The Rally Cry for Focus
By Kate Lemay, ETJ Founder
Last week I listened to a podcast that really stayed with me. I’ll share the link below, but there were two ideas that especially resonated.
The first was a simple question:
“If you’re going to go in a direction, why not go all in? Why not go all the way?”
This is always a little rally cry to my soul.
The second was the podcast’s central theme: focus.
The speaker is a Hindu priest who spent ten years living as a monk in a monastery. He devoted himself completely to a spiritual path through discipline, simplicity, and deep practice. Whether or not you share his beliefs, there’s something compelling about that level of commitment.
As I listened, I felt a deep sense of gratitude our teacher, Christina Alexa, whose decades of dedicated training, practice, and teaching have shaped so many lives. There is something profoundly inspiring about people who devote themselves wholeheartedly to understanding themselves, serving others, and walking a path with intention.
What resonated most wasn’t the idea of following a guru. It was the reminder that we are in real control of our awareness and focus. When we are clear on the goal of our awareness, life can get so clear. Clarity harnesses our energy. That energy is capable of doing amazing things.
For me, I hear that guidance during yoga. Sometimes during meditation. Sometimes while painting. Sometimes on a quiet walk.
Of course, I don’t always make space for it. Like many of us, I often fill the silence with podcasts, music, audiobooks, or distractions. What this episode reminded me is that focus isn’t just about productivity. It’s about creating enough space to hear what’s already trying to guide us.
One of the points the speaker made was that we need a philosophy before we need goals.
That idea struck me.
We spend so much time asking, what do I want to accomplish? But perhaps the better question is, what do I believe? What is the guiding philosophy that shapes my decisions, priorities, and direction?
When I marry this to the ideas of Barbara Marx Hubbard and the core idea that our world NEEDS us right now. We can make change in this world, and we must.
I’ve always admired people who have a deep, unwavering connection to a particular faith tradition. I was raised Unitarian, as were my mother and grandmother. That upbringing taught me to appreciate wisdom wherever it is found and to remain open to many paths toward the divine. I also have family members who are Mormon, and friends that are devote Christians, I’ve witnessed the clarity, comfort, and sense of belonging their faith provides. There is something beautiful about that kind of conviction.
If I’m honest, I’ve occasionally felt envious of it.
There are moments when I think, what would it be like to have that much certainty?
Yet I’ve never been able to believe that there is only one path to God. My heart has always felt that there are many ways to experience the sacred, many ways to encounter love, and many ways to live a meaningful life.
My own belief is simpler.
- I believe we are built with an internal guidance system.
- I believe that there is only one power and that power is love (A Christina phrase).
- I believe that every spiritual tradition, at its best, helps us reconnect to that deeper knowing.
And I believe the real question is not whether guidance exists. The question is:
Can we hear it?
Maybe that’s why this podcast affected me so much. Beneath the discussion of focus was an invitation to listen. To remove the noise. To become clear about what matters. To identify the philosophy that guides our lives and then commit to living it fully.
And perhaps that’s what the work of Enjoy the Journey has always been about.
On the surface, we host retreats, yoga classes, circles, workshops, and gatherings. But underneath all of it is a simple intention: to create space for people to reconnect with themselves.
We hold space during our retreat weekends for stillness, reflection, movement, creativity, community, and meaningful conversation. Not because we want to tell anyone what to believe, but because we want people to have an opportunity to hear their own inner wisdom more clearly. To reconnect with that still, small voice that is often drowned out by the noise of modern life.
We know that a weekend retreat can be transformative, but we also know that life happens in the days between retreats. That’s why we’re creating additional ways for people to stay connected to themselves and one another throughout the year.
Through our Enjoy the Journey Circles, we offer free community gatherings that provide a smaller, more accessible opportunity to pause, reflect, connect, and listen. These circles are bite-sized invitations to practice presence and conscious living in the midst of everyday responsibilities.
It’s also why we offer Sacred Sunday Yoga, a free weekly gathering where people can slow down, breathe deeply, move intentionally, and reconnect with themselves. Week after week, these practices remind us that wisdom is often found not in striving harder but in becoming quiet enough to listen.
What inspires me most is the dedication of our teachers and retreat leaders. Each has spent years, and in many cases decades, devoted to understanding the relationship between mind, body, spirit, and community. Their purpose is not to give people answers. Their purpose is to help people cultivate the conditions in which their own answers can arise.
Whether through yoga, meditation, movement, creativity, reflection, connection, or conversation, their work is centered on helping people listen to their bodies, trust their intuition, strengthen their focus, and become more conscious of the choices they are making each day.
Because let’s face it: we are living in a time when distraction is abundant.
Notifications, social media, endless content, constant urgency, and competing priorities pull our attention in a thousand directions every day. We can spend so much time-consuming information that we forget to listen to ourselves.
Focus has become a spiritual practice.
Listening has become a spiritual practice.
Creating moments of stillness has become a spiritual practice.
Perhaps conscious evolution begins with something as simple as learning to hear that still, small voice once again. And perhaps that’s what this podcast ultimately reminded me.
If we’re going to move in a direction, let’s first know what matters. Let’s be clear about our philosophy. Let’s listen deeply enough to hear our own guidance. And then, when we know what’s true for us, let’s have the courage to go all in.
Why not go all the way?
I’d love to hear from you. What is your guiding philosophy? What helps you stay focused on what matters most?
As we honor one another’s journeys, it becomes easier to honor our own.
After all, community is stronger than willpower.
Namaste.
– Kate
❤ Invitations:
