Focus can be a creative asset and a hypnotic experience.
Sometimes I find focus is a fun experience, like when I’m playing the photographer. I use my camera lens as a tool to focus in on beauty. This is a very pleasurable activity as it calms and centers me. Then, because I am looking for it, I start seeing beauty everywhere. Colors emerge in new ways. Compositions call out to me. I fall into a meditative state through my focus on focusing. ;)
This can work for us, as in my beauty meditation, or it can work against us. It is easy to focus on things that feel big and scary and beyond our control. Let’s imagine these things are like giant clowns (because I find clowns oddly terrifying). Now, imagine that we can sense a clown is sneaking up on us as we walk innocently down the street. We know he is out there, lurking around some dark corner, and we are on high alert. A part of us is constantly scanning for the clown, even while we pretend to be in control and unconcerned.
Then, when we least expect it, the clown leaps out from his hiding place. He is jumping up and down and making scary clown noises. All we can see is his big red clown mouth, his sharp pointy teeth, and his huge, dark, dangerous eyes. All we can hear is his psychotic laughter and our own screaming. (By the way, I’m sweating just writing this.)
This can work for us, as in my beauty meditation, or it can work against us. It is easy to focus on things that feel big and scary and beyond our control. Let’s imagine these things are like giant clowns (because I find clowns oddly terrifying). Now, imagine that we can sense a clown is sneaking up on us as we walk innocently down the street. We know he is out there, lurking around some dark corner, and we are on high alert. A part of us is constantly scanning for the clown, even while we pretend to be in control and unconcerned.
Then, when we least expect it, the clown leaps out from his hiding place. He is jumping up and down and making scary clown noises. All we can see is his big red clown mouth, his sharp pointy teeth, and his huge, dark, dangerous eyes. All we can hear is his psychotic laughter and our own screaming. (By the way, I’m sweating just writing this.)
Fear creates exquisite focus.
Now let’s say this “clown” is actually something like a financial crisis, or a health condition, or a relationship blow-up. Usually, we can feel this experience sneaking up on us. We knew it’s a real possibility, and because we don’t want it, we are constantly scanning the horizon looking for it. The great irony of creation is that passionately NOT wanting something can bring it right into our reality. Negative attention is still attention and our focused awareness is the great manifestor.
When we get the very thing we dread the most and it is jumping up and down in front us, how can we not stare at it in horror? It is like a bad accident. We can’t look away. Our focus becomes desperate and we lock the creation into place.
Fear is a compelling emotion and a tremendous creative magnet. It creates a very dense and seductive gravity. If we feel trapped in the vortex of fear, we quickly spiral into the black hole of helplessness and despair. From that point, it is very hard to shift out of our manifestation and create something with an entirely different vibration.
When we get the very thing we dread the most and it is jumping up and down in front us, how can we not stare at it in horror? It is like a bad accident. We can’t look away. Our focus becomes desperate and we lock the creation into place.
Fear is a compelling emotion and a tremendous creative magnet. It creates a very dense and seductive gravity. If we feel trapped in the vortex of fear, we quickly spiral into the black hole of helplessness and despair. From that point, it is very hard to shift out of our manifestation and create something with an entirely different vibration.
How do we break free?
I’ve found the remedy to this dilemma is to shift my focus so I’m no longer staring with unwavering dilated eyes at the thing I most fear. This is easier said than done, but it is possible.
Unfortunately I, like most of us, have been well-trained in the art of focusing our attention. Consider for a moment how media and entertainment lure us into deeper conditioning. Reflect on how religion refines our beliefs and teaches us to focus through ritual. Think about how we were taught to learn in school. Look at how the expectations of family and friends condition our behaviors. None of these things are wrong per se, they are simply choices; yet they are such common human experiences, that operating outside this norm is considered odd at best, and at times even dangerous.
As a result, we are not taught to perceive multiple potentials. It is an even bigger stretch to imagine that multiple realities could be existing simultaneously and believe we could choose amongst them. Living with such freedom is way outside the norm. When we begin to open to this ability, it is not easy to apply it in the best of times. It is particularly challenging when we feel paralyzed by fear.
