Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.
— Dr. Robert Schuller, American televangelist
A long time ago in a café, I saw a giant mural – and I mean giant, it covered a considerably sized wall.
It read, “When you focus on what you want, everything else falls away.”
Since I was in the habit of carrying a notebook at the time and so I scribbled it in, and would often refer to it.
I think it was memorable and inspiring and reminding at a time when I often found myself focusing not on what I wanted, but focusing far too much on what I DIDN’T want.
I would be immersed in fear and anxiety and worry, and often about the smallest of things … and what MIGHT happen.
I would rehearse future scenarios until my head – and heart – ached.
Tight little loops of panic and disaster running through my head and my body, and none of them were real.
My past would do the same. Like a zombie from the grave – I thought I’d long dealt with and buried it – it would arise once again to torment me.
I was focusing on all the pain and hurts, and dragging everything with me, not allowing this moment to be fresh and new.
Back then it was so real and so worrying and all consuming – and also so annoying because on one level I could logically dismiss it, and yet emotionally I would scratch away at it like a little scab, just making the whole mess deeper and deeper.
So to have the trust to let go and be present, to focus instead on what I wanted, and not what I didn’t want, was a big thing.
It’s so simple, but when you’re in that kind of state, it’s not easy.
But I realised the more I did just this, the more skilled I got at it, the easier life became.
I realised that for me that letting go was an essential practice because otherwise I was headed for a mental breakdown.
If I wanted to avoid disaster, I couldn’t be haphazard about my mental health. I needed to do something every single day to be in a better way.
And it worked – now I can look back and smile at what I used to do, but I also understand what a nightmare our own heads can be.
I guess what I’m saying is, don’t let your mental wellbeing, your happiness, your ability to shine be down to chance.
Invest time in an inner practice, an inner journey.
You may be incredibly busy, and I’m sure you are, but if you don’t do this you lose, and everyone loses.
Make it a ritual.
Okay? Stop, find something you can do. Learn to focus on Now and where you’re heading, not where you don’t want to go.
Go well,
Arjuna