The Power of Focus

So often when I think about COVID I’m reminded of focus. What are you talking about? Well … hear me out.

When COVID broke in Australia it was around MARCH 2020 and, like the rest of the world, it consumed our time, attention, capacity and focus. We were worried about ourselves, our kids, our families, our friends and our communities. And I found myself scrolling over and over and over news feeds for any updates I could get (I've since found out that this has been termed death scrolling).

To the point that one Friday night I started hyperventilating because I was so full of anxiety and fear for our future.

It was then that, mercifully, laughter intervened.

My wife and I found ourselves looking at funny internet memes about COVID that first started making me giggle, then chuckle and then … in the end … big belly laugh. Laughter stepped into my panicked attention and arrested my … you guessed it … FOCUS.

Now that doesn’t always work for everyone in a panic attack, but it can often work for me. The detail I’m wanting to point out here is a key psychological scientific fact and that is what we FOCUS on is what our brain wire towards … “When our neurones fire together they wire together”. So when we talk about guarding our focus, attention and what brings us life … we often talk out making sure that what it is … actually is bringing us life. What we allow or CHOOSE to focus our attention on isn’t causing us to ruminate or chew over things that can suck the life out of us.

Many years ago there was a great movie called “Super size me” and it was a documentary of how one man ate McDonalds for breakfast lunch and dinner over an extended period of time and the toll it took on his body (and oh my gosh what a toll it was!). This is a similar thing I’m asking myself … let's not eat “junk food” for our mind for breakfast, lunch and dinner .. the toll it will have on our mental health won't be great.

The habits we choose to build into our life will determine our character and our character will determine the trajectory we will have in life. Think about it!

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