“You are one thing only. You are a Divine Being. An all-powerful Creator. You are a Deity in jeans and a t-shirt, and within you dwells the infinite wisdom of the ages and the sacred creative force of All that is, will be and ever was.”

― Anthon St. Maarten, Divine Living: The Essential Guide To Your True Destiny

This week I want to share with you some thoughts about focus. We know that focus is a key component to reaching goals, doing something well or performing well, staying in the moment, etc. Focus is an element of all kinds of thinking—perception, memory, learning, reasoning and decision making. In one way focus is a driver and a point where activity and attention is concentrated. We often think about focus in terms of the external—focusing on or being aware of our environment, focusing on a task or a deliverable or focusing on another person or situation.

But there is another side to focus. The use of focus for personal spiritual advancement or enlightenment. Last week I wrote about the universal change underway and the shifts in energy and consciousness—in short, about being launched into new discoveries, freedoms and empowerment outside of the constraints of time and space and into a  new dimension of realizing a universal purpose. As we go through this process and experience we will all benefit from the positive output of our personal spiritual advancement. 

Now is the time to look inward—to our higher self–so that we will  be in tune with energetic changes, as well as to find peace with our pasts and embrace the transition underway. There is remarkable strength and resilience that comes from working through your spirit that will propel you to new levels of thought and energy. By being focused on your spirituality your soul will emerge from its silence and become an invaluable part of your life.

In addition to taking care of your body and mind, how you nurture and respect your soul will accelerate your spiritual development. The acknowledgement of our spiritual self as a dynamic part of our being can break cycles of negativity that we have endured as part of the Third Dimension and our upbringing, and can serve as an accelerator to prepare us for the next Dimension.

Focusing on your soul or spirit can lead to an awakening that will connect you to a deeper profound inner knowing. It can help you from “fighting” yourself, to finding peace, to opening channels and allowing energy to more freely flow. It will help you let go of actions driven by your Ego and help move you to a state of understanding, compassion and contentment.

Renewing faith in ourselves and our existence with a higher purpose in life does not lie in revelation of new external information or a new instructions. It resides within each of us. Through the process of enlightenment our trust in the Universe is renewed and we will be able to leave behind years of instilled expectations of living in favor of reason, logic and analysis and with a preoccupation with prediction and control. It will lead to a higher-level of consciousness where new truths are embraced and a better life is possible.

Now is the time to re-focus on your spirit—even though sometimes it may feel or be strange like looking through a new set of glasses. But if you keep your eyes, mind and every part of you open and allow the time to adjust, you will discover a new world unfolding. There is a gift in seeing with your true sight.

I have been having this debate with myself on when distraction is a good thing or a problem and a hindrance to moving forward. Does it cause me not to pay attention to my Self, my surroundings or people around me? And how do I know if “distraction” is meant to be and is part of my soul’s journey or is causing me to get lost.

Sometimes a little distraction is a good thing. It helps get you in a different frame of mind and can provide an escape—and maybe connect you to a discovery.  Sometimes distraction intersects with procrastination—where those little things that catch your attention become “big” things that side track you from getting the task at hand done. Sometimes distractions are side trips where you physically or mentally get to go to new places, see new things and meet new people.

It’s like searching on the Web. I start a search to find something or learn something—but before I know it I’m on this journey through information, ideas, words, pictures and sounds. And when I resurface I realize that the journey has sparked new ideas, made me re-think a concept or unearthed new connections—and I have learned something about myself. I have grown and become a better me.  But sometimes it can become noise as I go down nooks and crannies of the Net, get overwhelmed with information or get frustrated with not finding what I’m looking for—but somehow still drawn into this maze. So, distraction—bad or good?

I think distraction is multi-purpose. It can help us or hinder us. It can keep us from the bad and the good.  The key is how you relate to distraction. When you think in terms of distraction and look outward and have a negative reaction to external conditions, this can lead to judgment or blame. However, if you think of distraction and look inward, reflect and learn, you grow and evolve.

Distraction will always be part of our lives—however small or large—but it’s how we react to it that makes the difference.  When our minds wander we sometimes discover new perspectives, ideas and concepts. These can be gateways to new thinking or creating—unblocking or opening up new channels and using our imagination to manifest. When you feel distracted, ask yourself what is the distraction really about? What are you distracting yourself from and why?

Sometimes you’ll find that it’s OK to have the distraction and it’s better to relax into the outcomes of your wanderings than to judge yourself or feel guilty.  You have the choice to direct your attention to positive distractions that help keep your mind away from negative thinking or circumstances and be in the moment of that distraction. Distraction can provide you the opportunity to have an outlet for the moment. And if you choose the right distraction, you may just find that you have learned something about yourself, found comfort or peace, reignited imagination and recharged. So when distraction enters your day, don’t let it be a rabbit hole. Let it be a looking glass!

“There is force in the universe, which, if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

In today’s world, relaxation is often associated with such activities as going on vacation, watching a movie, having a beer with friends, listening to music, etc. True, these may turn your attention away from stressors in your life and get you physically (and mentally) in a different space, but they are stimulating. They stimulate your senses, and they do not really get you to a place of relaxing in a deep, meaningful way.

