Shift point of attention

Shifting point of attention is a practice that can alter your sense of self, perception and external reality.

A huge revelation is that anything we perceive in others and the outside world are actually part of ourselves. This means whatever we admire or despise, whatever excites us and evokes discomfort, is all part of a positive or negative shadow.

Looking deeply, it grows apparent that part of us that resists expansion and development. Taking personal responsibility for our perception implies a willingness to be accountable. In essence, we realize, we have no one to blame but ourselves. It means we determine our behavior and how we see the world.

From the moment it hits that we are the source of all our perception, we can grow into a conscious agent of change. To do so requires we be willing to recognize that so long as we project into the external world, we cannot completely embody our creative gifts.

Give this exercise a go:

Step 1: In a journal, jot down the names of three people you admire and three people who trigger your emotional buttons.

Step 2: Detail qualities you admire/ or evoke discomfort

Step 3: Draw or explain how you envision embodying or integrating these qualities will change your life experience

Step 4: Brainstorm what you can do regularly to strengthen desirable dimensions or qualities of yourself as well as what you can do to curtail or eliminate behaviors that reinforce undesirable patterns.

Step 5: "Act as if" you feel fully integrated, balanced and realizing the qualities/ behaviors you admire in others