Do you want to make something happen? From solving the smallest problem to achieving the grandest dream, for something to become a reality, a little focus goes a long way.
In order for you to make something, energy needs to gather at one point and accumulate until, like a pot that’s begins to boil or a chemical reaction that has enough activation energy, there is so much energy that matter changes and becomes manifest.
The point at which energy gathers is your intention and the means by which it gathers is your focus. Your intention can be abstract and long-term, such as a peaceful and harmonious world, or concrete and immediate, such as getting rid of back pain.
Because energy follows the attention of your mind, any kind of intention will gather energy. However, the more concrete and detailed your intention is, the more engaged your mind is, and therefore the more energy goes to it. This is the energetic reason most goal achievement advice says to make smaller interim goals in order to achieve a larger one.
Energy will not go to your intention, however, unless you focus on it.
Focus is like a magnifying glass that directs sunlight to one point. If that point falls on flammable material for long enough, heat will build up until a fire starts to burn. However, if you keep moving that point of light, enough heat energy cannot accumulate for anything to happen; you end up playing with a mildly interesting spot of light on the ground, and that’s it.
The mind loves to play. It wants to roam the wilds of imagination and be free and comfortable. But if you really want to make something happen, you need to reign in your mind and point it in the direction that you want to go.
If your destination is new or unknown, it’s difficult to determine how much energy you’ll need to get there beforehand, and doubt and/or fear that you will never reach it may creep into your mind if the journey takes longer than you thought it should or than you want it to take. Many discoveries and achievements—the electric lightbulb, post-it notes—were doubted and even ridiculed before they became a reality, even by their own inventors.
Something that you want may not be happening simply because enough energy has not gathered to produce it. Especially if it’s something big that involves many factors and even many people, it may require a lot of energy for everything to fall into place. So don’t give up and keep focusing on your intention.
You can have more than one intention at the same time. Maybe you want to become a better artist at the same time you want to remodel your home. While having more than one intention stretches your focus, it does not scatter it as long as you steadily work toward all of your goals. Energy will still collect at those destinations, bringing you ever closer to them. If you have trouble focusing, however, you may want to practice with one goal at a time until your
ability to focus strengthens and matures.
Demonstrate this energy principle for yourself in your body. Find a spot in your body that has some pain or stiffness. If you are lucky enough not to have pain, do a stretch that is difficult for you until you reach the limit of your flexibility and hold the stretch. There you’ll find the pain or tension! Focus on the spot where you feel the most pain or blockage and breathe while exhaling through your mouth.
Pain is blocked energy flow. If you maintain your focus on it, you’ll notice the pain start to dislodge and move or dissolve completely and suddenly you can stretch even further. If you have deep and serious pain, it may not go away quickly, possibly not in one sitting. Keep going back to this meditation and watching your pain. Don’t give up until it goes away. Remember, your mind moves energy, which changes matter.
So, if you want to make something happen, set an intention for it and focus on it. There is more to manifestation than focus, but focus is required for enough energy to gather to make what you want come to life.