Episode Transcript
We Americans enjoy a wonderful and powerful way of life, but internally and in relationships, we may wish for better. Join me as we look beneath the surface and gain insights to transform every aspect of your life. My name is Dr. Ann O'Hare, and this is The Spiritual American. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Spiritual American. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare and I'm your host. And today we will be talking about developing inner focus. And at the end, I'm going to add in a little bit of a spiritual concept that maybe you didn't think of before. But before we get started, please consider if you're watching on YouTube, like sharing and subscribing. As you know, this helps to trip the YouTube algorithm. And please consider sharing with your friends and family as well. So inner focus. When I was writing down what to talk about with this, I thought inner focus could mean that I want to sit in meditation and I want to remain focused on peace or on the mantra. Maybe I use mantra or whatever kind of meditation I do. I want to focus on the visualization and, and I can't seem to stay on whatever it is I'm trying to focus on. There's a couple of things we can use to help us begin to take control of the functioning of focus, or energy, like pointing energy in a certain direction. And attention is the very outward, most superficial level of that focus. So attention is like, Hey, I'm paying attention to the, to the camera right now, but I, there's so much more going on in me right now. Yes. So I'm focused on what I want to say. I'm focused on what I wrote before. There's a whole bunch of depth going on, but my attention, my external attention is going on maybe my body language or so forth. We're so dynamic as beings. So I said, There's a couple of ways that we can help develop our focus or take control of our focus and point it in directions that we want it to be. One thing that we can use is self care. The attitude of self care begins to bring my focus towards myself. Towards my needs and I wrote down here you can use the body also here because the body has needs. The body needs sleep, the body needs water, the body needs food and everything and you can use the body to remind you to have an attitude of self care. I find that that one change using an attitude of self care can definitely help to change, increase your focus. On things in life, maybe we have gotten distracted by addictions. We've gotten distracted by negative emotions. We're kind of getting lost in our waste thinking. Maybe we're gossiping or having negative thoughts. Maybe we're angry. Maybe we're resisting what's going on in the world. There could be all kinds of things going on inside us, but maybe we want to focus our energy into a positive way or certainly in constructive, right? So self care is one. Using the body also for kind of help to see, okay, well, yeah, I got to rest now or that's not going to work. The body is trustworthy. The body can be trusted and I'm going to say it can be trusted because it's living under the laws, the laws of nature. It's made of the elements and everything and it's functioning the way it's supposed to. So you can kind of trust that. Okay. Here I put daily practice is another thing that we can implement to increase our focus in life. Daily practice of anything will increase our focus. If I drink alcohol every single day, it's going to increase my focus on alcohol. If I meditate every day, it's going to increase my focus on meditation. Those are two kind of extreme, but just like anything, if I brush my teeth every day, it's going to automatically start a habit and it's going to increase my energy towards that thing. So a daily practice will also help us to increase our focus in a positive way that serves us. And is it fair to say that that's what we want? We all want our energy or our focus in this case, our focus to be directed in a way that's, we could say, good, positive, helpful, supportive, and also self sustaining. Here I put Meaningful information and the spiritual path. So that's another thing that we can implement to help us increase our focus. We did an episode not too long ago called finding your path and I recommend if you like you can go back and watch that episode. But I think finding our path spiritual path is very powerful because the purpose of a spiritual path is to change my awareness. I'm changing my awareness from where I am now into something else. And so I need focus and I need determination to do that. But I also need some direction. I need coaching. I need information. So if you choose a spiritual path, it doesn't have to be a religion. It could be meditation. It could be raja yoga like we do here. It could be, you know, all different kinds of practices are out there. There's a, there's nature based ones and there's all different ones, but whatever you choose, hopefully it's with the aim of changing your consciousness in a positive way. Here, I wrote two is what does focus bring? So what is focus? Like I said, focus is the energy that I'm bringing forth to move me towards something. I'm focused on it and there's a reason I'm focused on it because I want a result, right? But what does focusing give me? Why do I need to have more focus? Focus gives me something. So let's say, for instance, you're taking a test in school and let's say you're trying to take the test and your mind is going off in a bunch of directions. I need to focus on the test, right? If I focus on the test. then I'm going to