Thought for the week
We need to pay attention to where we put our attention. Wherever we put our attention, we will be drawn to or it will be drawn to us. That means we have to be mindful of our thoughts because whatever we are thinking of, is where we have our attention. If we are constantly thinking of our fears, they will be attracted to us just because we have our attention on them. If we have our thoughts on more positive things, like getting ourselves to a position of comfort or accomplishing something, those are what will be attracted to us. We need to train and discipline our mind so that our thoughts and attention are on the right subjects for us.
Before writing this post for the blog, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to think of a proper subject. My attention was on ‘not being able to find a subject’. When I realised this, I then switched my thoughts to seeing myself finishing the post. Now I was looking at the sunny side of the situation, where the task was completed. I was no longer looking at the dark side of the situation.
A tool for tough times
This can be a useful and practical spiritual tool, for people who are currently going through tough times. For example, if we find ourselves in a difficult situation at the moment, our thought will usually turn to the challenges we now face in our lives. We think of how it will affect us financially, our family, our commitments, etc. We have our thoughts and attention on a crisis. We need to put our attention on to something more positive if we want to move on from our current position. If we keep our attention on the difficulty it is going to take a while to extract ourselves from it.
If we can move our thoughts onto a time in the future where we are out of the current difficulty and in a better place, we begin to see a glimmer of hope. To help us grasp this idea we can ask ourselves questions like:
What will it feel like to be in this better position?
How will it affect me?
What will have to happen to get there?
What steps can I start now?
When we get even subtle answers to any of these questions, we should write them down, immediately. They have a tendency to evaporate if we don’t catch them when they appear. Write down as many answers as we get. This can happen in the space of an hour, or we can collect them over several weeks, as we roll the concepts around our mind. Now, with our attention on positive possibilities we begin to get closer to our goal of a positive future.
Discipline to change our habit
This all sound fairly easy, and it is, but it does require discipline on our part by guarding our thoughts and our thinking. We need to be aware of what we are thinking at all times. If we are in the habit of dwelling on the negative side of a situation, it is going to take time to change that habit. We should start small and let the little bit of progress we make motivate us to try bigger challenges.
For example, if we are in a situation where we have a bad relationship, a tough job, some health problems, a difficult environment and we lack finances, it is going to be hard switching our attention for all of these challenges. It will be easier to start with one, like the health problems, and once we’ve made some progress on that, we can move on to the relationship issue. The bit of progress we make in one area will motivate us to try it in another.
Let’s keep a watch on our thoughts, so our attention will attract something positive into our lives. We need to pay attention to our attention.
*Ed Parkinson
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