A Shift of Focus

It is really hard to sleep late in Costa Rica. Around 5 am the light is shining through the window. I have always been an early riser so I don’t mind it. Most every morning, I wake while it is dark and walk up to my cousin Nikki’s place. Then we both walk to the bottom of the mountain, touch the main road, and then walk back up. Over time this has gotten much easier. When I first started, it felt like I needed a break or my heart would explode. Now I am just breathing pretty heavy at the end.

Recently on one of our walks, I was venting on how our grandma is constantly lamenting something. Sometimes she frets about the length of my son’s hair, my cousin’s family, or like I shared a few blog posts ago, has an unwarranted concern that I have bedbugs.

A few days ago, my grandma was telling my son that, in the bible, God says He will help us, but our problem is that we don’t ask for His help.

Last night, grandma was saying how worried she was that her grandson might be autistic, and “oh whatever will they do”. I asked her what could we do about it? “Nothing”, she replied. I reminded her that we could pray about it and ask God for help. She didn’t seem to like that as a response. She wanted to wallow in the negative.

Someone much wiser than me once said, “Worrying is like praying for something you don’t want.”

It might sound hippy-dippy, but concentrating on the positive outcome you hope for seems like a better use of your time than wringing your hands, bringing those around you down, while focusing on what you don’t want. 

In response to my agonizing over grandma (oops), my cousin Nikki shared an amazing story of an old lady at the local church who, when a fellow church member would complain to her about someone else, she would say, “Let’s pray for them right now.” and would pray with that person focusing on the positive and being proactive rather than criticizing. Eventually, people stopped coming to her.

Whether it was because the complainer felt empowered to use the power of prayer on their own (doubtful), or they moved on to someone that would listen to their gripe since this lady wasn’t feeding into it, either way, the old lady’s life was much better off by not being surrounded by complainers.

If you believe in prayer or subscribe to the law of attraction, either way, there is a power in focusing on the positive and having faith that everything can change in your life. You will certainly have a better time instead of focusing on things you can’t change and being upset about things that haven’t happened yet.