Synergistic Emergence In the 21st Century

Monthly Archive

Change Your Focus ... Change Yourself

May 25, 2008

“Energy flows where attention goes.” When I teach yoga I say this all the time to my students. This profoundly simple phenomenon applies to what happens outside of class as well. Not only does energy flow where attention goes, you also “become what you focus your attention on.”

If you want to change yourself, watch what you focus (meditate) on. Oh ... so you don’t think you’re a meditator? Or if you do meditate, it’s not often enough to count? Well, I’ve got some news for you. You are a meditator and you are creating yourself from that practice, whether you’re conscious of it or not.

Webster’s dictionary defines meditation as “to focus one’s thoughts on,” which suggests that this applies to even when your eyes are open! You are meditating all the time and probably don’t know it. Whatever you are primarily focusing your thoughts on becomes the object of your meditation. I invite you to take this one step further and consider that after a while you become like the object of your meditation. Simply put, you become what you meditate or focus on. For example, pet owners start to look like their dogs, TV watchers start thinking and speaking in terms of commercials and sitcoms, farmers take on the qualities of the land they tend, and new mothers have the softness of the babies they nurture, etc.

So, changing your life is as simple as shifting what you’re focusing on. Really. Advertisers know that their most valuable asset is the public’s attention. They want you to think about (meditate) on their product. For the most part, everyone is unconsciously meditating, allowing outside influences like the media to dictate their focus. It’s an entirely different matter to consciously meditate.

This means to intentionally choose the things you focus your thoughts and attention on.  

Your focus has great power, probably more than you’ve ever known.

The question isn’t, “Do you meditate?” -- of course you do.

The questions are:

·        “What are you focusing on now that you were unaware of?”

·        “Who do you want to be?”

Because it really is true...

You become what you focus (meditate) on.

Relaxing Your World

May 03, 2008

Today, as I was getting ready to ride Max, our quarter horse, the barn manager/owner struck up an interesting conversation.

 

She was visibly relieved to be out of the house and away from the computer. I found her having a discussion with Rick about her deep gratitude to come outside in the fresh air among the horses, blossoming trees and majestic mountains in the backdrop. She remarked that she couldn’t fathom how people work at their desks and oftentimes in cubicles for so many hours of the week. She said that she didn’t like the person she became when she sat still for so long and absorbed so much unnecessary information like is available when you’re online.

 

I told her that one of the main reasons why I come out to the barn to ride my horse is because it allows me to balance out my twenty-first century lifestyle, which centers around mass amounts of information, in a rapid paced daily life filled with schools, errands and work. I told her that being in this barn environment allowed me to relax my world.


She looked at me with a knowing stare.

 

Isn’t it an interesting notion to “relax” your world? What does that mean? Clearly the implications are all positive. As someone who rides horses I know that the more relaxed I am, the more relaxed the horse is. And the more relaxed the horse is, the better the performance. As a yoga teacher I know that when bodies are relaxed they’re in an optimal state for healing, regeneration and restoration. Yogis in India knew that these qualities were the fountain of youth.

 

I also know that the state of being relaxed doesn’t just happen because you go to sleep at night. Oftentimes we wake up in the morning feeling more exhausted than when we went to sleep.

 

So what is this business of relaxing about, and moreover, how do you go about relaxing your world?

 

I heard Rick and our barn owner remark that many cubicle workers seem to require their afternoon happy hour in order to relax. Hmmm … do you think this is what the yogis were talking about?

 

Perhaps there are other ways, like an intentional change in environment or activity or conversation or company, to bring about a relaxed state of being.

 

To intentionally make a change in the environment takes something. You gotta overcome a bit of inertia. Anyone who was never a gym rat, yet was able to make a commitment and attend a gym regularly, will know what I’m talking about. It takes something to change your environment or the company you keep or to leave a conversation that isn’t healthy. But once you do, the feeling on the other side is wonderful, like a release.

 

Releases lead to relaxation.

 

I found for myself that when I’m feeling relaxed, the world around me reflects back as relaxed.

 

Just the contemplation of relaxing your world opens the door to the experience. Actions you can take begin to reveal themselves. In the beginning they are simple and straightforward like walking the dog, going for a bike ride, making a pot of tea and sharing it with a friend, or smiling at a stranger.

 

Relaxing your world is not an afterthought. For the person interested in a balanced life, it becomes a daily habit that is contagious and fun!