What do you see when you widen your focus? — Magnolias West
I’m loving the insight that landed for me last week. I’m becoming deliciously conscious of the perspective change that happens when you widen your focus.
But first, a reality check.
Here’s what’s up.
My relationship to my work — and how long the computer tasks part of my work takes — is changing. And I’m waking up to that. Finally. After decades of living with painful and sometimes discouraging overwork pain.
I can’t push through a 2+ hour work session on the computer anymore. At least not with my dominant arm in the condition it’s in right now.
I’ve taken a lot of breaks today — I’ve really had to. I hope I remember this when I’m feeling better, when I tend to ignore what the physical therapists in the body workers and the doctors tell me:
Take breaks. Take breaks. Take breaks.
I hope putting these words into form and sharing them with you helps me up level my self-care. And I hope that for you, when you forget and go into excess, that you will be more inclined to remember to take a break and maybe make a little change yourself.
And now, back to today’s previously conceived and scheduled post.
When you see the forest as well as the trees, you can feel more connected and in flow.
I had a lovely realization.
I’ve now lived in Petaluma for year. And for a year, I used the maps app on my phone to guide me everywhere I went. My trips to Costco, the movies, the networking events… Everywhere. Each journey.
At the beginning of April, on my way to one of the monthly networking events I go to regularly, it came to me to try drive there without turning on the navigation app.
I was delighted to find that I knew my way, that I now have a more embodied sense of where I am in the world.
And then something happened.
I’m driving along to the networking meeting, and I gaze to my right and there’s Costco! And then I gaze to my left, and I see the movie theater. It turns out that Costco and the movie house and this networking event are all on different sides of the same freaking intersection. I now know where these three places are in relation to each other, and I promise you I had no clue until that moment.
This is not just about spatial awareness, yo.
I’m sure you’re seeing the bigger picture with me here, right? When you’re not focusing on the details so much, when you see the forest as well as each and every tree, you can feel more connected and in flow.
Now that I’ve learned my way around, I have a more embodied sense of where I am in the world.
When I think about myself in relationship to my physical environment now, I feel like I know where I am in an entirely different way than I used to when I was focusing on the little tiny mobile phone screen and at a little tiny section of a map.
There’s more about this, and our relationship to our maps (our guidance) and how we look at them, in the video. By the way, I’m absolutely am tickled by the fact that my phone narrowed the image for me — no wide focus available (yet!).
Thanks for your patience with any typos (I’m making up a word — dictation-o’s), as I’m dictating as many words as I can today, and my dictation software kinda sucks.
I’d love to know what you think. Talk with me, leave a comment.
Originally published at magnoliaswest.com on April 30, 2018.
I’m Sue Kearney, seasoned and sage mentor, holding a lantern at the crossroads for women in the third third of life. I’m a longtime maker and happy to share that knowledge.
In my work as a coach, I look with you at what’s stopping you, and I point you back to your innate resilient wonder-full self. I also collaborate with healers, visionaries, and changemakers to create and uplevel their brands. When your brand is a reflection of your true purpose and passion, with zero manipulative marketing techniques, your just-right clients will feel the resonance and automagically trust you enough to want to know more.
