My beau, Ian, is trying to learn how to juggle five balls at a time. He told me that he has read and heard from different sources that it can take several months of practice before someone is able to make the leap from juggling four balls to five.
He said, “I’m just going to hold it in my mind that if I keep my focus on practicing, that someday I WILL be able to master juggling five balls.”
This conversation got me thinking about something similar that my yoga teacher was explaining in class last week. He was saying that a huge part of yoga practice is focus. That in the moment, we are practicing keeping our attention and awareness on the pose we are in. And that in the bigger picture, we are continually bringing our attention back to our bodies and to the alignment and spaciousness that feel like a place of good health. My teacher went on to explain that over time this kind of focus reshapes our bodies and minds. Literally.
Focus.
It’s what I practice in meditation. Bringing my attention back to the breath. Back to the breath. Back to the breath. Because humans have these busy minds that want to flitter and flutter all over the place.
Focus. It’s what literally creates the life experience we want to have. Our habits create our lives.
I know this is obvious stuff. But I feel like I got to see it anew this morning. What if there were two or three things that I KNEW, just knew in my heart, would change my life in fabulous ways? What if I kept bringing myself back to focus on those things, like Ian and his juggling, just trusting that over time — who knows when, but sometime!— my continuous focus of energy and time and attention would result in success in those areas?
My whole world would be different. I know this.
Life is constantly presenting us with fascinating distractions to keep us from focusing on what we truly want. It’s easy to just get blown around from thing to thing to thing. But if you could practice focusing on just one thing you knew would change your life, what would that thing be? And what would it take to focus your attention and energy and time on that thing, day after day?
Who would you be if you could offer this kind of attention and success to yourself?