The Relationship between Focusing and Allowing, by Tracy Friend

“We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.” Lao Tzu

This quote demonstrates that focusing and allowing are interdependent. Focusing may be considered focusing the mind which can be either deliberately or non-deliberately. Allowing can be defined as the state in which our beliefs are matching what we want and in this state life feels effortless and what is wanted can manifest.

If someone doesn’t have any contradictory beliefs on a particular subject then they would be in a state of allowing in which they naturally focus on things that feel good. However, if they do have any opposing beliefs deliberate focusing can be utilised to get more into a state of allowing. There are several different methods that can assist in deliberately focusing to allow.

Allowing & Effort

The Patanjali sutra (2.47) says in Sanskrit “prayatna saithilya ananta samapattibhyam” which translates as “perfection in an asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless, and the infinite being within is reached”.

This quote explains how focusing can take a certain amount of mental effort or concentration as we change the momentum of our thinking but that this then takes us to the more effortless state in which the better feeling beliefs become established and we receive universal assistance.

Focusing Generally

There are several techniques that can be used to focus more generally. These include meditation and writing lists of things that we appreciate in our life.

Meditation helps us to focus more generally as by choosing an object of attention that we don’t have a lot of thoughts and beliefs about such as the breath, it assists us in taking our mind off of any specific areas of life experience.

Focusing Specifically

We can practice focusing specifically to ‘clean-up’ our thoughts on a particular subject. Techniques to focus specifically include making lists of the positive qualities of a particular person or situation and focusing techniques to align with specific wanted beliefs.

If there is an area of life experience where someone has a strong desire and they align their beliefs with what is wanted they can achieve a state of allowing in which they feel relaxed and content. This relaxed feeling isn’t because their desire has subsided rather it is due their thinking being ‘up to speed’ with what is wanted.

Focusing on Other Subjects to Allow

We can also come into greater alignment by shifting our mind from a specific subject that might be challenging us, onto something we already feel good about. This works to raise our overall frequency and then in this higher state we have a different perspective of everything in our life and any contradictory patterns of thinking begin to come into greater alignment as a result of being in this higher frequency.