Leading From The Heart When You Feel Worn Out and Exhausted

I don’t know about you, but I am feeling pretty exhausted by all the vitriol I see out there. I want to follow the old adage, “be the change you want to see in the world.” But how is leading from the heart even possible when you feel worn out and exhausted by what is happening all around you?

Everywhere I turn, I see different groups fighting to defend their polarized perspectives. Sometimes I think I should just stop paying attention to their war of words and aggression. To do so however, would feel like I am being an ostrich with my head stuck in the sand. What’s the solution then – when you’re exhausted AND you want to change the world?

When I feel exhausted by all the strife I see in the world, I turn to the wisdom of Abraham-Hicks:

Go General and let the Law Of Attraction work its magic.

Law of Attraction In Action – Going General

What does it mean to Go General? It means to take your attention off of the specific situation that is causing you to close your heart in sadness, anger and fear and widen your focus to include something that FEELS better.

You might be thinking “that sounds just like what you said you didn’t want to do – be an ostrich with its head stuck in the sand.” Well not exactly. There is a difference.  Burying your head, refusing to see what you don’t want to see, is blinding yourself to reality and pretending it is not occurring. Shifting your focus of attention to another reality that feels better is a choice to activate the law of attraction for your benefit.

What you focus your attention on impacts the way you feel and think. When you feel and think a certain way you end up attracting more of the same because that is what you are seeking. What you look for is what you will see.

The energy that you put out is what you attract to yourself. That is the law of attraction in action. 

Stop Looking For What You Don’t Want – It’s Exhausting

If focusing your attention on the strife and the specific incidents of conflict leaves you feeling drained and depleted, it is an inefficient and ineffective use of your energy. The more you focus on the strife and conflict, you see more strife and conflict in what you read, hear and experience. You then attract people who are focusing their attention in the same way. Their shared views support your perspective, providing more evidence and solidifying it even more. This lowers your energy even more because it seems even more true and more all encompassing. 

When you focus your attention on what you don’t want and steep yourself in the feeling of powerlessness, frustration, and desperation, you are spending time and energy depleting yourself so that you have nothing left.  If you have nothing left, how can you be the change? How can you lead from a heart that is empty?

How To Replenish Your Energy And Start Leading From The Heart

It makes more sense to step into the FEELING of being the change. When you feel what it feels like to be the change you are filling yourself with that energy. With that energy, you attract more thoughts, experiences and people that are also focused on being the change. When you notice your energy turning dark and your heart closing look at what you are doing – where your attention is focused. If you energy goes down when you read about the most recent skirmish over whose lives matter most, stop reading. Expand your awareness and look for something that is reflective of how you wish people would relate to each other.

Take your nose out of social media, the news, gossip, etc and turn your eyes and ears toward the peace and kindness and respect that people are creating all around you. Look for people being kind, supportive, helpful, respectful, collaborative, fair, courageous, playful and open-hearted. Feel what it feels like to see that reality unfolding before you. Take that filled up feeling out into the world and engage with people from that space.

What you pay attention to is your choice. We all know this but we often don’t choose to put our attention on those things that fill us with the energy. Why? Because as humans, we protect ourselves.

Our natural instinct is to look for threats and fight against what threatens us. When we are in protection mode, we are focused on the threat (societal strife), rather than the solution (open heartedness). You may feel downhearted realizing that you cannot sustain a perpetual state of open heartedness (which is impossible by the way). Don’t lose hope. Instead, build your capacity to re-open your heart when you have inevitably closed it.

Use Compassion To Get Back On Track And Re-Open Your Heart

If you notice excuses coming up about how leading from the heart is hard because of how other people are behaving, stop and give yourself a little compassion. You are just doing what those polarized people are doing – reacting from fear rather than love. They are seeking to protect themselves. Remember, that’s what we do as humans. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Instead be kind.

Through compassion for yourself and your own momentary forgetting, you can soften your view of those people who are behaving “badly”.   They are in a state of forgetting (just like you were). They forgot that they could choose to shift their focus of attention to look up and out. If they did, they would see that there is goodness all around them.

You can be the change by reminding them what it looks. Be the change you want to see in the world by changing your focus of attention. When you feel too tired to lead with your heart, just stop. Look up and out to find the love that is all around you. Fill yourself with it. With renewed energy, reengage the world – leading with your full heart. 

”There is so much love for you here.”  All you need to do is open your eyes and see it.

Abraham – Hicks