Where Your Attention Goes, Energy Flows
Why the thoughts you choose—and the direction you look—matter more than you think.
10 Years Ago
I’m 23 and learning how to snowboard for the first time. Everything feels awkward from the painful tightness of my boots to the way my borrowed goggles limit my peripheral vision. I feel like Ralphie from A Christmas Story, so bundled up I can hardly move my arms and legs.
But even through the layers, I can clearly hear my snowboard instructor shouting, “Toes! Now, heels! That’s right! Keep your eyes up!”
I tear my gaze away from the ground two feet in front of me. My instructor has been repeating the same advice all morning, keep your eyes on the tree line, but I can’t seem to keep my eyes off the snow.
Two seconds later, I forget again. Almost as soon as I look down, I catch my toe and go crashing to the ground hard.
As I untangle myself, I feel snow wedged into the space between my jacket and snow pants. I want to scream.
My instructor appears just below me on the hill, gliding to an effortless, graceful stop. I can’t see his face behind his snow mask but I hear the laugh in his voice as he says, “Did you feel it that time? The second you took your eyes away from where you wanted to go, you fell.”
I look up and smile wryly as I feel the aches where my body came crashing to the ground, “Oh, I felt it.”
He hops quickly to his feet, “Good. Now, keep your eyes up. Your board goes where you’re looking. Ready for another shot? Let’s go!”
I struggle to my feet and point my tip downhill. This time, as I slowly glide down the bunny hill, I am determined to keep my gaze on the tree line. I balance on the back edge of my snowboard, moving so slowly the muscles on the front of my calves ache.
But finally, I reach the edge of the trail without falling and I fall to the ground in celebration.
7 Years Ago
The yoga teacher at the front of the room balances effortlessly on one foot. Her other foot is grasped firmly in her left hand as she slowly guides it up toward the ceiling behind her. She is careful to keep her chest and chin lifted as the foot lifts slowly toward dancer pose.
“The second you drop your gaze, you’ve gone too far!” She demonstrates and drops her eyes to the floor. Almost at once, her balance shifts and she has to wiggle to keep herself on one leg.
She allows her foot to drop once more, lifts her chest and chin, and then slowly brings her leg back up into dancer.
“Where your attention goes, your energy flows! Keep your gaze lifted and you won’t end up on the floor!”
4 Years Ago
I’m 29 and swimming in debt. My seven year relationship just ended, and when my ex moved out, he took all of my excuses for not dealing with the rising tide of unpaid credit cards with him.
I don’t like my job, but I don’t know what I would rather do. I need to make money but I’d rather die than work in restaurants again. Most of my abundant free time is spent trying to figure out what to do.
I am determined to find the exact right action to get myself out of what feels like a hopeless situation. But how do I pay off thousands of dollars when I can’t seem to feed myself?
One day, I’m sitting in the car listening to Caroline Myss’ audiobook, Advanced Energy Anatomy, and her voice cuts through the rhythm of my thoughts, “Stop giving power to your debt. Stop obsessing over it. Stop thinking about it. If you really want to get rid of your debt, you can’t spend all day worrying about how big it’s getting.”
I feel this advice take root somewhere deep inside me. As Caroline Myss plows on with her thoughts on the energy of money, my mind flicks into overdrive—How do I take my power back from my debt? Do I just stop thinking about it? If so, how?
Experimentally, I say out loud, “I’m taking my power back, debt. You don’t control me anymore.”
I wait a moment but nothing seems to have changed. I shrug and continue listening to Caroline, pressing the idea into the back of my mind.
Where Your Attention Goes, Energy Flows
A snowboarder’s gaze determines the direction of their board. A yogi’s attention will keep them balanced or send them tumbling to the ground. A mind focused on debt only pours more energy into keeping that debt alive.
Our energy flows where we’re looking.
If we focus on falling, we fall. If we lose focus, we wobble. If we focus exclusively on one problem and lose sight of the bigger picture, we stay stuck.
Snowboarding was just the first of many lessons that showed me the value of lifting my gaze. Maybe there’s something about hitting the ground hard that makes a lesson stick.
It took a dozen reminders for me to feel the connection between my gaze and my falls—but once I did, I realized my attention was on the snow because I was looking for a good place to fall.
