By David Miller

One semester, I had a past student (who became a friend) enroll in a subsequent upper-level class of mine.

In the previous class, I saw him make remarkable progress in tackling a new subject and overcoming his fears. After pondering some of the fear-fighting thoughts we discussed in the next class, he came to my office with a question.

“What do you do if some of your old fears start to come back?”

I was surprised by myself as I was able to give him four suggestions that came as inspiration in the moment. I don’t know if these will apply to everyone, but I think they were applicable to him (and me).

I will share these four points as individual posts.

#3 What you FOCUS on, GROWS.

This point is very tightly coupled with the previous post, “Don’t Feed the Bears.” However, it applies to both sides of the coin.

We can choose to focus on fears or on positive things, and either will grow as we do.

This is why gratitude is so powerful. This is why service to your fellow humans is so powerful.

These are the paradoxes of life. As you move your focus away from your problems, they tend to shrink! As you focus on gratitude, love, and hope, they grow!

Isn’t that counterintuitive? It is, but it is a beautiful truth and a divinely-crafted one.

Anxiety tries to tell me I should focus all of my efforts and each waking moment on my problems, so I can make them go away.

I’m here to say that has been debunked as a lie in my life. The more I feed the bears, the more they grow. Focus on good instead. Focus on others and find relief. Focus on gratitude.

“Seeds of despair cannot take root in a grateful heart.”

Please share if you think this post can help someone.