Sometimes when you’re in the thick of it, a voice whispers something important. Something that changes everything about how you interpret your experience.
These past few weeks have held several of these moments for me.
A newsletter I get from Jen Louden about self trust— it brought a reframing of the act of labeling our experiences. If we experience more and relabel less, question more (how does this make me feel?) wisdom is easier to access. And BOY HOWDY, if you are (like me) someone who jumps to label success and failure, stress and procrastination, struggle…. this little reframing can mean opening rather than closing down, options rather than dead ends. Try it. I dare you.
Speaking of reframing…a newsletter I receive from the amazing Andrea Schroeder included an interview of a Jane Cunningham who found her calling in the most amazing combination of heartwork, and it rocked me in the best possible ways– I beg of you, go to her site and prepare to have your perspective shifted about what is possible both by the healing compassionate services she is offering, and the very unusual combination of skills/arts/heart that her work is based on. Out of the box and truly healing magic.
Do you know Mark Silver yet? His Heart of Business has catalyzed one of the most tectonic shifts I have felt about my work in the world. If you sign up for his newsletter, you’ll get an excerpt from his amazing book, and in it I found (again) a passage about being with emptiness that comes from not being in alignment with your calling. Not trying to fill it (fruitlessly) with material objects. But sitting with it in all of its uncomfortable helplessness. Later in the book he invites the reader into an exercise in Remembrance (I reframed the idea of the Divine to Self/Soul/Heart, that-essential-wisdom), and I just cannot suggest this highly enough. As someone who spends energy thinking my life will change for the better if only I find the right ____ (boots, face cream, music to work by…) it is pretty unexpectedly empowering (!) to receive permission (FROM MYSELF) to spend time with the discomfort, and to use it as an opportunity to pay attention to What Is…
The image with this post really resonates with me, since it includes the expected and the unexpected, the functional, the opportunistic, the beautiful, growth and working with what is… I love how the little arms reach for options but the growth continues in its tangled fabulous way… image gratefully used with permission from Daniela Schneider http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniela_schneider/
