Magic happens when you consciously direct your attention

Your attention is one of the most powerful things you own.

Where you put your attention, consciously or not, is where you put your energy, your life force.

Directing your energy is a creative act. When you direct your own energy on purpose, you have what you need to create your life for yourself. When you collect up your energy and direct it towards the things you want to create, you are more successful at manifesting those things.

In order to do this, you might choose to pull your attention and energy back from the things you've been unconsciously directing it towards, especially if those things don't work for you. If you allow your energy to be taken from you, others can and will use it towards their agenda. It's a good idea to look at whether you are in agreement with where your energy is going. When it's scattered all over the place, it will be difficult to be effective in the places you most want it. If it's unavailable to you because everyone else has it, you won't be effective at all.

Your attention point is so valuable, there are people competing for it right now, lots of them.

Advertising, social media, your work and family and friends, all want you to direct your attention towards them. Some of these attention points you want, and might wish you had more time and energy to spend focusing your attention towards. There's also attention sucking places like social media, which has become a powerful multi-billion dollar business due to its ability to gobble up all the attention points it can - yours and mine and everyone else we know. Social media is all about attention points.

For better or worse, elections and cultural conversations are influenced by the big social media platforms. People with massive followings on their social media sites have created lucrative careers for themselves as influencers.

The documentary called 'The Social Dilemma' illustrates this simple concept beautifully. After I watched it, I was inspired to delete almost all social media from my phone and iPad, except for Instagram because I follow all the plant people, artists, and sewists I can. Crazy Plant People is particularly fun, highly recommended if you self identify as a crazy plant person like me.

Did you know you had this much power? Others know it, even when you don't. Notice where your attention point is going these days: that is where you are creating. If your attention is unfocused and scattered, it's going to be challenging to create what you want to have. Imagine driving a car and not paying attention to the road.

Where your attention goes, there goes your energy.

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" - The Wizard of Oz

What's happening when you're not looking at the action?

A talented magician is skilled in the art of directing your attention towards where they want it.

By directing your attention towards what they want you to notice, a magician is able to create what looks like magic. In this case, the magic is the direction of your attention, your energy.

The magic happens when you're not looking directly at the magician, which is the point here.

If you’ve ever consciously directed the attention of others in any way, you know how this works. You might do something as simple as change the subject to redirect a conversation, and if you're successful at it, you can talk a lot of people into a lot of things.

If you are able to direct people's attention towards where you want it to be, you are doing the same thing a professional magician does. You might call this marketing, or having the ability to tell a compelling story that makes others want to put their attention on you.

Meditation helps you to collect up your attention and bring it back to yourself, and your agenda.

Meditation makes it easier for you to collect up and redirect your attention, your energy - in and around yourself. This gives you the power and awareness to move back into being in charge of your own life, rather than allowing all the demands coming from outside of you to use up your magnificent energy. Energy is very noisy - especially energy that isn't your own. Those demands for your attention point are LOUD. You can feel them, and you might be unconscious as to how much of a pull they have on you.

One of my favorite things about being a psychic teacher is watching as students start to drop the energies they're holding onto that pull their attention away from themselves. I've taught classes online and in person, but however and wherever the class takes place, a similar thing happens. When everyone settles in and gets grounded and starts to let go of whatever isn't them, there is a moment when the class becomes quiet. The quiet is real - it can be heard and experienced.

I ask my students to notice how quiet it got in this classroom, online or in person. As the energy and attention that isn't theirs drops away, the space becomes quieter and calmer. There is more room for the students to have their own energy, and to decide where to direct it. They are now ready to become the magicians in their own lives.