Chapter 39: Focusing on What is Right
It is time once again to Stew on this! In our practice days we often told folks, “We are much more interested in what is right about you than what seems to be wrong.
Years ago, at a men’s retreat, I met a therapist who specialized in “positive psychology.” I had not heard of it before. At that time, it was the fastest growing branch in psychology, and it focuses not on someone’s pathology or problem but on their strong points and how to build on them.
In other words, it focuses on what is right with folks instead of what is wrong. What a concept! I told him how cool that is because it is exactly the essence of chiropractic.
Indeed, in our practice days we often told folks, “We are much more interested in what is right about you than what seems to be wrong.” We could honestly say that because no matter who we served, there was MUCH more that was right about them than wrong.
One thing that is right about everyone we could ever possibly serve is that regardless of their appearance, symptomatology, or condition, they have the greatest doctor in the universe right inside of them, and it specializes in them! Our only job is to free that doctor up; to remove interference to its fullest expression.
To me, interference to the expression of Life is not something inherently wrong with someone, it is just something in the way of what is right.
Therefore, in chiropractic, we do not have to give the interference our focus or attention, other than to find it. We also do not want our practice folks to give it their focus or attention. The only reason we are interested in the interference at all is because we KNOW the unlimited healing ability, glory, beauty, and bigness that lie behind it!
It occurs to me that focusing more on what is right than wrong would also be a strong intention and strategy to apply to ourselves and our personal growth.
Focusing on what is right seems to be a huge challenge for many, just as it can be a huge challenge for me at times.
Often, we believe that to express more of our Innate nature, we must first fix all the things that are wrong with us. We think we must “get out of the way.” We endeavor to stop thinking wrongly or to stop “stinking thinking.” We wish we could somehow surgically remove all our issues so we can experience more peace, love, joy, abundance, or health.
How is that focusing on what is right about us? It is the exact opposite!
I am not suggesting that we should be dishonest with ourselves and ignore our stuff, but it would help tremendously to transform all that stuff if we can get better acquainted with what is right about ourselves.
In one of his books, Eckhart Tolle wrote that we have two lives – a life we ARE and a life we HAVE. The life we are is our Innate Intelligence, though you can call it our divine essence, or God Self, or Atman, or Buddha nature. Whatever we choose to call it, this life is ALWAYS whole, perfect, unlimited, and eternal.
The life we have, on the other hand, consists of our personality, experiences, perceptions, relationships, circumstances, etc.
What I AM suggesting is that instead of trying to fix the life we have so we can enjoy the fruit of the life we are, we can start bringing more of the life we are to the one we have. We can access the life we are more often, identify with it more, rely on it more, and call it forth more in our words and actions.
We can let the life we are infuse and enfold the life we have.
To do this, it is helpful to get more acquainted with our heart. It is always much more concerned with what is right about us than what seems wrong. I refer you to the 38 prior Stew-on-this chapters for more about that.
Besides living more from our heart, another important step would be to stop labeling things about ourselves in our current life situation as either obstacles or enemies. This applies to our egos, our limiting beliefs, our attachments or addictions, and our perceived issues. When we fill ourselves up with what is right, we do not have to give those things any attention or any power over us. Then, any changes we choose to make about ourselves will occur more easily and gracefully. Sometimes they even happen spontaneously.
The point is that you and I cannot bring in more light by making the darkness wrong.
When I am indoors with the blinds drawn and I want more light, I do not make an enemy of either the darkness or the blinds. I do not wonder whether I deserve the light or not. I just open the blinds.
Let us start opening the blinds and letting our light shine.
We can acknowledge our very human tendencies without dwelling on them and thinking they need to be fixed. Just like nerve interference, they are not things that are inherently wrong with us; they are just old patterns that have served us in the past but now tend to hide what is right.
They only reason we give them any attention at all is because we KNOW the unlimited healing ability, glory, beauty, and bigness that lie behind them!
When those tendencies show up, we can actually use them as a reminder to access our heart, to focus on what is right, and then express it. We can use them as an invitation to take our Innate-Self and wrap it around all our “stuff” like a beautiful cloak.
The more we focus on what is wrong, the larger and more real those things become in our awareness. On the other hand, “opening the blinds” instead of “cursing the darkness” can only help us to keep the blinds open in more of our moments.
A practical suggestion: let us start allotting one minute every waking hour to stop, take a few deep breaths, and then affirm, acknowledge, and appreciate the unlimited Life that we are.
The lives we have will then be consistently moving in the direction of the beautiful, good, and true life that we are.
Stew on that, and I will see you next time.
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