Card #437 – If In Doubt, Focus Out

If you find yourself spiraling with internal chaos, shift from internal considering to external considering and focusing on practical tasks.

Internal considering means evaluating everything from the perspective of your wants, needs, desires, feelings, and status. In the prison of internal considering, the whole world is our irritant, and everything seems to be conspiring against our comfort and desires.

External considering — focusing compassionately on others — is of inestimable value in itself. What is often underestimated, however, is that it is one of the very few reliable shortcuts out of inner neurotic torment which is always dominated by internal considering.

We can get further lost in our neurotic world by infinitely psychoanalyzing childhood situations and the complexities of our present unhappiness. Sometimes the best way out of that quagmire is to focus compassionately on others, and there are always others in greater pain and need than us. And even if they are not in greater pain and need, it may be of value to focus on them instead of ourselves when we are getting lost in states of unhappy internal considering.

I made great progress with egocentric suffering during my fourteen years as a schoolteacher. My default state of internal considering was forced into external considering when I was in the classroom because with 30+ high-energy kids to educate, there was no possibility of drifting off into inner neurotic labyrinths. So external considering not only benefits others, it also benefits us.

If other people are not available, focus on relating impeccably to the outer world in general. If you are driving, focus on driving as impeccably as possible. Bring mindfulness to whatever chores, tasks or activities you are doing. Sometimes, you may need to pay more attention to what clamoring inner voices are saying and to the subpersonalities that generate those voices. Other times we are just afflicted by what Jung called “psychic entropy.” Psychic entropy is information that conflicts with existing intentions or that distracts people from carrying out intentions. Typically, psychic entropy takes the form of annoying, anxious thought tape-loops that fragment attention and diminish the ability to focus on anything useful or enjoyable. One proven way to reduce psychic entropy is to be in a state of optimal functioning that Csikszentmihalyi calls “flow.” Click here: FLOW to learn more about this desirable state of total engagement.

When in a state of unproductive internal considering, another way to focus out of it is to fully engage in practical or creative outer tasks instead.

There are times to work with what’s going on inside and when that’s the case, I usually journal the whole time and actively take it on. But many other times, inner chaos and doubts do not serve any purpose of self-discovery and are counter-developmental. When you find yourself in such states of counter-productive doubt, focus out.

For more on how to deal with afflictive thoughts and feelings see:
Dealing with Psychic Entropy