My mind was on falling, and my gaze reflected it. Thinking about falling caused me to fall. I dropped my gaze, caught my tip, and down I went.
It wasn’t until I made the firm decision to keep my eyes lifted—to focus on where I was going—that I was able to break the pattern and make it to the tree line at the edge of the trail.
From Fear to Trust
You can’t shift your attention overnight. It’s not like putting on a sweatshirt, where one day you can just decide to wear a blue one instead of the red one you’ve worn every other day of your life. Shifting your attention requires small, consistent movements—away from fear and toward trust.
When you focus on what you fear, you create what you dread most.
If you're afraid you’ll fall, your mind will conspire to make it happen—the snowboard catches an edge, and down you go. If you're afraid you’ll lose your balance, your gaze will drop and knock you off center. If you're afraid of your debt, it will stay front and center in your mind, coloring every decision with fear and lack.
You can’t avoid failure by fixating on it.
You build trust by choosing, again and again, to keep your eyes on where you want to go.
Where You Want to Go
Last year, I fell almost every time I went in the woods. After each fall, I got more frustrated with myself and kept looking down at my board, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.
My friend Ryan shouted from twenty feet ahead, "Stop staring at your feet! Look where you want to go!"
I forced my gaze up toward the bottom of the run and something clicked. I stopped falling. It wasn't that I suddenly became a better snowboarder—I was just finally looking at where I wanted to end up instead of where I was afraid I'd fail.
When I was drowning in debt, I spent hours staring at spreadsheets, calculating how long it would take to pay everything off if I lived on ramen and never went out. My focus was entirely on my debt, instead of on the life I would live when the problem no longer existed.
I remember sitting at my kitchen table one night surrounded by bills, suddenly remembering Caroline Myss's words about taking power back from debt. I closed my laptop, put away the bills, and asked myself, "What do I actually want?"
Not just to be out of debt—that was just the absence of a problem. What did I want to create? What kind of work did I want to do? What kind of life was I trying to build?
Focusing on what you want doesn’t guarantee you’ll never fall.
But it does change how you see your failures. They stop being proof you’ll never get there—and start becoming part of the path that gets you there.
Looking Ahead
These days, I hardly ever look down when I snowboard. As I carve down the hill, my gaze is always where I want to go. If I catch an edge, I catch an edge—but it doesn’t happen nearly as often as it used to and usually I can catch myself before I hit the ground.
Ten years after my first snowboarding lesson, I've finally internalized what my instructor was trying to tell me. Where your attention goes, energy flows.
I'm 33 now, and my debt isn't gone, but it no longer occupies prime real estate in my thoughts. Sometimes I still catch myself in old thought patterns—planning for the worst, worrying about what will happen if I don’t pay it off—but I've gotten better at recognizing when I'm looking down instead of ahead.
You might be where I was—staring down at your own version of debt, or a relationship ending, or a career that doesn't fit anymore. Maybe you're so focused on what could go wrong that you can't see what might go right.
Today, I invite you to lift your gaze. Take five minutes to write down what you actually want, not just what you're trying to avoid. Put that note somewhere you'll see it every day—your bathroom mirror, your phone background, your desk.
When you feel yourself slipping into those old patterns of fear-focused thinking, gently redirect your attention. Ask yourself: "Where do I want to go?" instead of "What am I afraid will happen?"
The path will reveal itself as you take each step.
One heel edge, one breath, one lifted thought at a time.
Your attention is powerful. Use it to create the life you want, not to feed the fears that hold you back. Keep your gaze up.
I'll see you at the bottom of the run.
With love and light,
This Week’s Journaling Prompt-
What are you giving power to with your thoughts?
Take five minutes to jot down your most common worries, fears, anxieties. Over the course of a day, make a tick mark every time you think about one of those things.
Now, for each persistent thought, find a hopeful alternative. Ask yourself what is the best case scenario for each of these thoughts? What would I like to happen?
To help you get in the mindset, create a “wonder” question for yourself. I.E. “I wonder what would happen if I no longer had any debt?” or “I wonder what would happen if I quit my job without notice.”
Try not to dwell on the worst-case scenario, but dream up as many best-case scenarios as you can. Break the habit of your fear-based thoughts and allow yourself to focus on what you’d like to create.
And don’t forget to share with someone who needs to keep their gaze lifted.
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