Deliberate Focus for Others’ Well Being

I was directing my third-grade class at church yesterday evening. The lesson was about David’s food as a young man in King Nebuchadnezzar’s palace (Daniel 2). The kids had a print of an empty plate and I let them draw whatever food or thing that they wanted. When they were done, one of the boys held his up and showed he had written “$300” at the top. He said that’s what he was going to charge for that picture when he became famous. Another boy spoke in response to the bible reading that, like Daniel and his friends, he was young, healthy, and good-looking too. I felt such hope for their future and appreciation that they were off to a great start in life. I also knew they were in good hands with loving and supportive parents.

I woke up this morning feeling really good. I stayed with that feeling and kept it going by meditating on the things I want as if they are part of my material experience now. The more I practice this, the easier it gets, and it just feels good to do it. This also sets me up for having a really good day. More than that, I’ve been noticing physical changes in me and in my animals as I focus on health and well-being for us all.  I became more deliberate about focusing on health after considering the effect I might have been having on their lack of well-being.  If I’m noticing a lump on my dog, Maggie, am I going to create more of that in her if I keep putting my attention on it?

This may seem off-topic, but bear with me. I believe in the mind-body connection and that we are energetic beings creating our reality by our focus, deliberate or not. But I don’t believe our animals focus on un-wellness for themselves. So how is it they’re so often getting sick with cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, etc.? Of course, the first thing we might look at is the food we give them, and that might certainly be a contributing factor. But I believe there’s more to it. My horse, Arizona, had been struggling with Cushing’s disease. He’s about 28 years old, and I’ve had him on herbal remedies for the Cushing’s for a few years. I was usually looking at him with concern over his condition when I was with him. I became more aware that when I look at him, I could choose to see him as healthy and vibrant instead of focusing on his potential unwellness. His potential for wellness was just as available. I decided to slowly wean him off the remedies about 8 weeks ago, so he had time for his body to adjust to the change, and for my deliberate focus on his health and feeling good. So far, he seems to be maintaining a state of wellness. He’s fit and there’s no symptoms of his previous condition. I remain cautiously optimistic but when I focus on him, I don’t allow the negativity to creep in. So, how does this relate to our kids?

Our ability to focus is key to our material experience and much of what happens to us comes from that focus. When we consider that the living beings around us can also be affected by it, especially those we are responsible for, that raises the stakes to a new level. If we might have influenced our animals’ well-being, what about our children? When we look upon them, what are we seeing? Can we focus on their wellness and vitality too? Can we see them as healthy and good-looking, or that they might one day be famous?  They could be great scientists, teachers, leaders, entrepreneurs, writers, musicians, or Nobel peace prize recipients in the making. If we can help them achieve that by our deliberate focus, maybe we can help change the world in a bigger way. It’s not only our focus on them but teaching them to focus as well.

We keep our kids busy with dance lessons, soccer, little league, football, TV, and video games. It would be beneficial to carve out some time for 15-20 minutes of daily meditation for our kids so they can stay tapped into their inner guidance and practice deliberate focus for themselves. These other activities can help them grow and develop in many ways, but it would help to spend time talking with them, listening, and exploring new things so they can figure out what creativity lies just beneath the surface, and what other things might get them excited. Ask them engaging questions to help them solve problems, and consider their answers. Kids are often quite brilliant and can come up with simple solutions to things that we tend to over-complicate. As we engage them, we focus on them as capable beings and they get a sense of empowerment when they’re able to help us. They learn the benefits of focus with these mental exercises and their ability to focus in the moment will pay off in spades as they become adults.

If we make it a practice of deliberately focusing on the well-being of others, it helps them grow in many ways. It’s the loving thing to do. We start with our kids and fur babies, our siblings, parents, in-laws, friends, coworkers; our community. What we want for ourselves we want for them too. And we get what we focus upon, we become that which we send out. We get better. They get better. The world gets better.