Empowerment: What You Focus On Determines How You See

A key to empowerment is recognizing that life is full of paradox and duality and learning to stop the unconscious resistance to what is.  What is, is.  What story we decide to create about the situation is another story. 

What I mean by this is that the way we respond to a situation is determined by how we REACT to it.  Empowerment is about becoming aware of your choices. Instead of RE – ACTING, that is, repeating dysfunctional behavior over and over again, we take our power back and begin to make better choices.

It is about realizing that in this moment, you can choose differently than you did yesterday.  Instead of reacting to what the media says about the economy and feeling fear and distress, you can choose to focus on what is good about your life. 

You can choose to appreciate the provision that you have NOW, the shelter that you have NOW, the computer that you have NOW in order to access this blog.  If you worry about what could happen or about the ‘Great Depression’ of the last century, you are much more likely to fill your mind and body with processes that will cause worry and ill health.  This is a conditioned response.  It is also addictive. 

In our brains we have areas that are wired for survival which, while nature’s intent is for protection, can cause us to become stuck in a cycle of ‘flight, fight or freeze’’.  True, there is a lot of chaos going on in our world today, but I CHOOSE to see it as an opportunity for change.  Most people will not wake up from the sleep walking that they call their lives until they start having a nightmare! 

Well, if you keep your focus on the negative images being thrown up before your eyes, all you will see is what is wrong with the world.  Einstein had a good idea when he said that ‘a problem cannot be solved with the same consciousness that created it’. 

Guys, it is time to wake up and start making better choices about what is important in life.  While the headline of the front page of my local newspaper actually had the nerve to show soup lines from the Great Depression (why would I want to read that story, what good will it do me today?), I have not heard any stories that mention the fact that there were a significant number of MILLIONAIRES created during the same time period. 

I can bet you one thing, those people who were not only surviving, but THRIVING did not have their attention on what was wrong with life.  You cannot stop the negative hearsayers, but you can choose what you give your attention to. 

You will not stop the Pavlov dog type conditioned responses to fear if you don’t take the time to go inside your self and quiet your noisy mind so that you can become empowered to stay present enough to focus on anything beautiful in your life.  I can tell you one thing for sure; the feeling of GRATITUDE is POWERFUL and will attract to you people, situations and circumstances that can change your life for the better. 

If you are drowning in fear, not only will you go down, but you will have nothing to help the world around you.  I say let’s start changing our focus to what we want instead of what we don’t want and act PROACTIVELY instead of the reactive way of ‘business as usual’.  Personal empowerment is an idea whose time has come.