I would like to share with you a different perspective on relaxation–relaxation in a spiritual sense; relaxation in terms of regaining control of you own attention and energy, and as part of spiritual development. Relaxation in terms of taking a break from your physical identity and all the comes with that (thinking about how things are and how they should be) and deeply allowing yourself to truly experience not only the sense of freedom but the belief that you are a divine being and part of all that is.

For the most part, most of our waking lives our attention (and energy) is directed outwards–through what we see, what we hear, what we say, what we do, etc. to the world around us. And it’s attracted (and sometimes distracted) by other sounds, people and energies, which are all competing for our attention. This creates a lot of noise and sometimes before we know it we can’t differentiate the noise from the signal.

We may experience this by feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, tired, stressed or unfocused and think by taking that physical and mental break–turning it off for a bit by doing things which we have been conditioned to believe help us relax–will help. And maybe for a short while it does. But what is missing is the deep relaxation that quiets our minds and re-connects us to our spirituality, our higher Selves and to the Universe.

So what is spirituality? Spirituality can have many definitions and one can think about  spirituality as something that gives your life context and meaning, and arises from your connection with yourself, with others and with the universe.

Cultivating your spirituality through relaxation can be done in many ways, such as meditation, working with techniques to calm emotions and quiet your mind as well as visualization, among others. It can also be nurtured by “relaxing” into life and daily situations by approaching life embracing your spirituality and knowing that you are part of a greater whole; to be confident in your soul’s journey and believing that you are being taken care of by the universe. Never are you left alone for one moment and everything is happening according to divine order and divine timing.

So I encourage you to think about relaxation is a different way–in a way that connects you with your spirituality, your higher Self and to the wonders of the Universe. Now your turn–please share how you practice spiritual relaxation.

I had a few interesting (and thought provoking) conversations lately. Well, more like encounters where small sound bites were innocently and unnoticeably spoken–and where then the conversation just moved somewhere else or just waned off, and we went our respective ways and doing our respective things. But they started to add up a bit–get connected. And they made me start to think (ok contemplate) why some people are so resistant to doing something–even if it’s something small–to make a change.

I have a good friend who just was not happy in her job. She is extremely talented, innovative–a true creative spirit (and mind). She was feeling a bit stuck in an over bureaucratized and negative work environment. But she was sticking it out until one day the negativity reached a peak, and coupled with a few unfortunate events (a bit of a perfect universal storm), got her to the point of saying “no more” and “I’ll be leaving.” Now you may think that the rest of this story will be about her, but it’s not. It’s about the reaction and responses of others to her decision.

So she decides to make this rather significant change (and done so in a professional, reasonable, logical, “just-knew” in her soul the right thing to do for her kind of way). She says to me in passing that some people were sending her “you go girl” type messages that went as far as saying “hey, you are my hero” and so glad “you got over the wall.”  Ok–who among us who have worked in some challenging environments and similar circumstances can say that even for a split second we never thought that? A bit of human nature at play–maybe . . .

And the question I pose is how many of us did something positive for ourselves when even for that split second we had those thoughts?

My friend moves on, but the people that sent her those messages are still there–most likely going back to their day to day tasks, feeling unappreciated, over-worked–thinking that they are the victim of the machine. Maybe they are scared, or don’t know where to start or maybe just are content being unhappy–of living in this state of despair. They have a lot of inherited beliefs, live in the state of “if only” or “when” (believing like there’s this perfect time to do something different) and fuel their own cycle of negative thinking.

Or they think that something will be given to them, someone else has the control and they just have to wait till it’s delivered to them. And I thought, how sad. And what’s even sadder is the collective energy of this negativity (the “misery loves company” adage), and not only that it seems accepted, but how it perpetuates negative energy, and more so a low frequency of functioning of the Self that has such a negative universal impact.

I’m not advocating that everyone who knew my friend and sent those messages quit their jobs on the spot. Indeed, accepting one’s current circumstances and acknowledging why you are where you are is a key step. But if those people who were sending (and feeling) such a movement-like passion could take that passion to look inward and examine why they are feeling such an affinity to my friend in this context and start to make change within themselves;  how that can change the dynamic–within themselves and in their environment.

There is such a “complaining” culture that’s kept alive because people do not take the time to work on themselves; to reflect, to understand themselves, to learn what makes them happy, to put out well thought out intentions and to be compassionate. Many live is a state where it seems easier to blame others and not take responsibility for how they feel and their circumstances. My friend’s decision was not rash–it was done with self-reflection and with a full understanding of her Self.

A few days after that brief conversation with my friend, I called up her to see how she was doing, and we talked a bit about those emails and calls that were lingering with her–not lingering because she had any second thoughts or felt bad for the people “left behind,” but because at that critical moment (of that universal perfect storm) she knew without question her decision was the right one for her. She felt sad that people were thinking that her decision was a visceral reaction and were viewing her as a hero for “rejecting the corporate machine.”

Over the course of a few weeks I had a few similar conversations, but in varying contexts–and I kept seeing this pattern. The pattern of what seems to be that it’s easier to complain or to live vicariously through someone else’s action versus taking a positive step forward and discovering one’s Self. So again the question–human nature or deciding to stay functioning at a low vibration? I choose functioning at a higher vibration!