Tag: energy

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Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Image by bess.hamiti@gmail.com from Pixabay

I recently took a tennis lesson and the coach, knowing I wasn’t feeling too confident, told me a story about an 89-year-old player who, when asked her secret to playing so long, said, “I keep my eye on the ball.” Sounds simple enough, right? 

On the court it’s very straightforward, the objective clear, but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. It can be as hard to maintain focus on a tennis court as off it where there are many competing forces. Focus takes practice. And we don’t always get served a ball that’s an easy return. 

We juggle a lot of balls—thoughts—at any given time. Sometimes I’m playing dodge ball with mine. No, not those again! They say energy flows where our attention goes, so if we become obsessive about things we cannot control, we’re burning fuel and not getting anywhere and likely making matters worse. It can be challenging to come out of that kind of doom loop and as daunting and frustrating as repeatedly hitting balls into the net.

We’re confronted with more distractions than ever before, being asked to consume and digest a lot, to weed out heaps of misinformation from the truth. It’s exhausting. Which balls should we have our eyes on any given day or moment? Some are obvious like our loved ones, family, kindness, gratitude, acting on good intentions, nature, justice, art, Willow the cat. But just like on the tennis court, it takes practice to keep our focus on the goodness. (No practice required for Willow.)

Energy flows where our attention goes. Impatience, anxiety, obsessing over assumptions, are all byproducts of fear. And fear loves attention and power. Franklin D Roosevelt famously said in his 1933 inaugural address “… the only thing we have to fear is fear itself…” Don’t give it attention. 

Focus strips away the clutter and clears the clouds in our minds. It is enhanced by meditation and prayer. Practice allows us to more readily find the sweet spot, to be in flow. The more we practice, the more effortless and natural it becomes. And there’s nothing more satisfying than hitting the sweet spot. 

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Smudge Me

Several years ago, Sr. Kristin came into my office, and I greeted her with, “I feel like I could use a good smudging.” Without missing a beat, she said, “I think so, too.” And off she went returning a minute later with a sage stick, which she lit and with a feather proceeded to direct the smoke from it around my body, from head to toe, and throughout my office, moving slowly and with holy intent. Long after she finished, wafts of the sage’s earthy, bittersweet scent lingered.

Smudging is the practice of cleansing energy, a ritual said to pre-date recorded history. Used in ceremonies and for healing, purifying energy is still practiced today. Palo santo, incense, crystals, and sound vibrations are some of the other natural materials used to cleanse energy.

Energy is palpable. We are made of and surrounded by it. If you do the simple exercise of pressing your palms together, then pulling them apart and pressing them back together a few times, almost like you were playing an accordion, you’ll begin to feel the energy between your hands. 

We’ve all been confronted by unpleasant energy that makes us want to back away. The energy of conflict, even small arguments or tension is like that, or energy that doesn’t mesh with ours. We can magnify this effect exponentially when we think of the energy created by fear and paranoia, the energy that incites violence and war. 

Our energy reflects not only our physical health but our mental and spiritual health. It’s been said that our energy enters the room before we do, and everything flows from that. It affects the energy of the people and places around us, so it’s important to protect it and be mindful of it. What are we exuding?

And our combined energy can have tremendous power for good. “When we come together as a group, with a common purpose and commitment to mindful action, we produce an energy of collective concentration far superior to our own individual concentration. This energy further helps us to cultivate compassion and understanding.” (Thích Nhất Hạnh)

Sr. Kristin has since gone on to another realm, but I have been thinking of her a lot lately and wondering what she would make of what is happening in the world today. I like to believe she’s a spirit in the sky with other holy wisdom spirits, lighting divine sage sticks and smudging the Universe. We need to do our part and meet those divine energies at least halfway. So, yes, smudge me, please.