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Neurosweat
A mindful strategy for facing setbacks
Moving towards a goal seldom follows a straight line. There are obstacles and detours that may force us to question our ability to get to the finish line. If the setbacks keep coming and the path feels increasingly difficult, we may even consider dropping the goal entirely.
This particular circumstance, when we’re weighing the possibility of either pressing on or giving up, is called an “action crisis”. We are conflicted between our desire to accomplish this goal and our readiness for the uncomfortable challenges to be over.
Focus your gaze and your mind will follow
Our lives flow directly out of how we view the world. So, it behooves us to pay attention to what we choose to focus on. When we ruminate over problems and see every challenge as a roadblock instead of an opportunity, then our brain filters out positive experiences and selectively attends to negative or difficult stimuli. Where we direct our gaze communicates to our brain which type of information is salient and which type can be ignored. In a very real sense, we create our reality by resting our gaze in a particular direction.