I finished a painting this past Sunday. That’s nothing new. However I felt like I’d worked hard all weekend. I was exhausted. And come Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I woke up looking forward to a nap! "But there’s so much to do! And I haven’t done enough to deserve a nap!" I admonished to myself.
Thursday, however, I awoke with ACISTE PRESENTATION POWER POINT knocking on my brain – trying to get itself onto paper before I was out of bed! (I’m presenting at the upcoming ACISTE Conference next month. This power point presentation had to get completed.)
I had to put aside my usual morning practices to get this power point happening. Since opening the floodgates, more writing, podcasts, paintings and clients are knocking down my door wanting to be attended to. Sometimes that’s how it works.
Blocks to Productivity, Creativity, & Flourishing
Mental exhaustion, expectations that ideas are going to come on-demand, and looking for inspiration in all the wrong places, doesn’t make it easy for intuition to express itself. For me, these are the main contributors to blocks in every area of my life, which includes finances and love!
You see, when I look for what I "should" write about, talk about, what I should paint, and what I should coach to with my clients, I’m usually looking in all the wrong places. It’s when I stop looking, and just joyously anticipate, what wants attention shows up automatically, and things roll along pretty effortlessly. Apparently, I’m in good company: some of the most famous inventors and scientists have shared that it was during a nap, taking a walk, or petting the cat, that revelations and inspirations came to them. When least expected in the least likely place – that’s where creation flourishes.
Cultivating a Listening for and to Intuition
With my coaching practice, beginning early on, I would get a hit about my client – an intuitive something coming in from who knows where. Though it occurred to me to ignore it, more often than not, I began to follow the intuitive something or other. And it always – and I do mean always, led me to some remarkableness that couldn’t or wouldn’t have been revealed if I ignored it. My clients always benefit from the daringness to follow my intuition.
Since those beginnings, within every single one of my sessions, some felt-sense or intuitive hit arises, and to follow it usually takes me out of my comfort zone. And, it has empowered me to greater and greater degrees of mastery in my work. I’ve come to trust that, when I trust myself to follow this something that seems indescribable, I’m led to empowering my client in ways that hadn’t occurred to me before that moment.
It’s a little unnerving to continually lean into the edge of my comfort zone, yet the evidence of growth for me and for my clients cannot be denied. And, it is always an adventure that I can joyously anticipate, even today, 20 years later.
Stop When There’s Nothing to Do: Take naps – Rest your mind.
Sometimes, things that we have no consciousness around need to shift. Sometimes, there is an incubation period that needs to be respected so that what needs to emerge has its full term to come to ripeness.
Too often, in our fast-paced society, we are reprimanded for allowing productivity to take the time it takes. But the truth is, it takes the time it takes for any creation to come into its fullest expression – just like the Powerpoint presentation this morning; I’d started the whole damn thing nine months ago, and it took until today for it to birth itself. A lot more work needs to happen for it to come to its full maturation, but it is in the world, getting the attention is desires.
When we respect and allow the natural timing and flow to occur, it will be crystal clear what needs to be done, what needs to be said, what needs to be created. We become more aligned with the Universal flow of Divine Timing and Divine Order. I tell you with complete confidence that life is so much more fun and fulfilling when we practice turning over our will to something greater.
Paul McCartney’s song "Let It Be" reminds me over and over again, especially when I’m in a hurry to finish one of my many projects, that I’m not in charge and I’m not in control, no matter how much I want to be. When I surrender my resistance to things being what they are, as opposed to how I want them to be, I can always discover something on my To-Do list that is ready for some advancement, effortlessly. More and more I can allow myself to anticipate with joy that something is ready to pop. My only job is to listen for intuition’s calling and then respond accordingly. It has been a practice worth cultivating. You might find it fun too!
