Smile Into It: An Energy Lesson on Love

I got a phone call.

“Debbie doll, you were right! You’ll never guess what happened!”

This was my grandmother, some years ago. She used to call me Debbie doll. I miss that.

“What happened?”

“Well, yesterday I was out riding on my scooter to the senior center when it tipped over!”

A gasp, from me.

“It’s OK. I’m OK, honey. I fell on my side and I remembered what you said. Put your hands over the area and smile into it. So I put my hands over my hip where I had hit the ground and I smiled into it.”

I pictured my grandmother lying on the ground, trapped in place by a vehicle that was supposed to be her transportation to a pleasant afternoon of socialization.

Grandma continued, “All of a sudden I felt all of this heat and a rush of energy. That energy, it kind of felt like sex!”

I chuckled thinking of my eighty-something grandmother having an encounter of the extra-sexual kind.

“Today I have no pain and no bruises and I can walk just fine! It’s amazing, honey!”

My grandmother and I shared a close connection, and she was open to spiritual talks and energy lessons. Clearly. Or she would not have remembered this simple technique when she truly needed it. Nor would she have had such amazing results.

Energy flows where attention goes. American author, coach, and philanthropist Tony Robbins has been known to cite this physics principle, along with American author, lecturer, and film producer James Redfield. It’s fairly simple and matter-of-fact: energy flows where attention goes. Yet we often don’t catch ourselves in all the negative talk going on inside our heads and then wonder how we get caught in repeating dramas. There may be a different cast of characters and different scenery and props, but the same storyline, because we keep running the same scripts.

Where is your focus? Where does your attention go? That is where your energy flows. Shift your focus for desired results as you strive to tame your monkey mind.

A little bit of focus, with love, can have big results. I’ll say it again. A little bit of focus, with love, can have big results.

I have even had success with my lawnmower one day when it just wouldn’t start. I couldn’t think of anything else, so I put my hand on the engine, thanked it for helping me, and smiled into it. The very next try, it started. One may say coincidence. I say love.

I am reminded of a favorite book by Sue Monk Kidd. In The Secret Life of Bees, August teaches Lily how to tend to the bees, among other things. “Act like you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved.”

That quote calmed my fears when I was in Italy and needed to climb a cement staircase in a garden that wound around a large olive tree buzzing with bees. They also buzzed on the stairs themselves, which had some pollen or olive juice there. I centered my mind around the fact that they did not want to hurt me, nor I them. I smiled at this marvel of nature and calmly traveled through the swarm, up and down, several times a day, without an incident or a sting, every day for two weeks. I acted like I knew what I was doing. I sent them love.

Every little thing wants to be loved, wants gentle acceptance and attention. To heal yourself and the world, just be love and focus accordingly. Smile. Act like you know what you’re doing, because now you do.

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