Where Do You Place Your Focus?

Albert Einstein once stated, “Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” We often forget this piece of truth when we are struggling, overwhelmed or at our wits end. But it is vital to our living in grace, embracing happiness and in finding peace. The problem for many is the process of moving from point A to point B. How do you find the simplicity, the harmony or the opportunity when you are feeling like your life is falling apart? Where we decide to focus our energies is key. If we continue to put our focus on the negative then that will be all we see and feel. But if we can find one piece to hold onto that is lighter or brighter and invest our thoughts and discussions on that, removing ourselves from conversations about the negativity surrounding us, we find our energies begin to shift. We have all experienced it. You bump into a friend, they are in a very sour mood, feeling as though there is a black cloud hanging overhead, or feeling like the world is out to get them. Their entire conversation with you is spent spewing, unraveling and re-raveling the tired story of why their life is a mess, who is against them, how unhappy they are, how things will never change and so on. No matter what optimistic or hopeful comment you make they push it aside and insist on stepping back into the mud puddle they are carrying around with them. Almost every encouragement you offer is met with a “Yes, but…”. It is exhausting not only for them, but for anyone else who crosses their path! Focusing on the negative is hard work!

It is hard to break the cycle, to step out of the repeating dialogue and negative mantra. But once you do, you feel the energy shift. At first your mind may try to persuade you to come back, to give it more to fester over, to offer you excuses and rationales of why this or that. Continue though to place your focus on one thing that can be seen as a positive possibility, on way to simplify, on peaceful thought and you will see that your soul responds to the life line being tossed its way!

Grab ahold of this and take it with you and move yourself away from the triggers of the negativity. It could be a situation, it could be a conversation, or it could be a relationship. Step away from it until you feel you have a better balanced, healthier perspective and can embrace the positive possibilities of dealing with it, if you even decide to return to it at all. Many times once we are able to do this we find that it matters so very much less to us than we originally thought and we can just let it go. As Henry David Thoreau wrote, “It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.” What you have learned to see in these situations is that you are in control of how you react to what happens to you. Then in response to the you choose to react, the future and how things unfold for you change. It is a beautiful equation.

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2013 LISA MEADE