I’ve learned a few tricks for expanding my perceptions, and I’d like to share them with you today.
Unfortunately I, like most of us, have been well-trained in the art of focusing our attention. Consider for a moment how media and entertainment lure us into deeper conditioning. Reflect on how religion refines our beliefs and teaches us to focus through ritual. Think about how we were taught to learn in school. Look at how the expectations of family and friends condition our behaviors. None of these things are wrong per se, they are simply choices; yet they are such common human experiences, that operating outside this norm is considered odd at best, and at times even dangerous.
As a result, we are not taught to perceive multiple potentials. It is an even bigger stretch to imagine that multiple realities could be existing simultaneously and believe we could choose amongst them. Living with such freedom is way outside the norm. When we begin to open to this ability, it is not easy to apply it in the best of times. It is particularly challenging when we feel paralyzed by fear.
I’ve learned a few tricks for expanding my perceptions, and I’d like to share them with you today.
Trick #1 - I take responsibility for the clowns I create.
The appearance of a screaming clown is shocking. It throws us off balance. We often go into resistance or denial. Sometimes or our fear is so great that we collapse into the role of the victim.
What we often don’t realize is that the clown is in service to us. He is jumping up and down to get our attention. He wants us to see that we created him and, therefore, can un-create him. His ultimate gift to us is opened when we realize we are never a victim, but to receive this gift, we have to take responsibility for what we create. Then we can create something new.
The first step I take is to stop fighting the clown’s presence. I may not like him, but fighting with him never works. Neither does running from him. What I resist persists. So I say hello to the clown and I acknowledge that he is there, and that he exists because I called him forth.
What we often don’t realize is that the clown is in service to us. He is jumping up and down to get our attention. He wants us to see that we created him and, therefore, can un-create him. His ultimate gift to us is opened when we realize we are never a victim, but to receive this gift, we have to take responsibility for what we create. Then we can create something new.
The first step I take is to stop fighting the clown’s presence. I may not like him, but fighting with him never works. Neither does running from him. What I resist persists. So I say hello to the clown and I acknowledge that he is there, and that he exists because I called him forth.
Trick #2 - I look for the humor.
As any theater person knows, tragedy and comedy are closely linked together. So when a clown appears, I know that humor is automatically built into the dynamic. I just have to shift my perspective to find it.
Taking responsibility for my creation is the key to finding the humor. Granted, this humor is usually a bit dark and twisted and filled with irony, but at the very least I can usually laugh at the fact that I so effectively created my very worst nightmare when I seemingly could create nothing else.
Humor is liberating. If you can laugh, you cannot remain a victim.
Taking responsibility for my creation is the key to finding the humor. Granted, this humor is usually a bit dark and twisted and filled with irony, but at the very least I can usually laugh at the fact that I so effectively created my very worst nightmare when I seemingly could create nothing else.
Humor is liberating. If you can laugh, you cannot remain a victim.
Trick #3 - I blur my focus on the clown and choose my safe space.
When I can finally chuckle, the clown no longer has my full attention. I can blur my perception of him even more by breathing calmly and going inside me. The clown might still be there jumping and screaming, and I’m not denying his presence, but I’ve found within me a clown-proof place. This place is still and eternal, and no clown can enter. I can sit there quietly, knowing nothing is really wrong, and still be aware of the clown. They exist simultaneously.
It takes practice to sit in this space, and it helps a lot if you can learn the path to it when there are no screaming clowns present. It is much harder to find a feeling of eternal safety when there is drama in your life, but once you know the path to your safe space it is always available to you. If you use it regularly, you will find it has some remarkable side effects. For example, I’ve gone to this safe space within when I am in physical pain, and if I can sit in my awareness of being safe while I feel the pain simultaneously, my body will start to rebalance automatically and the pain will eventually fade away. It might take a few hours of continuous practice, but I have released migraines this way. I know it works on bigger issues as well, but I must hold the knowingness consistently or the effects are temporary. If I know myself as already safe and free, then freedom and safety become my reality. To have this I have to consistently choose it. When fear rises again (which it still does), I get yet another chance to choose what I want to focus upon. Each time I successfully redirect to my safe space I make the new operating system stronger. Eventually it will become my consistent reality.
