Supercoach - Michael Neill [35]
What Do You Want to Be Doing Right Now?
Anytime you’re not quite sure if you’re doing what you really want to be doing, try this little experiment in turning up the volume on your inner guidance:
Put the words “I want to . . .” in front of a description of whatever it is you’re actually doing.
For example:
• “I want to be writing this chapter.”
• “I want to be sipping tea.”
• “I want to be worrying about money.”
If it becomes apparent that anything on your list isn’t actually what you want to be doing, stop doing it!
Before I could even finish my example, another of the women in the room burst into tears. It turned out that she was engaged to be married and was doing her best to ignore her wisdom because she didn’t want to “let anyone down.”
“Besides,” she asked me, “how do I know whether or not that’s some kind of inner wisdom or just fear?”
I was tempted to say, “Ask your wisdom,” but I offered her the following guidelines . . .
• Wisdom is ever present and always kind.
• Wisdom is sometimes soft but always clear.
• Wisdom comes most often in the midst of inner quiet.
• Wisdom feels right, even if it doesn’t always feel good.
• Wisdom often comes disguised as “common sense,” but in reality is extremely uncommon in usage.
Your wisdom is right there inside you, just waiting for you to allow it to guide you. You need only be quiet and listen—when you relax into it, you’ll almost always know what to do.
What Do You Know?
1. Choose an area of your life that you would like to have some additional insight into—for example, health and diet.
2. Putting that topic aside for a moment, begin to write or recite aloud a list of things you “just know.” Start with the screamingly obvious, for example:
• “I know that today is _____.”
• “I know my name is _____.”
• “I know that I went to school at _____.”
• “I know I am _____ years old.”
3. After about a minute, or whenever you feel that you’re “in the flowing of your knowing,” begin to make pronouncements about whatever area you’ve chosen to explore. Don’t worry whether what you’re saying is “true” or “right”; just keep talking for at least another minute and notice what you notice. For example:
• “I know that eating carrots gives me indigestion.”
• “I know that having a potato at bedtime helps me sleep better.”
• “I know that I can take better care of my teeth and gums.”
• “I know that central heating dehydrates me.”
Make note of any of your “knowings” that have the ring of truth about them. If you’re moved to do so, follow up on your insights with appropriate action.
In a nutshell:
• You already know what to do.
• What you decide will never impact your life as much as how you handle the consequences of that decision.
• The number of reasons you have for doing something is inversely proportional to how much you want to do it.
• Do you want to?
I’ll leave it to you to decide whether to move on to the next session right away or take a break to let what you’ve been learning soak in. Of course, it doesn’t really matter what you decide—after all, you can always change your mind later. . . .
Have fun, learn heaps, and I’ll be waiting for you in the next session!
SESSION FIVE
Rainy Days and Mondays
“. . . life does not consist mainly—or even largely—
of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm
of thoughts that is forever blowing through one’s head.”
— Mark Twain
The Stonecutter and the Angel
Once upon a time there was a young stonecutter who looked with envy upon the rich merchant who employed him. One day he was muttering to himself about what it would be like to have such freedom and power when, to his amazement, an angel appeared and spoke the words “You are what you have said.” In an instant, the stonecutter had become the merchant.
He was very happy with his lot until he saw the king of the land ride by with his coterie. “Now that’s the way to live,” he thought. Almost before he had asked, the angel had granted