Shift Your Focus, Shift Your Weight, Shift Your Life

​I’m just going to come right out with it.
 
This was the hardest article I’ve written yet.
 
I sat at my screen doing the old sit-&-stare for about ten minutes.
 
I checked my bank account.
 
I designed a flyer for a new class.
 
I got up and made some salsa.
 
I sat back down.
 
Still no ideas. Still no movement.
 
I cleared my inbox of old emails.
 
I went outside and planted tomato, sorrel, arugula, cosmos, and hollyhock seeds.
 
Night came. I had one more day before my writing window closed. I started feeling a little stressy.
 
stressy /stress-ee/ adj 1 Having feelings of stress without identifying oneself with the highly-charged term, Stressed. 2 State in which one is the boss of one’s stress-feelings.
 
I was not going to let those stress-feelings be the boss of me, and I knew there was something I could do to help me create movement in my writer’s block.
 
Sometimes the best action-step toward your goal is to set your intention.
 
I declared what I wanted, clearly, and on paper:
 
I intend to come up with a great idea for a newsletter article that *|FNAME|* will be inspired and uplifted by.
 
I imagined myself waking up the next morning feeling refreshed and creative. I saw the words pouring out of my fingertips like a copy fountain and I joyously bathed in the feeling of being productive.
 
I went to bed and awoke with my intentions by my bedside, reminding me to feel creative. And I did.
 
I meditated a luxurious Sunday-amount of time, I made banana bread, and I did every animal care chore I could think of. It was creative and productive and I enjoyed myself without guilt about not writing my article.
 
Then I went to a luncheon and let myself have four hours of pleasantness with friends. (This was, by far, the sweetest way to procrastinate out of all the ways on my list.)
 
Did I think about my newsletter during the lunch? A couple times, I’ll admit it. Did I let it pull me out of the moment for more than a few seconds? No way.
 
I was there to connect with some really inspiring women, and I was fully there for it. I trusted I would go home and write an article that would fill your heart up with light.
 
So when I got home I was ready to go. I felt at peace, I felt inspired, I felt creative.
 
I sat at the computer. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes. Staring at the big white void, rubbing my temples, brushing my hair with my fingers, trying to coax a cat to come sit on my lap.
 
My stressy started to come back.
 
I had already set my intention. I couldn’t just wish myself into writing a wonderful newsletter. I had to take action.
 
Sometimes the best action to take is to set your intention. Sometimes.
 
Sometimes the best action to take is a true act of physical movement toward that which you want to achieve.
 
I set a timer for 25 minutes. Ok Brea, GO. Write anything, without fixing errors, without re-reading what you type, without stopping. Just write. Even though your pants are too tight because you had a big meal plus dessert. Even though your animals want their dinner. Even though your brain wants you to be writing about something specific that is your newsletter article topic and all you’re writing about is how hard it is to write this thing.
 
Oh, yes. Yes, that is how this all came about, see. I took that action-step to just GO and all that sloppy wording led me right into this newsletter from the back woods path!
 
When you feel stuck about doing something new, starting a project, beginning a class, choosing a subject to write about--creating anything you have resistance around—there is a two-step process you can do to help you flow through the blocked energy.
 
1.  Shift your Focus
[Set your intention + Go do something you enjoy = Feel better before you try again]
 
2.  Shift your Weight
[Push off from where you are in order to get to where you want to be]
 

Photograph by Brea Fisher

I believe in the power of visualization to make your dreams manifest in your life. I do. I use it, and it works for me. I also believe that all the beautiful images in my fairie-forest of magical life-happenings do not just occur without my active participation. 

We have to take action in order to give our innermost dreams a place to exist outwardly.

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Qi Challenge
 
 
So how do we relate this to Tai Chi?
 
Think of your body movements as symbolism for the movements you make in your life.
 
Take shifting your weight, for example. You push off the earth to shift your weight. You don’t pull your body forward with your knee.
 
You press your foot into the ground beneath you in order to propel your body forward.
 
Your Qi Challenge includes a mini lesson-film. Follow along as I lead you through shifting your weight, tai chi style.
 
You can do this exercise anywhere and you don’t need to know tai chi to do it.
 
Happen to be reading this on your phone? Maybe you’re standing in line at the bank? Perfect. Put your earbuds in and follow along—no one will even notice you’re doing anything profound.

Let this idea sink in over time: Shifting your weight by pressing into the earth. Shifting your life by pressing into the present moment.
 
See where it pops up in your daily life. Maybe you become aware of pressing into the step as you climb a stairway. Maybe you feel yourself push into the earth as you get up from a doggy-petting squat. Or maybe the next time you feel stressy, you find yourself shifting your focus toward something that feels lighter.
 
The point is to notice where your focus is as you take steps, in your physical reality, and your spiritual one.

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Creating what you want to experience in your life is partly about the vision and partly about the steps you take to get there.
 
Instead of relying solely on the end result pulling you to it, dreaming and wishing and visualizing and visionboarding, you can focus on what you can actually do, right now, from where you are right now, with what you have right now.
 
Press into where you are in order to get to where you want to go. ​