Your priorities in life play a huge role in attracting your reality. In a simple sense, your priority defines what your “focus” is on, and your focus is the signal that attracts your reality. If you sense that your life feels disorganized or chaotic, it’s an evidence, or proof, of the fact that your priorities are messed up, in that you are either totally confused about what your priorities are, or you are giving priority to things that don’t serve much value in your life. Your priorities are defined by the choices you make in your daily life, so it’s not something you write on a paper, but it’s something you execute in your daily behavior. If you want to attract a reality of ease, abundance and wellness, your first priority needs to be towards your own alignment with your joy/well-being – there is no getting around this truth.
The mind can produce several excuses why you can’t make your own joy the priority of your life, usually the excuses lies around the line of – “I have too many responsibilities to prioritize my joy”, and this is of course true in the life of a person who has never prioritized his/her joy. It’s also important to understand that in the absence of wisdom, there is a possibility that there is an imbalance towards joy which again leads to disorganized and depraved life. However, such a lack of wisdom is an indication that you’ve still not made your well-being your priority and hence are unconsciously lost in over-indulgence. The biggest step you can take towards moving towards alignment with your well-being, is by taking the time to be with yourself, to understand your mind and your state of being, so that you can consciously let go of patterns of dysfunction.
What is your focus in your limited waking hours?
We usually have 15 waking hours in our day (given that most people tend to sleep for at-least 8 hours) and this limitation in time entails that you can’t have unlimited options of involvement. So what you prioritize defines how you experience these hours and how much these hours bring well-being into your life. If you start your morning in a hasty daze, end up in the office driving in a frenzy, work in a state of disharmony, eat unconsciously and then spend the evening getting drunk to forget the whole day – you’ve basically prioritized a hectic lifestyle over a lifestyle of well-being. And overtime this lifestyle starts eating up into your health, relationships and creative expression, leaving you feeling burnt out – usually the compensation most people undertake is to fix a vacation for a week, which is usually just as hectic (if not more), after which they get back to the rigor of their hectic lifestyle.
Circumstances are created by your focus. So it’s not the circumstances that define your priorities, it’s your priorities that have defined your circumstances. So to blame the circumstances for your inability to prioritize your well-being, is a totally skewed way of looking at life. Every moment you have the opportunity to make a conscious choice in the direction of your well-being. It could be as simple as taking 10 minutes to center yourself by pausing in your work, and just sitting in a state of relaxed awareness, regaining your composure and working at a more relaxed pace. It may seem as if the outside world is putting pressure on you, but the truth is that you are the one who is putting pressure on yourself and the outside world is simply reflecting your mindset.
A few pointers on consciously prioritizing your well-being
When you are aligned with your inner wholeness, by letting go of the momentum of negativity, you are automatically guided towards the right choices, on a daily basis, that are in alignment with your well-being. However, if you are in the process of coming to a place of inner wholeness, it can help to make these few conscious choices in your life to expedite this process.
Don’t start your day in a frenzy – The way you start your day usually defines the tone of at-least the next 8 hours, if not the whole day. If you start your day in a forced frenzy, you’ve already exhausted most of your limited energy for the day. The best way to start a day is in a slow paced manner, allowing the body to adjust to the waking state.
Biologically, all your body’s functions are in a state of lowest efficiency first thing in the morning – the body temperature is low, muscles are cold, lungs are functioning at a much lower efficiency, your body is in the process of detoxing and there is a lower energy in your body since it’s been 10 hours from your last meal. It takes a while before the body adjusts to the waking hours. Be easy on yourself in the morning, and give yourself at-least 30 minutes of relaxed time before getting involved in activities.
Feed positive data into your brain – By its very design the brain, being a neural network, keeps rotating the data you expose it to for a few minutes, if not a few hours. So it’s very important to not feed it negative data first thing in the morning, else you just end up setting a negative tone for the day, especially when there is already a negative momentum running in your brain.
If it’s not a necessity, avoid reading the newspaper or watching the news first thing in the morning, you are very likely to read or see something negative that gets stuck in your brain. The better use of your time should be to enjoy a brisk jog or a walk, or workout, which defines that your bodily well-being is your priority and life responds to this focus by ensuring your good health. It’s also a huge advantage to listen to, or read, some positive information for a few minutes in the morning, which can start a cycle of positive thinking in your brain.
Feed your body with wholesome nutrition – Start your day with a focus on eating or drinking something nutritious rather than pumping your body with “pep up” drinks in a bid to accelerate it. It’s scientific that the quality of food you eat defines the moods in your brain – actually, the truth is that your state of mind attracts the type of food you eat, a negatively oriented brain usually makes choices towards foods that are not healthy for the body, which in turn just amplifies the negativity in the brain owing to the toxicity in the blood.
Eating foods rich in antioxidants, first thing in the morning, is the best way to supply your brain non-toxic nutrition – fresh fruits are some of the best source of anti-oxidants, and they also supply easily digestible carbohydrates which supply the body with immediate energy to spur your morning activities. Making a conscious choice towards eating wholesome foods, is a direct indication that you have your well-being as your priority – and life responds to this focus by bringing you resources to help you make better choices with respect to the food you eat.
