“A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances. ” – James Allen
Meet Mary, she gets out of bed reluctantly with that obnoxious sound of her alarm clock, beep, beep, beep, beep, you get the picture. If she had a hammer, I’m sure she would whack it out of its misery. Being half-a-wake she stumbles out of bed to turn on the big square box to listen to the latest global news, weather forecasts, and tons of advertisements in the background. She slowly gets momentum, stepping over the sleeping dog, to grab her first cup of coffee in the kitchen. Then she frantically looks for her iPhone to see if there are any earth-shattering texts or messages before heading to the shower to jump start her day.
Mary already knows her daily routine, she’s done it for many years. She grabs her coat, her heavy purse full of things, finds her car keys and backs out of her garage making sure not to hit anything. As she rushes to work she switches between the mixture of different radio stations until she finds something satisfactory. She passes all sorts of billboards and lighted advertising signs every few miles that are trying to get her attention. She may also get a text or phone call from one of her family members, coworkers, or one those annoying sales calls.
She arrives at work, sits at the same desk, turns on her computer and is bombarded with a new list of emails and voice messages, thinking which ones do I get to first. Throughout Mary’s day she multi-tasks, gets interrupted, answers questions, attends meetings, gets interrupted, answers phone calls, helps train an employee, maybe takes a lunch, and gets interrupted again. She then goes home to sit in her favorite spot, if only for a few minutes to try and reduce her brain’s information overload.
Yikes, does reading this make you want to run and hide?
Mary’s mind is on a constant arousal state from sunrise to sunset, being pulled into different directions by people and things wanting her undivided attention. As a result, she is not able to focus on any one thing for an extended period of time, let alone focus on any one loving or fun thing for herself.
Does any of this sound familiar with anybody you know?
For Mary and so many others, this is a very common scenario. Much of our modern-day society is not aware of how much their minds are being persuaded, manipulated, or controlled by someone else’s agenda, with what they need to do, how they should do it, or how they should feel.
We live in the information/digital age, which is a wonderful thing because it has connected us on a global level, and created more opportunities than ever before in history. The downside is, many people have become so attached to their digital and electronic devices 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, all year long. They do not fully realize how bombarded they are with others trying to enter their minds, direct their thoughts, what they should fear and how they should live. Especially social media.
This leaves very little to no space for focusing on one thing at a time. Our society is so distracted and interrupted with visual and audible stuff on a consistent basis that for many they have lost touch with how they really want to be living their lives. They unknowingly got caught up in main stream of information overload.
Researcher Dr. Martin Hilbert, University of Southern California said the typical person consumes the equivalent of 174 newspapers worth of data every single day.
While the information/digital age provides us with unlimited information, we also need to recognize that we as human’s need to take time out for ourselves, for our own sanity. And it starts with slowing down and focusing on one thing at a time. When we are focused on one thing for an extended period of time, this connects us to our blue print of life. Through taking breaks, shutting off our devices, and channeling our thoughts, we can reduce the information overload, to create and shape the physical conditions for achieving our desires, our personal or professional goals.
To do Activity
Here is a mind exercise to help you to slow down and learn how to focus for an extended period of time. Notice how you feel before and after the exercise. Ask somebody you know to read the following to you:
“Get comfortable, take a couple deep breaths and close your eyes. I want you to remember the most recent birthday party you attended, was it an adult or child’s birthday party, or was it a relative or a friend? How old was the person, was it a surprise birthday party or did the person know? Was the party held in a house or a public place? What did this place look like? Was there food served, what kind of food, sit down or help yourself? Was the food tasty, to your liking? Was there a cake, what kind, chocolate, vanilla, or a mix, was it a big or small cake, what color was the frosting, did you approve of the cake? Was their ice-cream, what flavor? Did the person receive presents, what kind of presents, toys, gadgets, clothes, shoes, anything unusual, any birthday cards, or gift cards, what kind of gift cards? How long was the birthday party, were drinks served, what kind, juice, soda, beer, did you consume anything, do you remember how much you had to drink? Did you know everybody at the party, were they relatives, friends, neighbors, what were they wearing? Did you converse with any of them, what did you say? Do you remember?
Now keep your eyes closed and take a couple deep breaths, and become aware of your most recent vacation, how many days did you have for vacation days. How long were you gone from home? Or did you stay home? Was your vacation an adventure trip, a warm weather get-a-way, a tropical island or the mountains, a visit to a family member or friends, a wellness trip? How did you get there, did you travel by train, plane, automobile, ship? What was that like? Did you go by yourself, did you go with your family or a friend? What was the weather like, hot and sunny, cool and breezy? Did you meet anybody on vacation, if so who, what was that encounter like? Did you have fun, why or why not? Did you see anything that took your breath away, what was that? Did you do anything that was out of your comfort zone, what was it, try to think of everything you can about the vacation. How was the food, do you remember what you ate, what you drank? Do you remember what you wore on vacation, did you forget to pack anything that you wish you had? How did you feel when you got back home?
OK, now with your eyes still closed, this time I want you to remember when you last pet or touched an animal, was it a dog, a cat, a horse, what kind of animal was it? Whose animal was it, yours, a friend, a family member? Why did you pet or touch the animal? What did the animal’s coat feel like, soft, rough, prickly? What color was the animal, black, white, brown, green, try to remember as much detail as you can. What is the animal’s name, does the name seem to fit the animal’s personality? What kind of personality did the animal have, friendly, shy, overbearing, energetic, outgoing? How did the animal make you feel? If you had to say one word about your experience of petting or touching the animal, what would it be?
Now with your eyes still closed, become aware of what you are sitting on, what does it feel like, soft, hard or in-between, what do you hear, what do you smell, what do you sense? What are you feeling now? Now slowly open your eyes”.
This was an exercise to prove two things.
1). There is a clear separation between awareness and the collection of thousands of thoughts that accumulate overtime, that are stored in your brain and just appear as if out of know where as thought form.
2). Through focusing you can take your awareness to any area of your mind, any thought form that you want to go to.
Focusing on what you want to focus on, gives you the power to lead your own life. It’s as if you are the engine of a train instead of the individual cars that represent an accumulation of other’s people’s agendas. The engine is the driving force leading you on your own adventure toward your destination.
Your family member or friend had you traveling, taking you to different places in your mind, the “Birthday Party”, the “Vacation”, and then the “Animal”, the longer you are in these places in your mind, the longer you stay there. It like watching a really good movie that captures your attention, taking you to far-a-way places and back to present moment time.
Give your life your undivided attention, as where your focus goes, the energy flows. Otherwise what you want to manifest into reality becomes very challenging. Start with slowing down and concentrating only on one thing for an extended period of time, practice it and it will get easier and easier. No one else can control your thoughts unless you let them in! Live your life the way you want to, it’s your life!
I’d love to hear if you did the exercise, what you felt before and after doing the exercise.
Please share in the comments below.
Love and many horse hugs,
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