Energy Is Currency

Lately, there’s been this heavy energy coming to me about being focused. It reminds me of one of my past blog posts, “Escapism, The Expired Tool”.  Recently, I haven’t been writing much and quite frankly, if I wanted to, I could break it down into multiple reasons, but the main culprit is my own limiting beliefs. Even though I think I’m an amazing writer, I notice that I often come up with some reason as to why I’m not, every time I think about writing. This doesn’t only happen to me when I write, I also experience it when I think about doing other tasks that would ultimately benefit me. I experience this when I think about going to the gym, practicing the new language I’m learning, making music, going to dance class, doing readings, painting, journaling, and auditioning for different roles. 

I was just doing some readings for TikTok and got the same message twice that essentially our attention is the most valuable currency that we have. The choices that we make, things we focus on, and how we spend our time are extremely tied to what we can actually manifest and sustain our lives. We’ve all heard the saying, “where attention goes, energy flows”. This is why it’s so important to unplug and center yourself. Imagine all of the time that you spend scrolling on your phone, distracting yourself by hanging out with people who aren’t teaching you something or helping you to create something, or ignoring the calling that you hear toward a task that your higher self knows will make you feel good in the long term. Think about the fact that had that same time and energy been spent on the things that are important to you, you would have already made so much progress by now. 

The goal is not to wallow in the past or cry over spilled milk, but there’s just a need to really understand just how valuable your energy really is. A couple of weeks ago I did a social media detox for the day and I put my phone up in a drawer. This forced me to see just how much time I’d typically spend scrolling and how I actually had the option to spend my time in so many other ways that would actually benefit me. That day I ended up going to the gym, journaling a lot, getting new ideas, cooking, cleaning, and all around doing things that created progress in my life. Just from that one day of being intentional about how I spent my time, I got so much done and created a stable foundation for my following days to lean on. In the weeks following that day, I’ve been finding myself more aware of when I need to put my phone down and when I could be spending my time more wisely. 

Following the realization of just how valuable my attention is, I also realized that being able to remain focused is a skill. For some people, they just have it naturally and find it really easy to focus on what they want and for others, like myself, we have to build that muscle. I realized that due to my past and using distractions at one point to cope with chaos and trauma, it had become very easy for me to make the decision to lean into distractions without even questioning it. However, as I integrate into this new season of life, where things are peaceful and I have an abundance of opportunities around me, it’s extremely important that I practice choosing the thing that’s in alignment with my new reality, as opposed to my old one. 

Lately, I’ve been imagining that every time I think about doing something, I’m watering a plant. In front of me, there are two plants, one that represents my dream life and one that represents my current and/or past unsatisfying life. My focus is the water and my actions are the decisions of which plant to water. With proper nutrients, the dream life plant will eventually grow into my favorite flowers, peonies. Whereas the unsatisfying life plant is poison ivy. When I get that urge to go to the gym, I imagine that if I go, I’ve just watered the dream life plant. If I feed into the negative beliefs that working out is hard, boring, or “too much” for me to do in some way, so I lay down instead, I’d be watering the unsatisfied life plant. 

I urge you to try this method. It may seem harsh, but again the point is not for you to fall into feeling guilty for your decisions, it’s just to help you to stay aware of the power of your decisions. Also, keep in mind that plants do not grow overnight and they won’t thrive forever off of one day of watering. Therefore, if you water the unsatisfied life plant one time, you can still redirect the next time and after you do not water the plant for a long enough period of time, it will still begin to die. However, the same can be said for the dream life plant. If you ignore what you know is best for you and continuously pour into the unsatisfied life, then that’s what you will grow and the dream life will slowly begin to die.  

Not to get too morbid or anything, but I think that sometimes, we get so caught up in our day to day lives and distractions that we forget just how valuable our time here on Earth really is and that we never know when it’s going to come to an end. I’ve said it before in another blog post that one of my biggest fears is dying with regrets about what dreams or goals I never pursued. I’d hate to be on my deathbed thinking about the places I wanted to travel, the books I wanted to write, and the languages I wanted to learn, and having to accept that my time is up before I took action towards those things and having no one to blame but myself. 

All around, I want this to simply be a reminder that the world needs you to show up. You need yourself to show up. My intention with this blog is that as I share pieces of me, they resonate with pieces of you, and by us showing up as our most authentic selves, we create a ripple effect and change the world.