Where Your Attention Goes, Your Life Goes. – Martha Beck

I love this life that I live.  Sure, there are bumps in the road, but it is my choice how I perceive those bumps.  I can either perceive them as negative and a time of suffering or neutral and a time of growth and opportunity.  It is all about the perspective we choose to have.  This is so comforting, because I realize that I have control over how I feel.  I can carefully select what I think and what I believe and depending on what I choose, I can live a life filled with peace, ease, and love or a life filled with confusion, anger, and/or disappointment.  It is such a beautiful thing!  It is my choice and in that is pure freedom.  Simple, yet oh! so beautiful.

My favorite teacher, Martha Beck, says, “Where your attention goes, your life goes.”  She shares a similar analogy as the one I am about to share.

Evan, being a professional kayaker, kayaks class five rapids and many of the rivers he paddles include rocks, trees, debris, etc. that can be very dangerous if he were to hit them.  So how does he manage to get down the river safe and sound, 95% of the time?  He focuses solely on the CLEAN and SAFE lines.  In life, it is much the same.  If I were to attach myself to every negative thought I had or any thought of the past or future, that tensed up my body or made me feel bad inside, I would probably lead a dangerous life for myself and for others.  However, if I observed a thought, just as Evan would observe a rock in the river, and then decide to re-direct my attention back to this moment, where there are no thoughts at all, or in Evans case, back to the safe line in front of him, then I would move through life or a river, gracefully and safely.  There would be no attachment to any thought or rock, per se, which means I wouldn’t  be effected by any thought or rock in the river.

I want to live like this.  I want to become more and more aware of my thoughts, so that when I notice a negative shift in my body, I will know that I am focusing on something I shouldn’t be focusing on.  If Evan were to begin focusing on a rock in the river, realizing that he was getting closer and closer to it, he would immediately focus his attention on a different part of the river, a better route, which would steer him to a safe and easy way of the river .  So although I may be babbling on, I just want to remind everyone, including myself, that life doesn’t have to be hard.  It can be easy and amazingly amazing, if we just realize that where our attention goes, our life goes.  It is ALL ABOUT the PERSPECTIVE you choose to have.  Change your thoughts, change your life.