created a strong point of attraction that holds us at a certain point and when we attempt to focus away from that point we feel the pull and it can be challenging.  It just takes practice.  I can attest to that.  If you look back at my blog entries I was waking up in fear and emptiness consistently for months until I began to grow away from that pattern.  Our brains need to literally create new thought pathways so our neurons can fire in different directions creating different feelings in the wake.  Our brain chemistry can become addicted to firing in certain set patterns that feel “normal” to us even if it leaves us feeling crappy.

I’m going to share with you what I do and have done to help create these new pathways and tools to use in learning to focus.  I’ll begin with the
Focus Wheel next time.

With Love, Connie

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