#1239 - On what are you putting your attention?
What you put your attention on grows.
You can quickly try by closing your eyes and bringing your attention to one hand. After a few seconds, that hand begins to feel bigger, warmer and heavier than the other. As if the energy in your body, following your attention, has flown into your hand.
And that is what happens. Your energy flows in the direction of your attention, making the object of your attention grow.
I've learnt this in the bitterest of ways: through experience.
"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest." — Confucio.
Like when I was so consumed by the fear of something happening, I made it happen myself. Or the many times I infused all my attention into a problem, expanding it to the point it concealed entirely my vision and my ability to see a solution.
And it still happens.
Sometimes, when I am tired or dejected, I let my attention wanders to my struggles, falling into the trap of self-commiseration and affliction.
Until I remember, or as it often happens, I am reminded, that what I put my attention on grows.
Shifting my attention is the first step through and out.