Look Where You’re Going! by Jane Thurnell-Read

I don’t know about you, but as a child my parents often told me to look where I was going. As a small child I was irritated by yet one more parental instruction, but thinking about it as an adult it’s a really sound piece of advice – and not just to avoid walking into other people. It’s a piece of advice for the whole of your life.

I am a keen cyclist and enjoy going on adventurous holidays on my bike. In some countries there are long descents off mountains involving many hairpin bends. These used to terrify me, and I would brake inexpertly all the way down, arriving at the bottom stressed and often close to tears. Then an ex-professional cyclist gave me a piece of advice – Look where you’re going!

He explained that most people who have trouble steering at high speeds are looking at where they don’t want to go (over the cliff edge/into the rock face/towards the parked car and children) rather than where they do want to go (round the next tight bend). He told me that if you look over the cliff edge, worrying that your bike will go over the edge, you’ve got a very good chance of ending up there! He also said that if you follow the bend with your eyes, your mind and body will take the necessary action to get you round it. This seemed simplistic advice to me, but I tried it and it worked. Now I can enjoy descending; I can enjoy the view as I whiz down yet another mountain.

So, how does this apply to life? It’s simple: we need to concentrate on where we want to go rather than on where we don’t want to go.

There’s a great phrase in Huna philosophy: energy flows where attention goes. This sums it up beautifully. If your attention is on failure and things that can go wrong, that will tend to happen.

Of course, it’s easy to say ‘Focus on where you want to go’. It may be more difficult to bring it about in practice. Old habits and thought patterns run deep, so you will find yourself thinking negative thoughts. When you find yourself in an old negative pattern, don’t give up; just bring your thoughts back to where you want to go. Eventually the fallback position will be that you focus on the positive not the negative.

Of course, there are things you can do to help. Try the ESR technique for stress release, or try taking Bach flower remedies or find a therapist who can help you or try one of our self-help CDs.