Category Archives: Attention & Focus

Attention & Focus, Change, Gratitude, Self Creation

Unspinning with Gratitude

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I can’t explain how grateful I am for gratitude. After spinning around in my head for a couple hours, I decided to “unspin” by listing some things I am grateful for. So, here are ten to help me surrender the spin to God…I’m sure there’ll be more to come as I often find myself in that spin:

  1. My Mother: I don’t remember a week that I didn’t get a letter for her on my mission and now I don’t recall a week she hasn’t texted me to tell me she loves me and prays for me.
  2. The Roof Overhead: Despite my indignant circumstances I am coming to appreciate the simple things like a place to live and the good faith of my roommate to trust I will rise again and be on my feet.
  3. Food: Sometimes I think, there’s nothing to eat, but even though this childhood saying pops back up every now and then I always have had food to eat. I’ve got very creative with my Ramen. 🙂
  4. The Word of God: Feasting wouldn’t be complete without food for the soul. I am learning to be humble and fight my tendency to do other things instead of reading. When I do this I find that God is near.
  5. Music: In moments where no other external stimuli can reach me, music often sooths the savage Ryan. It can pick me up and amplify my good mood. It can rearrange my priorities and give me clarity again.
  6. The Faith of Friends: There’s a saying that’s so true and it goes something like this, when we reach for the best within us, we give others silent permission to do the same. I have been lifted by the faith of others.
  7. My Body: Though I don’t always understand the way that I feel, I can’t help but love the learning process and how a quiet ear can bear great insight into what ails us at any given moment.
  8. Prayer: I can’t explain just how much strength I get from submitting to God in daily prayer.
  9. My Ability to Think: While overthinking is never too good, I am grateful for the gift of reason. Combined with prayer there is no challenge I cannot conquer.
  10. Repentance: The word I understand simply means to turn to. To me this means turning to seeing things honestly as they are and letting go of things I cannot control. God is good 
Attention & Focus, Holy Ghost, Self Discovery, Words

The Gift

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Dedicated to everyone who strives for knowledge about self.

It has settled upon me
One reason perhaps why
I’ve been given this gift,
This thorn in the side

My desire for focus
Has stemmed from my lack
And drawn me t’wards Father
His ability in tact

I learn of His greatness
His glory & light
That will encompass my spirit
When I pass through the night

That heavenly focus
Is a super human power
Comprehending the oceans
Each sand of each hour

Not one at a time
As now I must grow
But hundreds upon thousands
Of truths will I know

And if this is all — the reason my mind
Tries to lay hold of 50 things at a time,
That it’s a heavenly yearning
And my body lags behind —

Then I’ll praise my God
For this gift from above
That’s helping me see heaven
And his precious, divine love

~ Ryan “Super Focus Boy” Mendenhall

I felt the distint impression this morning as I was studying about the Spirit World, after death, that my tendency to want to try to comprehend everything now is an inseperable part of my spirit that’s trying to work within the confines of the limiting factor of my physical body.

The impressions came as I was listening to Brent L. Top’s talk called What’s On the Other Side? What the Gospel Teaches Us about the Spirit World, especially these words from Orson Pratt speaking of what learning is like in the spirit world once we die,

“We shall learn many more things there; we need not suppose our five senses connect us with all the things of heaven, and earth, and eternity, and space; we need not think that we are conversant with all the elements of nature, through the medium of the senses God has given us here. Suppose He should give us a sixth sense, a seventh, an eighth, a ninth, or a fiftieth. All these different senses would convey to us new ideas, as much so as the senses ol tasting, smelling, or seeing communicate different ideas from that of hearing….

How long a time would it take a man in the next world, if he had to gain knowledge as we do here, to find out the simplest things in nature ? He might reason, and reason for thousands of years, and then hardly have got started. But when this Spirit of God, this great telescope that is used in the celestial heavens, is given to man, and he, through the aid of it, gazes upon eternal things, what does he behold ? Not one object at a time, but a vast multitude of objects rush before his vision, and are present before his mind, filling him in a moment with the knowledge of worlds more numerous than the sands of the sea shore. Will he be able to bear it ? Yes, his mind is strengthened in proportion to the amount of information imparted. It is this tabernacle, in its present condition, that prevents us from a more enlarged understanding…

I believe we shall be freed, in the next world, in a great measure, from these narrow, contracted methods of thinking. Instead of thinking in one channel, and following up one certain course of reasoning to find a certain truth, knowledge will rush in from all quarters ; it will come in like the light which flows from the sun, penetrating every part, informing the spirit, and giving understanding concerning ten thousand things at the same time; and the mind will be capable of receiving and retaining all.”

