I woke up from a dream the other day with this phrase embedded in my mind…

Energy flows where attention goes. What you focus on grows.

Whatever is the focus of attention becomes more prominent.

It’s one of those “hidden in plain sight” concepts; almost too obvious for people to fully grasp and consistently apply. Your attention, your focus, is an aiming of energy. What you choose to direct your attention towards is what you choose to give power to.

Instead of going on an abstract ramble, I’ll get into some examples.

Solo Activities

Meditation

When meditating, you focus inward.

This is why meditation builds self-awareness. You become aware of your thoughts. You familiarize yourself with your intuition. You become more in tune with your entire being; mind, body and spirit.

Meditation is the most foundational practice. It literally makes everything better.

Prayer

Prayer (which many consider to be a form of meditation) typically focuses on certain words, phrases, or images.

It’s an affirmation that gives power to whatever you focus on. And it’s usually towards a goal (ex/ praying for the health of a loved one). So the focus of the prayer is where energy flows.

Whether you call an answered prayer coincidence, chance, or placebo effect (a testament to the power of the mind btw), there’s something to it.

Some mysterious force that we haven’t quite wrapped our heads around that allows prayer to “work.”

Writing

When writing, you draw inspiration from….wherever it comes from… and direct it to the page (or screen, if you’re typing).

Working Out

When doing any type of exercise, the focus is on the body.

Bodily awareness is honed when you exercise correctly and consciously.

Performing a pull-up is a good example. The pull-up works most of the upper body, with the back muscles being the primary movers. But you have to be aware of your entire body throughout the movement to ensure proper technique. You have to tighten your whole body (or else you’ll be pulling up dead weight). You also have to initiate the movement by contracting your back muscles (which is hard because most people have trouble “feeling” these muscles).

Without even getting into the intricacies, you can see how an exercise as (seemingly) simple as a pull-up requires a lot of bodily awareness.

This is why people like yoga masters and bodybuilders are keenly aware of every part of their bodies.

Manifestation

Manifestation closely ties into the concept of “energy flows where attention goes.”

Essentially, you magnetize everything at the same vibration as you into your reality. And you vibrate at the same frequency as your predominant focus.

So if you can change your vibration, you can instantly change what is manifesting in your life.

Sounds like magic, right? Well life becomes a continuous stream of magic when you become more conscious.

Group Activities

The effect seems to be amplified in groups. This is where many people are directing their attention towards the same thing.

Standing in a Circle and Talking

When people stand in a circle, the conversation becomes an entity in and of itself. Everyone takes turns giving the conversation energy, and toying with that energy.

Anything at a Table

This includes meals, meetings…etc. Like with what I said above, the meal/meeting becomes almost like an entity itself.

Let’s take a meeting, for example. In a meeting, people come together to brainstorm and achieve something. Everyone’s focus, attention, and energy is on the same goal.

And for some reason I feel like round tables work best. Maybe because everyone faces the same center point.

Watching TV

TV literally draws the viewers in. The focus (or consciousness) of everybody watching goes to the TV.

Think about how completely absorbed you get while watching TV. You become completely immersed in the screen-world, and oblivious to your surroundings (aka “reality”).

This is like the opposite of meditation. It is transferring your awareness/consciousness away from yourself and to whatever is on TV (this is what makes watching movies so enthralling).

It’s essentially externalizing your power. This is (one of the reasons) why you see so many disempowered people living vicariously through others (celebrities, athletes…etc).

I’d rather be like the most interesting man in the world and live vicariously through myself. (And how ironic is it that I just referenced a TV commercial? Haha)

Group Events

This includes any concerts, singing, dancing, chanting, group meditation/prayer, or whatever other crazy rituals people participate in behind closed doors.  With any type of group ritual, a fantastic amount of energy is generated. You can feel it when you’re involved.

If you’ve ever been to a great concert, for example, you know that you can literally feel the energy. Oh and have you ever heard that Tibetan monks have been rumored to actually move objects through acoustic levitation? Yeah, crazy stuff.

The key question here is this: What are you focusing on?

Be conscious of what you focus on. What are you giving energy to?

“Your thoughts are like packs of wolves. The pack you feed will grow stronger. The pack you choose to feed is up to you.”

Much Love.

– Stephen Parato