My mindset of “Into the woods” doesn’t always mean a literal foray into the forest. Most often it is lived through taking a deep breath, looking inward, and focusing my attention inward. There have been several of those moments throughout the day.

Amongst the ideas rebounding in my skull today are:

• Memories of the conversation with Dad when he removed the cabinet with almost no effort after I’d sweated and strained with no success. The core is remembering to pause, focus on seeing the entire picture, and then applying all of the energy in exactly the right place.
• A podcast starting off very similar to parts of my own life – making the decision to quit smoking, lose weight, run a marathon, start a blog… and then he grew into his dream of writing for a living and has over 2 million followers. Where did our paths split and why? He was willing to pay the cost for one dream over another. This has me thinking about what my biggest dreams are and what I’m willing to give to attain them.

My mind has come back to these two core thoughts often for a variety of reasons several times each today. For both concepts – focusing energy in the right spot and choosing the right dreams to pursue – the right answers can only be found after taking time to think in stillness. If I am to answer both correctly I must go into the woods to create space to think.

The counterpoint to this is that there have been many opportunities to react as opposed to pausing to breathe. I could just as easily reacted with my initial gut feel, the first emotion, or just followed the deepest ruts of habit. Often it seems as if inertia of the moment pushes me towards action immediately instead of suggesting I pause.

I wonder if I spent enough time in the woods to focus could I have such clarity that I could both react immediately while also going in the direction that is the right one? If enough time was concentrated up front to attain more clarity would I be able to respond more quickly without requiring time pause?

Today I am thankful for taking time to go into the woods to process. This wasn’t perfect and I did not execute it as precisely as I would like – I have much work to do on this. That said, I am grateful for the times I took to pause and consider energy and direction as it guided me down the right paths.

In a weird way I feel like I may have asked myself more questions than answers with my blog today – and I’m grateful for that as well. Writing this blog is one of my favorite ways to escape to the wilderness of my brain each day to find inner peace.

Thanks!!!