Expand

What do you think of when you hear the word Expand? Maybe what springs to mind is a vast ocean. Or perhaps, you think of mountains spreading for and wide. Or, if you're like me, your mind conjures up images of sunlight spilling over the horizon. Expanding is an easy metaphor but a difficult reality, especially in a reality that wants to constantly remind us of what's going wrong or what we don't have. You see, the fairly common follow up thought to Expand is Expand What? With this question, our mind is usually thrown into thinking about everything we don't have; we hyper focus on our lack. The more we focus on our lack, the more it tends to expand or at least, our belief about our lack tends to expand. I'm a pretty firm believer that what you tend to focus on in you life is what you get whether the truth of the focus is totally true or not. What I mean to say it, often times, we are not as bad off as we think we are, but because we are so focused on the negative, it seems gigantic. Or, in the words of Seneca, "We often suffer more in imagination than in reality." So that brings us back to the questions Expand What? This is where focus and intention are crucial. One of my favorite antidotes to the more negative and sometimes justified but unhelpful lines of thinking is found in the book of Exodus. In Exodus 4:2 God simply asks Moses, "What is that is your hand?" God was asking Moses to focus on what he had, not on the seemingly impossible task ahead of him, or his anger, or how tired he was, or even what he wanted, just what did he have in his hand; what was he holding onto and what was working for him. I think the same can be true to us today. Rather than focusing on what we don't have or our anger (or any other unhelpful emotions) we are better served by focusing on what we do have and what is working for us. Also, by putting our focus where it can better serve us, we can then be in a place where we are better able to serve others. Have you ever noticed that anger and gratitude tend to expand pretty fast? Or that anxiety, fear, and lack can expand just about as quick as appreciation, hope, and feelings of abundance? So, that brings us back to the question: What will you expand today?