get a better result than if I'm not focusing on the test. If I'm not focusing on what I'm supposed to be focusing on, meaning if my energy is not going towards where I need it to go, it's going somewhere else, then I'm not going to get the results that I'm looking for. So what does it do when I focus? What does it provide me? One is stability. So, if I'm focused on something, I'm more stable than if I'm not focused. Sometimes we make jokes like, this one has no attention span. What does that mean? That means, or even like ADHD and things like that, they have trouble focusing, right? That's one of the, one of the, symptoms of ADHD. Another one. So stability, we get stability from it. We also get perseverance. We get determination and having an aim. So holding onto your aim. Example, you go to college and you want to become a lawyer. You have to keep that aim in your mind. Like I'm doing this now because I want to get that. Having an aim will increase my focus. Having an aim, having the focus also supports the aim. So it's like, it supports each other. Having an aim also provides me with a future to live into. So I focus, I'm focusing on taking the tests, I'm focusing on going to classes, I'm focused, I'm focused, I'm focused, but I have an aim. So increasing inner focus can be, supported by having an aim and determination. Daily practice. See, I'm saying all these things and they all will help me stay on track, have focus and moving towards my goal. So now I want to talk a little bit about the thing that I said I was going to add in that you may not expect. So I wrote here, focus can be deeper than attention. And I'm saying that for a reason, because. Many of you may have had this experience when you sit down for meditation and you have a good idea and you say, okay, look, I'm going to start a spiritual practice and I'm going to start meditation. And you sit down to meditate and your mind goes crazy. And then you say to yourself, you know what? Meditation's not for me. Obviously I can't meditate. I'm sitting here. My mind is going crazy. What I want to say is that attention is is not as powerful as focus. You can sit there with the focus on the aim of being peaceful while your mind is going crazy. You can have an inner determination that you're going to get better even if your attention is going in other directions. Think about why I'm saying this. I'm saying this because don't we make ourselves wrong when we slip up or we don't follow through or whatever. And all of a sudden we think, Oh, everything is lost. It's not, everything is not, everything is not lost. Is your aim still there? Is your focus still there? Is your determination still there? Are you going to give up? Are you going to keep going? Nobody can keep our attention perfect from day one, but the focus is deeper, inner focus is a deeper energy. And we can keep that focused. So, we can use our changes in attention as a way to beat ourselves up. I'm just thinking about raising children. Just I'll give one example. Raising children. If a baby is starting to walk and the baby falls down, Falling down is part of learning to walk. So I want to say that attention going here and there is part of learning to deal with your mind. If you watch some of the other episodes, we talk about meditation and how, the mind can be going here and there, but if you sat there for 15 minutes, you won. What does that mean? That means I was focused enough to sit there even though the mind was going crazy. It's also about commitment. Can you hear commitment in here too? So developing inner focus, it's about commitment, it's about having an aim, it's about stability, it's about daily practice. Basically what I'm sharing is developing inner focus is not just about getting your attention to stay in one spot, it's much deeper than that. And much more personal and much more, workable than that. My attention can go off at any time, but my aim, I can keep my aim and I can keep my determination and my commitment to my growth. And I want to add that to anybody who's out there listening, who maybe is a little unsure about their process and about their efforts. And just remember, attention can move. Situations can change, but if you keep your aim, if you keep focus, inner focus on yourself and your determination, keep the self care attitude. Keep your attitude of having an aim and working towards a goal. Little by little, if you keep that, you will continue to move towards that goal. And that, the benefit of having that is much deeper and much more satisfying than focusing on attention that can move here and there. It's a much more superficial focus to be thinking about the one thing that went off and making it mean that everything's over. Think about that. Do I still have my aim? Is my intention still good? Do I still care about myself? Do I still want to do well? Focus on that. Developing that inner focus. So I'll leave it there. I hope that that gave a little bit to think about. I used words, different words here. But what I'm talking about is our inner world. Start getting in touch with and getting behind, meaning supporting my own inner world. And stop reacting to all the little changes that happen throughout the day. 50 million changes happen throughout the day. But I don't have to lose myself and I don't have to go against myself and I don't have to feel bad. I can keep that focus and that beautiful positive self care attitude. So I'll leave it there. Remember our slogan is heal, empower, and serve. And until next time, take care. You
