When I took my vacation this summer and painted my room I had no idea what a huge change that would make in my life. But I really should have.
I know that what we give our attention to grows in proportion to how long it’s held in our focus. I spent the whole day focused on cleaning, beautifying, and organizing. Because of this, that week I was inspired to purchase an Apple tablet to organize my papers (among other reasons). So over the next few weeks, I scanned documents and photos and now my lockbox of important papers is no longer stuffed to the gills and my photo albums could burn for all I care. My most important stuff is backed up.
After weeks of organizing papers, I recently decided to make the purchase of a CZUR book scanner. So now I’ve been busy scanning my books into searchable PDF files. I’ll back them up and pack away the books that I don’t feel the need to have a print copy handy.
I also am trying to organize my computer and websites. I’m trying to put an old blog onto a “new” substack (Leaves of the Tree Healing). This isn’t really an advertisement for that. I don’t really agree with every single thing in the old posts even though I wrote them. I’m just trying to move my old articles onto the “new” substack so I can no longer pay for hosting for that site. There will be links to the site until I can switch links out to substack articles, so the links don’t all stop working whenever I stop paying for hosting. That’s just a longer-range project. This is just so you know what it is if you see it.
I’ve also been beautifying my newly painted room. I got a new necklace hanger so I don’t have to constantly detangle them. And I got a new crystal shelf unit which matches my As Above, Below theme.
All of this organizing and cleaning will help clear my mind, as I wrote about in the past article on my paint job. Like Jordan Peterson talks about, when things are messy, you cannot estimate what kind of “threat” there is and so you get more anxiety than is needed. Imagine I wanted to wear a necklace and they were all thrown together in a pile, I would have to spend a lot more energy to get the one I wanted detangled from the rest and could estimate it being more work than it truly would be. That would cause me more anxiety. Simply having them organized clears all that anxiety up.
So I just wanted to say that as you choose to take new steps outside of your comfort zone, eventually your momentum changes and you get this burst of divine energy and it no longer feels like a struggle.
I never felt like I had the energy to take on these projects, but I’ve always had a desire for the organization. Though it may take time for you to get the things you desire, eventually you will (so long as you’re not miswanting).
You can kickstart yourself by spending some time on something daily. Just a reminder, I started using Habitica in May to create to-do lists and daily tasks. It’s gamified to keep you coming back over time, you lose health if you don’t check in and complete your daily tasks. I’m still using it, and I credit it for some of this change in me.
I definitely feel more productive. I’ve been exercising with my physical therapy exercises every day (for the most part). Habitica makes me want to try to catch up on the exercises that I missed the previous day so I don’t lose “health.”
You can build up habits. And when that is your focus for long enough it becomes easier and easier and then you have the benefit of momentum pushing you along. You’ll find energy you didn’t even know you had. That’s the benefit of your attention.
You can think of your focus as a sort of currency. You can “pay” attention to what you like or “pay” attention to things you don’t like. Those things will grow. It’s up to you to decide if it’s “worth paying” your attention to things that you hate.