ZOOM IN, ZOOM OUT

Process #3 of 5 for quick & easy focus & alignment

Up-close photo of part of an owl’s face from Sandra Seitamaa on Unsplash.

Feeling bad? Stop. What are you thinking about? You’re probably zoomed in on details that, simply put, stir up suffering. Unnecessary suffering.

Seriously, just let any kind of feeling bad be cause to stop and check out what you’re thinking. Pause if you’re

• Anxious
• Frustrated
• Ashamed (even a little embarrassed)
• Worried
• Scared
• Angry
• Insecure

If anything feels bad, INTERRUPT YOUR THOUGHTS AT ONCE AND CHECK THEM OUT.

Let feeling good matter enough to you that you’re jolted to a halt when you notice you feel bad! Abraham-Hicks (whose processes I’m sharing with you here in this series of 5) often reminds us: CARE MORE ABOUT HOW YOU FEEL.

So when you notice you feel bad, pause. And ask yourself …

What are you focused on? Are you in the thorny details? In other words, are you ZOOMED IN to what feels bad?

You’re getting lost in specific concerns you can’t fix or questions you can’t possibly have the answers to right now:

• How this will go from a great idea to something real with all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed
• How it’ll be funded
• When they’ll see the error of their ways
• How you’ll do
• What they’ll think of you, how you’re doing, how you did
• What you should have done differently
• What they should do or should have done differently
• Whether you should stay or go
• How you’ll know
• That specific awful thing they said
• That [maddening, disrespectful, self-righteous] TONE they used
• What they were insinuating that they did not say
• When it will all work out
• Whether it will all work out
• How bad it will get before it works out (if ever)
• When the other shoe will drop
• …

In all such lines of thought, you’re zoomed in on all manner of detail that can only make you feel some kind of bad. (Mostly because they’re not in your realm of control. Not your business, to use Byron Katie’s 3 kinds of business. They all belong to others or to the Universe—any timing, outcome, how-what-when-who.)

And isn’t it easy to get entranced by the details? There’s nothing to judge when you catch yourself there, so catch yourself sweetly. And GET OUT. It will never serve you to hang out there.

Please take in how simple this is:

• Care about how you feel
• Notice you feel bad at early stages (before momentum builds)
• Check out how zoomed in your are to a problem & all its details

And what do you do when you find yourself feeling bad & zoomed in on details?

Photo of owl in tree taken from afar from Shirish Suwal on Unsplash.

Easy: ZOOM OUT.

​IS IT EVER USEFUL TO ZOOM IN?
Yes! Zoom in to anything that feels good. If you notice you’re delighted by a child or a flower or a sky or a hilarious comment, zoom in!

Stay with it. Do hang out in these details! Bask in the particulars of that joy-producing, awe-inspiring, heart-melting thing! Stay with it for a while if you’re feeling expansive, loving & trusting life, getting soothing or relief. Stay with what reminds you all is well and life is about love.

HOW THIS APPLIES TO GETTING SHIT DONE
Things we’re up to and fully choose to do may have thorny, problematic components and problems or how-to’s not yet solved. That applies to most every dream or vision we have, every work or home task we wish to complete & do well, every relationship event or issue that we want to show up for. So yes, show up to do the work. But when you’re feeling bad, zoom out!

Later come back and zoom back in. Do that once you’ve moved away from thorny details that had your brow all furrowed. You properly responded to the signals of feeling bad, zoomed out, and now you feel good & relaxed again. Maybe you’ve even zoomed in on something totally different that got you back to where you like to be. You’re in love again (with life, with yourself, with other sentient beings). You’re back to can-do.

NOW go back. Now, you’re ready to move the thing forward again, to face that challenging task, to consider what step you might actually be ready to take.

​Photo of trees in woods from Lukasz Szmigiel on Unsplash.​

EASY AS 1-2-3

1. You zoomed out when you felt bad
2. You feel good again
3. You’re ready to zoom in and bring the good-feeling stuff with you.

You’ve got this.

ZOOM IN OR ZOOM OUT
This is a very recent thing Abraham’s been talking about. They used to simply emphasize the idea to GO GENERAL. This is a tweak to that. It emphasizes instead that sometimes it feels good to zoom in. So that. And sometimes, in order to feel good, you need to zoom out.

Just let feeling good be your guide!

THAT’S ALL FOLKS. Zoom in or zoom out. Notice that this process doesn’t even require writing anything down. (Though you can always use writing to focus.)

What follows are some afterthoughts you may not even want. Skim or skip as drawn.

WHAT MIGHT GET LOST when you permit yourself to stay zoomed in on details that make you feel bad. You may lose track of

• the fact you’re okay and it’s all okay
• the fact it’s always gotten better and it always will
• the fact that you’re not alone, you’re guided, you’re deeply intuitive
• the awareness of how far you’ve come, how well you’re doing, how much better it all is than it has been (or how much better you’re walking yourself through this hard patch as compared to earlier ones)

In short, you lose track of your own belief system, whatever it is, and choosing to follow fearful thinking that’s falsely predicated on the wrong idea you need to keep thinking it through, figuring it out, redundantly reviewing details. It’s based on the false premise that you’re the doer and the one who needs to keep a vigilant watch on everything for things to be okay. Um, how bout not?

You can find Abraham-Hicks process #1, Easy Existing Matches, right here.
Find Abraham-Hicks process #2, Segment intending, right here.

Love & blessings, Jaya