SHEKINAH — The Indwelling Presence

You woke up this morning and your mind was already running.

Before you made a conscious choice about anything, your attention had already gone somewhere — probably to your phone, to a worry, to a mental replay of something that happened yesterday or might happen tomorrow.

This matters more than you think.

Because wherever your attention goes, your life force follows. And wherever your life force goes consistently — that's what grows.

I call this force devotion. Not in the religious sense. Not as something you do on Sundays or when you light a candle. But as the underlying mechanism that's always operating, whether you're aware of it or not.

Here's how it works:

Your attention directs energy. Energy, sustained over time, creates form. The form might be a relationship, a career, a state of health, a pattern of anxiety, a habit of self-criticism — anything. But the mechanism is the same: focused life force, repeated consistently, manifests as the circumstances of your life.

This is why two people can have similar opportunities and end up with completely different lives. It's not luck. It's not even effort in the way we usually think about it. It's where they've been consistently directing their energy — consciously or unconsciously.

The person who's devoted to worry — who spends hours each day mentally rehearsing what could go wrong — is growing a very specific garden. The person who's devoted to proving their worth — who pours their energy into seeking validation — is growing something else entirely.

Neither of them would use the word "devoted" to describe what they're doing. They'd say they're just stressed, or ambitious, or realistic. But devotion doesn't care what you call it. It only responds to where your energy actually goes.

This isn't meant to make you feel bad about where your energy has been going. It's meant to show you that you have more power than you realized.

Because if devotion is the mechanism that shapes your life, and if devotion is simply where you consistently direct your attention and energy — then you can redirect it.

Not through willpower. Not through forcing yourself to think positive thoughts. But through honest awareness of where your energy is currently going, followed by small, consistent choices to redirect it toward what you actually want to grow.

The mystics understood this. They called it different things in different traditions, but they all recognized that human beings are constantly creating through the direction of their life force. The question was never whether we're creating — it was whether we're creating consciously or unconsciously.

As we step into the new year, I want to offer you a different kind of intention-setting.

Instead of asking what you want to achieve or manifest, ask this: Where has my energy actually been going? Not where I wish it was going. Not where I tell myself it's going. Where has it actually been going — in my thoughts when I'm alone, in my emotional reactions, in my daily choices?

Then ask: Is that where I want it to go? Is that what I want to keep growing?

If the answer is no, you now have the most important information: you know what needs to change.

If the answer is yes, you now have confirmation: keep going.

Either way, you're no longer operating blindly. And that's where real change begins.

— Shanti

P.S. I created a free diagnostic that helps you identify where your energy has been going and which patterns are running your life. It takes about 3 minutes. No fluff, no generic results — just honest feedback about what's operating beneath the surface. [Take the Devotion Diagnostic]