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Shifting Our Focus From The Outer to The Inner

Blog pix - Melted me.
Creative Commons License photo credit: bethography – melting mama

Our whole way of seeing must shift if we are to experience lasting transformation. We must shift our focus from the external world of form to the deeper internal focus. This shift of focus is absolutely necessary for higher consciousness, health and inner peace to prevail in our lives.

Here's an example:

Deborah is overweight and complains of feeling out of shape and tired all the time. Seen through an externally focused lens, the answer is obvious; Deborah needs to diet and start an exercise program. Her husband encourages Deborah to take action and so she joins a gym and goes regularly for the first few weeks. She also signs up in a weight loss program and manages to lose 10-15 pounds. She feels better in the beginning, but because there has been no real internal shift, Deborah gradually slides back into her old habits and regains the weight she lost. She feels more hopeless than ever about being able to enforce lasting change in her health and fitness.

Deborah, like most of us, believes that change is something that is done from the outside in. She sought outside solutions to change her internal state. She was looking for something to do (exercise, diet, take a pill, etc) that would fix her problems and was disappointed when those “fixes” were short-lived. Such an externally focused approach is one we are all familiar with. It is based on the idea that if we just come up with the right mixture of external ingredients, we can effect change for the better.

But let's explore a different approach. Let's say that Deborah was internally focused. How would her approach have varied from what we've described above? For starters, Deborah would see her weight and lack of fitness as symptoms of an internal imbalance. Rather than scurrying to find the best weight loss program “out there,” her first response would instead be to turn her attention inward. Knowing her answers lie within, Deborah would turn to her Inner Authority for the help she needs.

Rather than “ex-ercise,” Deborah would develop a practice of “inner-cise” – which may look like exercise, but is motivated by something totally different. Rather than begrudgingly imposing a series of regimented physical exercises and diet restrictions on herself, Deborah listen to her body and explores its messages. She comes into dialog with her body and allows herself to “be moved” by its intelligence from the inside out. She directs her awareness to the places where there is discomfort, stiffness and pain and instead of resisting or trying to block pain, she stays present as a witness and gently explores ways to relax and release those places. She brings her body and mind into right alignment with a “Force for Good” that brings healing energy into the body's places of pain and blockage. She allows herself to be aligned, stretched and opened. Over weeks and months her body re-establishes its natural balance and health is restored. Excess weight falls away without externally imposed diets. Her body takes on an appearance of health and fitness that radiates from the inside out.

Rather than following an outside protocol Deborah, surrendered to an internal authority that knew exactly what she needed. She let go of the need to impose external limits on herself through enforced diet etc and as a result was able to come into a balanced state of health that she then maintains through daily practice.

Our journey is about learning to live from the inside out rather than to continuously try to change our insides by manipulating the external world.

2 Responses

  1. Hi Tracy, It sounds like progress is being made! Good for you for walking away from the encounter without an external reaction! That’s a first big step in shifting your consciousness.
    You are wise to recognize the Victim ego and its need to keep an unhappy story going about how unfair life is. That is exactly what wounded ego’s do! Ego constantly seeks to justify its victim status to use as an excuse for not accepting responsibility for our lives and happiness.

    Resistance of any kind (anger, guilt, hurt, fear) are ego’s main source of nourishment. But we can put ego “on a diet” by “fasting” from these victim stories in our minds. We “diet” by questioning unhappy victim stories immediately when they come up in our minds. In that way, we “starve” out the victim mentality.

    Acceptance of life on its own terms can then become our main food for health. Without resistance to feed it, the victim ego shrinks in size!

    Keep up the good awareness work, Tracy! Your growth is inspirational to watch! 🙂
    Lynne

  2. It is indeed quite interesting to observe oneself from inside out.I feel that i am discovering a side of me that i was not really aware of…
    I observed myself recently when i had a confrontation with a colleague and i felt really angry.This time round i managed not to shout back but instead walked away…however i found myself wanting to tell everyone of how wronged i was and my mind wandered on how irresponsible and arrogant and inconsiderate the other person was….and my mind went on and on about this…and i wanted to tell anyone willing to listen of how bad i felt and how bad the other person was….This is how i deal with my anger….i try and justify it and make the other person look bad…I feel as though i desperately rally support from external parties…I always feel the victim looking for external support to make me feel better and justify why i feel angry….
    What was interesting to find out was that,the way in which i explain others as inconsiderate and arrogant is how i really feel about myself..I get triggered because they open up bad feelings i feel about myself….and it comes out the way i perceive them to be…Behind my anger and quest for justification for my victim hood lies the denial i have for my own feelings about stuff happening in my own life and the fear i have for the outcome….

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