Do you know the feeling when you are completely lacking focus and dissipating your energy? Sometimes you have no idea what you could do to feel better, and other times you know exactly, but still are not capable to move to action? Here’s what you can do.
Today it was again below zero degrees here in Switzerland, the air was damp and foggy. On days like this during the loooong winters in the Northern hemisphere, if things are not going well in your life anyway, everything may seem too hard to bear or too difficult to change. Your mind feels foggy, you have a scatterbrain and you are lacking focus.
And I’m sure you know that a brisk walk (or run) outside creates biochemical reactions in your body that will lift your spirits, but “it’s really not weather to go out”. If you add to all this heaviness and inertia some thoughts about lack of hope, despair may take you into her clutches.
A long time ago, I used to be at that place. You are not alone. Quite a few people can get really lost at some point in their lives.
Words are magic
How do you feel now?
Even if you felt great before starting to read this article, these two paragraphs above most probably have lowered your level of energy or dragged you down.
Oops – I did it again!
Did you realise what kind of words I just used? What images and feelings did they convey? What you think matters. The way you treat yourself (even in your head) matters.
What you focus on matters.
Busy women like you are running and doing a lot. You have many responsibilities, are juggling several roles and tackling all kind of things at the same time. If you’re most of the time in a busy functioning and output mode like this, it’s very hard if not impossible to become aware of what kind of thoughts are running through your head (and the effect this has on your body!).
Chances are high that you get into the state of a “racing brain”, too.
And once you stop running, the exhaustion comes up – as I described above. You are lacking focus…
Can you observe right now what happens in your mind and body when you read and think about “exhaustion” or “foggy brain”?
Give it some time.
And what happens when you focus your attention on the words “energizing” or “uplifting” or “exuberance”? What images pop into your head, what memories and associations enter into your consciousness?
What happens to your focus?
How do you feel now?
It’s as simple as this: what you focus on expands. You probably heard this before or may even already be aware of that fact.
If you just nodded now, great. But I’m afraid knowing and nodding are not good enough!
You need to do it! You have to practise! You need to repeat!
You will want to figure out and do certain things that will allow you to become more easily and quicker aware of what kind of ongoing tunes and records you have at hand in your favourite chatterbox of the brain.
You can stop your inner critical voice, too.
Turn the wheel around!
The first thing to practice is to be present. Without noticing what is going on, you won’t be able to stop it – or only to replace it by another autopilot pattern.
There are many methods available nowadays to become more mindful and be fully present. You can, for example, start by eating your next meal – or just an apple – consciously, without listening to music or watching TV or reading at the same time. Or go for a walk, brisk or slow, opening up for what you see, hear, feel in the present moment.
Then there are other things to do of course, but without that first step, you won’t get anywhere…
Sign up for my monthly e-zine Brilliant Times (scroll at the bottom of the page) to get more concrete strategies and tips to focus on the words that make a difference and the things that matter most.
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