Allow a creative expression in your work – It’s quite possible that your mis-alignment has caused you to attract some work that does not feel aligned with your joy, or natural expression. However, for the time-being, you need to bring a positive approach to your current work so that your positive vibe can attract better working conditions and a more suited vocation. It’s all about setting your focus on being aligned with your joy, irrespective of the current situation.
Your brain has a limited capacity for output and if you expend it on activities that are not of useful value, you are simply wasting your energy and thus not prioritizing your well-being. The brain naturally enjoys creative expression in work and when it’s not cluttered with useless data, it can focus better on the creative expression alone. A lot of people start their work hours lost in distractions rather than allowing a clear focus on expending their energy towards creative expression. As a human being, it’s natural for you to be drawn towards a creative expression, as a part of your natural makeup, and there is a joy when you produce quality work; it feels highly fulfilling in your being. Whatever be your current work situation, find a way to reduce your distractions and focus on using your working hours to be a channel of creative expression.
Don’t be lost in activities – Ultimately, life is not just about expression, it’s also about experience. If you become lost in your expressions (like your work), you can easily become unconscious towards savoring the experience of your journey. It’s so common to see people become drones, or worker bees, with little awareness outside their work – they don’t leave their work even while eating or spending time with their children, there is always a mobile device that keeps them connected to their work. This is not so much the nature of their work, rather the nature of their unconscious choice.
If your waking hours go by in a daze of work, you are basically telling life that you don’t really care about savoring the experience of your physical journey, and thus your personal well-being is not your priority. The reality you attract under such a focus is mostly a reality that’s aligned with stress, frenzy and fatigue. You might be involved in doing a work that you thoroughly enjoy, but if you have no life outside your work, it just means that you’ve narrowed down your perception of life and are no longer moving in consciousness but just in daze of being lost in your expression.
Basically, when you start taking the time to be with yourself (without distractions), to get a sense of your state of being, and listening to your heart, you start becoming more conscious of your life, which allows you the invitation to make a conscious choice towards letting go of patterns that are no longer in harmony with your well-being and thus become receptive to inspirations that help you create a positive reality.
Great advice Sen. My perfect morning is like so:
– Wake up around 8:30, stay relaxed in bed.
– Get out of bed around 9, listen to a few “kick ass” songs to get me feelin’ a good vibe for the day.
– Eat a light breakfast, and go train at the gym.
– Come back and enjoy a nice, healthy lunch. Then I get on with my day. It usually takes me 3-4 hours to feel “ready” and “in alignment” to face the day.
This isn’t the most practical for people on the 9 to 5 beat, including myself. I usually do this only on Saturday and Sunday.
During my work days, I usually wake up around 7 and leave the bed at 7:30, and I give myself until about 10:30 to have meetings and “face the world”. My first few hours @ the office are for solo activities, if I can manage.
I am so glad I found your website Sen. Your words speak directly to me and my current experience.
I had been dissatisfied with work for awhile but couldn’t put my finger on the reason why. The people were nice and the environment ok – but I was miserable. Anyway, after months of trying to adjust I came to the conclusion that I was unhappy because my situation was no different than that of a caged animal. I was spending up to 10 hours a day forcing the mind to do the equivalent of factory assembly line work when what it needed was freedom. I started a 30 day leave a week ago and have already come to many interesting conclusions about my future.
This is about the second year of my journey from unconsciousness to consciousness – Anthony DeMello’s ‘Awareness’ was my introduction to living life differently. I won’t lie – I would like to have that ‘Oneness’ experience I hear about, but when I compare my life ‘before’ and ‘after’, there have already been tremendous positive shifts in my life situations.
Sen-
Great article there is just one thing i don’t understand.
By doing these activities such as focusing on the positive etc.. Aren’t we resisting our natural life movement? Are we not supposed to just not resist anything and let life flow through?
thanks.
Rafael – It’s easy for the mind to hold on to some teachings and make it into a rigid technique of some form, and “letting go” can be one such teaching that the mind can make into a rigid belief system. Letting go is simply a pointer towards not “struggling” in life, and not resisting what arises, allowing yourself to stay open and relaxed so that the momentum of negativity in the mind, owing to past unconsciousness, can come to an end and so that you can come to a place of inner wholeness. From this place of inner wholeness you become tuned, more clearly, to your own inner guidance, but your awareness has the capacity to keep growing, in other words your maturity and understanding keep expanding with respect to your physical world – there will always be new things to learn, to understand and new perspectives to garner. When your awareness becomes receptive to new perspectives and pointers, it tends to grow in understanding of various elements of physical living. The pointers in this post are just some triggers that can joggle some unconscious patterns that you may not have questioned before and thus allow your awareness to touch these aspects and come to a new maturity. “Letting go” is needed to dissolve the momentum of past negativity, but that does not mean that you stop allowing your awareness to touch upon new learnings and perspectives, or that you try to give up your preferences or the drive to take up some practices to further your enjoyment of physicality.