It takes practice to sit in this space, and it helps a lot if you can learn the path to it when there are no screaming clowns present. It is much harder to find a feeling of eternal safety when there is drama in your life, but once you know the path to your safe space it is always available to you. If you use it regularly, you will find it has some remarkable side effects. For example, I’ve gone to this safe space within when I am in physical pain, and if I can sit in my awareness of being safe while I feel the pain simultaneously, my body will start to rebalance automatically and the pain will eventually fade away. It might take a few hours of continuous practice, but I have released migraines this way. I know it works on bigger issues as well, but I must hold the knowingness consistently or the effects are temporary. If I know myself as already safe and free, then freedom and safety become my reality. To have this I have to consistently choose it. When fear rises again (which it still does), I get yet another chance to choose what I want to focus upon. Each time I successfully redirect to my safe space I make the new operating system stronger. Eventually it will become my consistent reality.
Trick #4 - I allow the clown to leave.
This seems like it would be easy, that we would actually celebrate this part, yet it is ironically the most challenging. At least it has been so for me. Why you ask? It is because I’ve been attached to what created the clown. I may not want the clown himself, but I am attached to the beliefs and identities and stories that brought the clown into being. When I sit in my safe eternal space, all these things start to loosen and release, and darn it, if I don’t find myself grabbing onto them and clinging the moment they start to leave. They are comfortable. Who would I be without them? Do I really want my freedom or am I still enjoying the drama on some twisted level?
Death is a necessary part of rebirth, yet most of us avoid endings like we avoid the plague. To make it worse, there is a void state that traditionally follows a release. There is a period of limbo before the new thing emerges, and this is even more uncomfortable than the letting go.
When we release a big clown, many many stories go with him. There will be an unraveling and it will reach into unexpected parts of our lives. Many other things will leave because they resonated to the same vibrational pattern, and this is invariably shocking. We rarely see this coming.
Allowing such surprising deconstruction takes enormous trust. I’ve learned there is a wisdom guiding my renewal, and I am best served by letting it have its way with me. When my relationships ended and roles fell away, my body started behaving oddly, or I lost my passion, each change created the space for something new.
Every clown I’ve faced (and there have been some doozies) came in service to my freedom. Each time honored the clown, took responsibility for creating him, and simultaneously managed to sit in my safe space witnessing his antics, I expanded. Eventually I realized that nothing can ever separate me from my eternal nature. It is always available to me, no matter how many clowns I choose to dance with.
So whatever challenge is before you (natural disaster, illness, financial security, loss of trust in systems, relationship issues, identity crisis, fill in the blank…) it is there in service to you. It is there to help you realize your freedom.
Death is a necessary part of rebirth, yet most of us avoid endings like we avoid the plague. To make it worse, there is a void state that traditionally follows a release. There is a period of limbo before the new thing emerges, and this is even more uncomfortable than the letting go.
When we release a big clown, many many stories go with him. There will be an unraveling and it will reach into unexpected parts of our lives. Many other things will leave because they resonated to the same vibrational pattern, and this is invariably shocking. We rarely see this coming.
Allowing such surprising deconstruction takes enormous trust. I’ve learned there is a wisdom guiding my renewal, and I am best served by letting it have its way with me. When my relationships ended and roles fell away, my body started behaving oddly, or I lost my passion, each change created the space for something new.
Every clown I’ve faced (and there have been some doozies) came in service to my freedom. Each time honored the clown, took responsibility for creating him, and simultaneously managed to sit in my safe space witnessing his antics, I expanded. Eventually I realized that nothing can ever separate me from my eternal nature. It is always available to me, no matter how many clowns I choose to dance with.
So whatever challenge is before you (natural disaster, illness, financial security, loss of trust in systems, relationship issues, identity crisis, fill in the blank…) it is there in service to you. It is there to help you realize your freedom.
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