PIVOTING

a simple tool for quick course-correction

Photo of ballet dancers in arabesque on pointe from Daniel Neuhaus on Unsplash

​
​Want an even quicker read? Go through and just read the bold. That tells the whole story.


Pivoting is both a simple concept and a simple tool. It’s not even a process. It’s a quick mental adjustment you make and keep making to go from the unwanted to the wanted.

Use it while in motion or being still. Use it while working, walking, cooking--whenever you’re capable of having a thought and being aware of that thought. Use it while waking or dropping off to sleep. Anytime, just for a moment.

Yep, this is also from Abraham-Hicks.

Pivoting has 3 steps.
1) You notice something that’s not to your liking.
2) You consider what WANTED thing corresponds to this UNWANTED thing.
3) You shift your focus to the WANTED.

Examples:
1) You notice you’ve been getting sloppy with punctuality again.
2) You make a mental note that you prefer being a little early to be ready on time.
3) You feel great about that decision (instead of bad about the lapse) and you head out (or to the computer) early for the next appointment.

1) You notice you’re having an irritation response.
2) You pivot toward soothing what bothers you and toward accepting what is, as it is, here and now.
3) Right now, you breathe, relax the muscles that tensed up, tell yourself it’s really okay.

1) You notice you’ve been doing too much and things feel glutted.
2) You pivot toward doing less, finding pauses, making spaces.
3) You tell the story of increasing spaciousness and do every little thing you see to promote that—tidy up this corner of the cabinet, say no just to something between you & you (that shopping trip can actually wait, and today I stay home); say no to an invitation even if it has appeal—because it’s more appealing to do less right now.

Notice from the above examples that what brings the UNWANTED into focus, and thus the call to PIVOT, is simply that SOMETHING FEELS BAD.

When you become quickly responsive to the signals that something feels bad (these signals come from your own system—body, heart, head), then you pause with what you’re noticing and … PIVOT.

What’s so radical—or more to the point, HELPFUL--about this?

I recently heard this gem (during an Abraham Now program): “You can’t get around how you feel when you’re amplifying how you feel with sentences.”

Ever notice you put A LOT of language—even just words in thought, not necessarily spoken—to what you feel? Noticing you’re exhausted, you declare exhausted. You review what’s been exhausting in your life. You give lots of weight to what you can’t control that exhausts you (so now you’re a victim of and stuck in exhausting circumstances). You put much focus on how bad it feels in your body. In short, you tell the story of EXHAUSTED.

So when you have this PIVOT concept in view, noticing exhaustion, you pivot. You tell the story of rest and rejuvenation instead.

And then it’s not so hard to get around how you feel. Your (chosen) focus is now on rest and rejuvenation, you choose your inner and outer narratives accordingly, and you also make choices accordingly.
​

Photo of owl pivoting head & gaze from Getty Images on Unsplash.

​And that’s how you apply it as you go. So let’s go over those 3 ways to apply the pivot one more time:
1) You focus on whatever you’re pivoting toward (e.g., rest & rejuvenation).
2) You choose your inner and outer narratives accordingly.
3) You make ongoing choices to keep heading that way.

As always, it helps to BRING IT TO NOW. Just right now, I can let go of something and go to bed earlier. Now, I can slow down a bit and do an easier version of the task. Right now, I can pause for 15 minutes and meditate or lie down and rest.

You could make pivoting a way of life!

You could swiftly learn to shift …

• from forcing to allowing
• from defending to aligning with the truth of who you are
• from what scares you & makes you anxious to what you’re excited about
• from feeling annoyed with someone to getting okay with letting them be on their journey and do what they do
• from being bored to just being satisfied with what is and gently watching for what else is possible
• from … to …

Have you ever had some of the most satisfying change come from some simply concept you simply applied? I invite you to try that out with PIVOTING.

Love & blessings, Jaya