Allow your awareness to be exposed to positive information, that can give you an understanding of improving your daily life, and if this information resonates with you, you will automatically feel inspired to make it a part of your living. This is what allows for new growth. At the same time, don’t work in the mindset of struggle rather from a mindset of inspiration/joy.
Hi
I left a job which was not congruent to me as it involved long working hours/too much work and a boss who would not listen. I then spent 2 months or so not working, realigning with how I would like to live (waking up late and naturally, exercising, meeting friends for lunch, “working” on voluntary projects from cafes etc – a freelance lifestyle without the pay). I tried to apply for freelance work but not with much luck. I feel I perhaps have not built up enough momentum yet for this.
I then came across a part time job and felt a calling to apply for it even though logically it’s not enough to cover my bills (2 days a week) and it’s in an area of work that I want to leave. it would give me 3 days a week to work on other projects I would enjoy more. And I am working on a project I enjoy – it’s just that there’s no pay attached to it.
I feel good working for the organisation itself and it feels right to be there but I do not enjoy the actual experience of the job role – even longer working hours than my previous role without getting paid/time off, expecting me to do too much in the 2 days I’ve been allocated, not having a good handover, expecting to pick up pieces left by other people etc.
I know there are things I can do to improve teh situation for myself e.g. make sure I take a lunch and leave on time, set clear priorities with both managers and be ready to leave the job if this will not work. But is does not seem right for me to leave just yet, and i’m also tired of leaving only to create the same or worse situation again.
I’m just bit confused as to why it seem genuinelyseemed right for me to apply for this job and why I feel I’m in the right place, but not the right role? Why I’ve attracted a worse scenario for myself than my previous job, although in some ways it’s better? I wonder if it’s because I need to face this aspect of myself that seems to keep attracting roles where I pick up the pieces after others, take on too much, etc? Or if it’s simply that I’m out of alignment?
With respect to the incongruent situation you are facing with respect to your job and financial status, Just ask yourself – what are the feelings/thoughts that this negative reality is creating in me? There are feelings of irritation, struggle, insecurity, criticism and impatience. Don’t try to put a cloak of positivity on it, and just let these feelings and thoughts arise freely. You will notice that you had these patterns in you even before you joined the job, though you had dissolved a part of it (during the free time of 2 months), some part of it is still present in your vibe – your tendency towards irritation, insecurity, criticism and struggle-orientation. It’s obviously not as high as it was before, but it’s still present to some extent, and it’s attract these negative parts in your reality. You need to recognize that you are not fully aligned with the dimension of joy in your mind, and possibly might also be suppressing love to some extent. The more you explore the dimension of joy and love in your mind, the more balance you will acquire in these dimensions, which you’ve been suppressing for quite a while. Find means to align with joy even in the midst of your current joy situation. Find means to express your love, you may be shutting down on this dimension owing to identification with some struggles or past hurt. When you bring a balance into the dimension of joy and love, in your being, you will sense these negative elements moving out of your reality.
One more fab article..! Thanks a lot Sen.
I loved one of your statements:
‘It may seem as if the outside world is putting pressure on you, but the truth is that you are the one who is putting pressure on yourself and the outside world is simply reflecting your mindset.’
Wanted to know, how do you define external pressure which is not under our control? When it comes to practicality, deadlines and many other things(specific to MNC work culture).. its natural to pile up pressure within our self even-though we being aligned to our wholeness…..
If you are attracting undue pressure in your job, it’s just a reflection of some negativity in your mind. It’s either disorganized or is being too docile (without the ability to say “no” or ask for a reasonable deadline). It could also be that the mind is trying to seek approval and allowing people to pile up the expectations. In a state of alignment, with the mind, you will always ensure that your job does not become a source of an over-dose of stress (some amount of stress is okay, which naturally comes from being focused and the body is designed to handle it).
Sen,
I procrastinate and lead a pretty disorganized life. I get overwhelmed easily. I would love to be more efficient and organized and relaxed, but can’t seem to get myself in that mode.
I seldom feel the urge to get things done promptly and feel lazy. I know this makes me incompatible with someone who is organized and highly efficient. I feel stressed to become like them, which I know is more productive but feels contrived.
How do I approach what is best for me? Just accept that I am a procrastinator and somewhat lazy?
Procrastination is simply a means through which the minds avoids what it dislikes, so it’s not something to feel bad about. The only reason the mind procrastinate is because that activity does not resonate with your joy. If you try to force your mind to do what you it doesn’t want to do, you basically end up feeling fatigued. But, if you just relax and allow the mind the freedom to express itself the way it desires at the moment, you will see that you become receptive your life-stream’s intelligence (as you become relaxed) and the things that need to get done start getting done at the right time. It starts with allowing the mind to be, instead of putting a leash on it and forcing it into doing something it doesn’t want to do, but when you do this, you become more open/relaxed and thus become a channel through which life’s intelligence can flow in. Any activity which is really required will get done, when you stay in this place of relaxed allowing.