Have you ever lost something like keys, a passport, a document etc.? Maybe you’ve searched for it frantically and then given up only to find it later? Have you noticed the voice inside you that points you in the direction of the lost item? It tells you to try looking in a drawer one more time or to look in a room that you initially thought it would never be in.
I’ve done this so often that I’ve come to trust this voice or wisdom within me whenever I lose something. I recently lost the car tax renewal form. I couldn’t pay the tax online without the reference number on the form. I looked everywhere and then I decided to stop and to leave it to my wisdom to come up with an answer. I would either find the document or find another way to be able to pay the car tax.
A couple of hours later I found it. I knew I would, so I had stayed calm and dealt with other things. I felt really pleased with myself about trusting this space where answers, and solutions come from.
Listening to my wisdom about more than lost items
I then realized that I was good at trusting this space to help me with lost items but I hadn’t trusted that it could help me with issues I had been struggling with for a long time. So, I decided to experiment with this and asked for help in coming up with an answer to a problem to do with my business. I was struggling with writing blog posts and had a lot of thinking about why I didn’t and couldn’t do it.
I noticed that whenever I thought about this problem, the same old thought patterns surfaced repeatedly.
For example:
- I’m not good at writing
- I’m not naturally gifted as this other person who writes amazing articles
- This is too hard
- Do I really have to write anything?
- I’ll write when I feel I’m in the right mood
These thoughts are old and stale and when I believe them and act on them, I stay stuck.
So, I decided to leave the problem alone and wait for a new thought to emerge. I waited to hear something from within that felt different.
The difference between old and fresh thinking
The next day, I saw something new about my writing. It was a gentle and obvious solution to my problem; a thought I’d had before but had dismissed. I realized that I was very comfortable talking about something instead of writing it so I could record my blog post on the phone and then transcribe it. Now… even though this was an idea that other people had suggested to me, that day I heard it differently because it came from within me. It appeared at the right time for me and it felt like common sense to try it out and it worked.
I’ve come to see that my old thinking feels busy and cluttered but fresh thinking feels simple. Since then I find there are days where I still get caught up in the illusion of my thinking but often, I look within and an answer comes to me. This is the space within me where I thrive and you have this space within you too.
Can you remember a problem you’ve solved and notice the difference between the old, automatic thoughts you had around this problem and the fresh new thoughts that bought a solution? How did the two feel different?
Experiment:
What have you been struggling to figure out that you’d like some fresh, new thinking around?
Can you leave it alone and wait for a new thought to appear? Listen for something different?
I’d love to hear how you get on with this experiment. Please reach out if you have any questions about this post. Contact me here.
