Can you relate to this
scenario: You’ve been diligently researching and studying what you need to know
in order to build your business or advance in your chosen line of work. You’ve
heard from innumerable experts showing you a rainbow of success recipes that you
should follow. You’ve come to a point of feeling completely saturated by all
these recommendations and “must-dos.” Instead of feeling empowered to go forth
and create your own breakthrough, you feel overwhelmed by the plethora of endless
choices? You’re hard pressed to get your arms around your own plan. What are
you to do?
That was my
experience, and I felt paralyzed by the feelings of overwhelm. I learned that sometimes, the best plan is not having one
for a while. Clearly, having plans is important, as it keeps us organized and marching
toward our goals or fulfilling our responsibilities. However, there are real limits to plans, and trying to
force one to happen could quickly become all-consuming, overwhelming and
utterly counter-productive. Besides, it's grossly unkind to ourselves to keep pushing. We deserve a break.
Planning is the forte
of our logical and rational left brain. When we develop and execute on a plan,
we run our masculine energy – this is true for men and women. This is only one
half of our capabilities. Our right brain houses our unbounded creativity and
receptivity to ideas and inspiration. It’s our feminine side that’s associated
with intuition, as well as knowing something without reasoning. Whereas masculine
energy is directive and take-charge, feminine energy is about allowing and
receiving. Those of us who have spent a lot of time in the business world
and/or getting formally educated in the sciences or business have had a lot
more training and practice in running our masculine energy. Again, this is true
whether you’re a man or a woman. We weren’t taught in college/graduate school
or encouraged in our work life to tap into our feminine energy, to let our
right-brain creativity lead the way.
When we can’t come up
with a plan or the plan we have isn’t going well, the knee-jerk reaction is to push
forward; perhaps we didn’t try hard enough. But that’s counter-productive, and
can only lead to overwhelm. It’s a sign that we have over-burdened our left
brain and over-taxed our masculine side. Einstein said that we cannot solve a
problem by staying at the level consciousness that created it. If we keep
pushing the plan to force it to happen, it only exacerbates the problem – and the
feelings of overwhelm. Instead, a more productive move is to cease frantic
action, to get in touch with our feminine side for ideas and insights to
emerge. This is the choice of allowing
what eludes our rational mind to come forward. This is how we rise above the consciousness associated with the
problematic plan, to get us unblocked and unstuck.
Since so few of us
were taught how to tap into our feminine energy and unleash our right-brain
capabilities, what do we do? Here are a few practices:
1. Meditation – Cultivate a practice of quieting your
busy mind, so that you learn to tune into your inner wisdom and creativity. Don’t
be concerned about which style of meditation to practice. What’s important is developing
a habit of meditating regularly, working up to doing so daily. Even 10 to 15 minutes
a day would do wonders for you.
2. Journaling/hot-penning – Set a timer for 10 minutes, and
write non-stop from your heart until the timer goes off. Do this first thing in
the morning, if you can, or when you can get into a relaxed space. This isn’t a
brain-dump or a planning session. This is an opportunity for your inner wisdom
and creativity to speak to you. Pose a question and wait for insights to come,
such as:
o
What
do I need to know?
o
What
is trying to emerge from this situation?
o
What
am I not seeing that would be good for me to see?
o
What
do I get to create today?
o
What
is the highest vision for [my career, this project, etc.]?
Note that answers to your question
may come in the form of words, images or sensations. Just notice and record
them in your journal or sketchbook.
3. Pay
attention to synchronistic messages
– Experiment with posing a question (like the ones in #2 above). Then, pay
attention to billboards, casual conversations, radio/TV/banner ads, songs, publications,
etc. Seemingly random messages may come to you from these sources containing
insights to your question. If you’re really new to this practice, start with asking
about something little, and notice what you see or hear within a couple of days
of your asking the question.
When the masculine
side of us is on overload, the best plan is no plan for a while. This creates
the space for our feminine side to allow insights to be revealed to us. At a
practical level, when we’re overwhelmed and our battery is running near or on empty,
we need to stop doing and just be, so that we can recharge. The last thing our
overwhelmed self needs is more pushing and doing. Instead, it needs some nurturing and loving before more creation through us can flourish.
It'll take some conscious
practice – especially for those of us Type-A, chart-the-course personalities –
to resist the knee-jerk reaction to continue doing and pushing. But,
ultimately, the best approach is one that’s balanced. It’s one that leverages a
true partnership between our masculine and feminine sides. It’s one that allows
for the time and space for receiving insights and the time and space for taking
purposeful, inspired action.
What
are your perspectives on planning and allowing insights to come to you? What do
you do when you feel overwhelmed by creating and following plans?
~~~~~~~~~
You can find a more
detailed discussion of using a balanced approach with both masculine and
feminine energy in the Introduction Chapter of REACH Your Dreams: Five Steps to be a Conscious Creator in Your Life.
Find out more about REACH here.
If you love my book,
I’d be so grateful if you’d consider writing a couple sentences about it on amazon.com.
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