[success]The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. ~ Henry Miller[/success]
How’s life working for you? Are you realizing your full potential, or is there still something missing? Are you journalling frantically, seeking guidance, gnashing your teeth?
What if there was a simpler solution. Notice I didn’t say easy, just simple.
What have you been paying attention to lately?
Are you able to put your attention on what’s important and ignore the rest or does your mind seem to be full of things that sidetrack you and get in the way of realizing all that potential locked up within?
Being able to ignore all the distractions that the world has to offer is a necessary part of living life at it’s highest and best. But sometimes we get so caught up in our minds and sorting it out can be overwhelming.
You have a thought; a worry, a problem that’s been troubling you. It’s got your attention. Now your thought has been given power; been given life by the attention you gave it.
Our life experiences are caused by us playing out mental images in our mind…our focused attention will always be a perfect match for our outcomes…so why the heck don’t we make them greater, more beautiful, more inspiring?
1. Stop the suffering
We use our powerful energy against us each time we consent to thoughts that are painful or limiting.
We’re the animating power behind our thoughts, bringing them into sharp and sometimes painful reality and the problem is that our thoughts are real forces, and are directing our behaviour. They can lead us to drink, spend money we don’t have, eat too much, even fight with our partners.
Not good.
So what do we do? Well our favourite ploy is trying to resist our thoughts, to push against them and we’re simply making matters worse. So that’s not the answer.
We keep placing our attention on the very things we truly don’t want.
My friend Paul wanted a new car and on his way to the showroom his attention wasn’t on the prospect of driving his lovely car but on an imaginary argument he was having with an unmet and unsuspecting sales person. And no he didn’t get his car, surprise, surprise.
We all do this to one degree or another and it’s time to find a way to end this cycle of allowing our attention to be drawn to things that don’t serve us.
We need to live more consciously.
The direction of your attention could be that one missing factor that turns life from sad to glad, where you no longer need to search for peace and fulfillment, where you can realize your potential because your attention is leading you right to it.
2. Expecting miracles
Most of us go through our days taking little notice of our thought processes: how our mind operates, what worries it, what it listens to, what it says to itself over and over, what it discounts.
We live our life, hoping, planning, eating, talking, working, connecting, with little heed given to how we’re thinking about these things. Yet our attention is one of the most powerful creative tools we have.
Look at something obvious for a minute, like our bodies. If we look for something wrong with it we can be sure to find it. Putting our attention with an expectation of what we’re going to find is an act of creation. Placing our attention on ideas that are hurtful or limiting or fearful is an act of creation. How amazing is that?
What if we looked at our body every day and said…beautiful? Another act of creation.
What if we thought about the things that we wanted to experience and said…how lovely?
We’d begin to experience miracles.
Miracles are little acts of creation that we can perform every day. Let’s expect them. What if you placed your attention on thoughts of everyday miracles. What then?
3. Whats the answer?
It helps if we can separate ourselves from the situation we’re in, giving us a chance to see where our attention has been. And as we do that, wonder of wonders, we discover that if we accidentally gave birth to a limiting thought we can deliberately withdraw the life giving energy of our attention. Eureka.
We just need a little training in the separation.
So here’s the plan.
Every time you stop doing one thing, take the time to become aware of where your thoughts were. You might be watching the telly, reading a book, working on your computer, writing, jogging, eating, whatever you’ve been up to, when you switch to a different activity, look at where your thoughts are.
Check in with each change of activity, for example getting into your car would be one activity, check in with your thoughts. Getting out of the car counts as a different activity, you’re about to do something different, check your thoughts.
If we could manage this several times a day, we’d be more able to separate ourselves from a worrying or an angry thought, and we’d see the correlation between our thoughts and our moods, and how the mood is just a by-product of the thought.
And then we get to consciously choose where to put our attention. Being able to direct our attention towards what we’d like to experience could be the one missing factor between us and our dream life.
Directing our attention means we’re living more consciously and less from our programming and the universe, or God or source energy or whatever you want to call it moves into action in response…there’s no way around it.
So if a relationship isn’t working the way you want, don’t focus on that, or that last unhappy experience you had, or give any room to thoughts that aren’t taking you in the direction you want to go. Instead be conscious. Choose to keep your attention on feeling love, or joy or acting from kindness and all this and more will be returned to you pressed down and overflowing, and more good things will flourish.
What one thing could you turn your attention towards that would make the greatest difference in your life?
Let me know in the comments below, your story counts for a lot. We’re all here to expand and grow together and your words might just be what someone needed to hear today.
As always thank you for reading, commenting and sharing. You rock.
Encourage one another.
Love Elle
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10 Comments
Elle!
I really needed this today! What a lovely, appropriate, timely post! The universe is looking out and this is a sign to stop this suck, ridiculous cycle of thinking. The brain is supposed to serve us, not the other way around! WHat the heck?
This paragraph is priceless: “Directing our attention means we’re living more consciously and less from our programming and the universe, or God or source energy or whatever you want to call it moves into action in response…there’s no way around it.”
Nothing really matters, does it Elle? Just our feeling good, and the rest is taken care of. So why do we mess it all up? That has always been my question. We get caught up in the external stuff. We should always feel good no matter what.
I feel bad for those I found out recently who took their own life. I did not know them personally, just from afar. I know they were in pain, but all they had to do was wait and the sun would shine brightly again. That us what they are told in non-physical anyway- That their life was good, despite what they were going through because you see, it is all good. Really.
Hi A. I hear you kiddo…I was talking to someone today and was even more aware of how little we think from a conscious perspective…not wonder it’s a challenge to stay in the feel good place with all those old, and usually rotten programmes running our life. Ah well, we just keep getting right back on the train and before too long, it’s gonna be our natural home. As always your perspectives are worth there weight in gold. Thanks for participating in this journey. 🙂
Elle,
I had to really laugh at the image of journaling frantically. Who hasn’t been guilty of that?
I love this idea of using the natural change points throughout the day as reminders to bring our mind home and look at what we are thinking and feeling. Love, peace, tranquility, compassion, confidence…those are all places I would like my mind to be!
Oh Sandra haven’t you hit the nail on the head, just reading your words leaves me with the feelings. As I said in an earlier comment, each time I fall, I just get back on the train with the belief that the day will come when these feelings will just be my natural state. 🙂
Thanks for the suggestion of this mindfulness & gratefulness practice Elle to create more positive outcomes and miracles in our lives. I just happened to write a note which I’ve posted on my desk – Miracles are continually happening, we just need to acknowledge them. And interesting enough, the more we focus on something, the more it materializes. The more miracles we focus on, the more miracle we receive.
Our thoughts are super important because they ultimately help create our reality. Enjoyed this post Elle!
Hi Vishnu…that acknowledging bit is so important isn’t it? Sometimes our mind is so busy that all those everyday miracles go unnoticed. It’s surprising that they keep showing up at all, we give them such scant regard. I like the idea of a note to self. Thanks as always for your insights. 🙂
Hey Elle,
My daughter was telling me the other day that I have more freedom that anyone in our family. Now I see her point. I don’t have a boss and my online biz is a choice. However, don’t we all have the same amount of freedom if we choose it?
Check;)
I think you’re spot on Tess. It’s all about our perspective and how we choose to view our life. I think we’re all pretty much prisoners of our own thinking…whilst the door is always open for us to walk into a new life experience any time we want to. 🙂
I love this Elle Miracles are little acts of creation that we can perform every day. and if we focus on the small miracles that do happen each day the bigger one’s will manifest- that’s what i am finding 🙂
Heck Suzie, you are one big miracle all on your ownsome…with an amazing talent. 🙂