 (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, Brigham Young)

Brilliant!

Attention & Focus, Gratitude, Runner's High, Words

The Runners High

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briskly and swift travels the aging man

ascending the mount to see God’s beacon shine

focused on words that illuminate his soul

grateful for the quickening of mercies divine

Tonight I ran for the second time this week and the second time in perhaps 6 months or more. After the St. George in 2005 I haven’t trained much. I did run the Wasatch Back Relay, but I pretty much ran that straight up without forethought…and my legs sure thanked me for it!

Today I had been having a brain cloud, as I’ve come to recognize as a fairly common part of Ryan’s existence. I almost didn’t run today because I’ve been feeling “almost sick” lately. Ya know that feeling of fatigue, muscle soreness, hot/cold “make up your mind” stuff? Well, I’ve been having that but guess what? Here’s what I experienced upon returning from a 15 minute run, 5 minute walk, then repeat session:

  • My mind felt clear and focused
  • I had more energy
  • I noticed patience came easier
  • Gratitude filled my being
  • (From the textbook) Overall sense of well being

I enjoy noticing the effects of my actions more these days. I haven’t always done that and it’s quite interesting and refreshing.

Attention & Focus, Gratitude, Making a Difference, The World

So Easy to Forget

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Today I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how to get a buzz out of the audio of a video I was making to show a group of friends how to help our company achieve one of my outrageous goals. In turn we’re letting them take part in the passive income it will generate.

Well, in a moment of frustration and ADD I was surfing around my cluttered Facebook account. When you check your account 20 times a day it’s exciting to see the little red notification light at the bottom…I pounced. And for once, what I saw wasn’t clutter. It was a link from a friend to a little video, the one you’ll see below and it changed my frame of mind. Whereas I was just barely experiencing frustration, I felt hope. Whereas I felt anger, I felt love. Whereas I had lost focus, I once again regained it.

Along this road of life I’ve learned that action helps to solidify belief. So, I’m going to take our first $3,300 from our Sprouts project and donate it to Charity: Water, where 100% of the donations will be used to build clear water wells in Ethiopia. Please join me in some way to bring an ease that we so often take for granted to some of our brothers and sisters the world over!


The September Campaign Trailer from charity: water on Vimeo.

Attention & Focus, Goals

Come to your senses man!

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So, I’ve been thinking ever since I got back from the cruise, “This room is so messy that it’s clogging your brain!” It makes me think of how our surroundings, when clean, and organized can help lead us to similar thoughts and lay the foundation for the same in our actions.

I am realizing too just how important ongoing planning and review of my life is if I’m to come to any sort of control over where I want it to go. I’m sure that I’m not the only one that gets distracted by this and that. Our modern world provides for us so many ways to go and so many options of just about everything. There was a study done that suggested fewer options presented to shoppers would actually increase sales. The implication here is that too many choices can inhibit action.

I think there’s something there that can help us understand life better. This morning when I woke up, as is common for me recently, I was in a bit of a daze. I wasn’t sure what to do. I think a word that describes it best is aimless. So quite habitually I arose and began to do the first thing that came to my mind and then the phrase “first things first” popped into my mind. Immediately a list of my goals and priorities filled my mind and I again had direction.

I also had an accompanying glimpse into my future this morning. I was the same as I was now. Still had the same problems. Still had the same patterns and thoughts. Combining with the clarity of my hopes, desires and goals this little picture prompted the question, “When are you going to change?”

I could not hide from the answer that seemed to stand outside of myself with confidence and authority. The answer was, “the only time you have is now.” I couldn’t deny that if I wanted to. The reality of that moment was inescapable: Now is the time to DO. If I dispise the future I saw, then it’s time, even now, to change it!

I thank my Father in Heaven. I’m so spacey at times. I feel His loving hand reach me at times that I am stubborn and foolish. My thanks to him is my action. I pray it’s holy and sacred and lets him see my desire to serve him.