Sometimes The Best Plan Is No Plan

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?

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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.

I Love to Pay the Plumber (Guest Post)

Today's article is the great gift of a friend who's a true modern mystic, Lesley King. Lesley and I met at a workshop in June. When I first saw her, I instantly felt an intuitive recognition. I even said to her, "You feel so familiar to me. Have we met before?" As we got to know each other virtually, I realized that it was my spirit that recognized hers. I've since had the privilege and honor of witnessing how loving, giving, wise and intelligent Lesley is. Her contribution of wisdom today speaks to a great way of viewing money, prosperity and even love - how they are all meant to flow in and out of our lives, to keep circulation going, as intended by universal laws. To me, it's a more practical and accessible version of the Buddhist concept of "non-attachment." Enjoy this very special Moment of Grace, courtesy of a very special soul, Lesley King.
 
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How to Flow Money in 3 Easy Steps

Many years ago, when I would have a leaky faucet in my house, I would get a heavy feeling in my chest and stomach. How much is this going to cost? I would fret. The larger the problem, the more my anguish. Will I be able to afford this? I would ask myself.

Today, though I’ll sometimes have a moment of anxiety, it is quickly replaced by gratitude. Oh good, I get to outflow to my favorite plumber, Charlie. He is a Master plumber and an especially nice guy, so having this attitude is easy, and when I write the check my joy is sincere.

What’s amazing is that I have that same attitude when I pay my accountant, my mortgage—even my taxes!

The secret is in knowing deeply that I don’t have money. Instead, my job each day is to Flow love, energy and money. If I believe that I am wealthy, that is a fixed notion—it is a concept of the mind, and the mind wants to own everything.

In the “Flow” concept, I own nothing. All in my possession—my house, car, computer and the cash in my bank account—belong to the Divine. I am simply using those things. This is a wonderful attitude because it means that I have nothing to lose, literally, since I own nothing.

The great point about Flowing wealth is that the Divine is infinite, so the money, energy and love, too are infinite. This is a great contrast to believing in wealth. If I have wealth, I pay the plumber, and suddenly I have less wealth. But if I Flow wealth and pay the plumber, I’m actually richer because more must Flow in.

I didn’t just arrive at this belief. It came over a period of time and practice in knowing the truth of it. Here is a step-by-step guide to learning how to Flow:

1.    Gather your attention

2.    Rely on the Divine

3.    Give freely of your love, energy and wealth

How to perform the three steps:

1.    Gather your attention: This step involves implementing a spiritual exercise in your life each day. The exercise focuses the attention, which is the Divine power as represented in the material world. Focusing this power is integral to Flow. I will give more instruction about how to do this in an upcoming blog post. But the heart of it is contemplation rather than meditation. In contemplation you focus your attention by reading valuable spiritual works. The most potent of these are by the great mystics such as Hafiz, Rumi, Lao Tze, and the contemporary Sri Gary Olsen. But the best writing for any individual is what he/she gravitates to most right now. Before I became a mystic, I read what came into my hands, what I was drawn to. This included the work of Thomas Moore and Deepak Chopra, among others who address soul’s journey. Today, during my spiritual exercise, as I read, I’ll notice my mind will want to wander, but I keep bringing it back to the text. This practice of taking charge of the attention is integral to Flow.

After the contemplation, my mood is always heightened, which is a great starting place for a day of Flow. Throughout the day, I constantly bring my attention back to this feeling of expansiveness.

2.    Rely on the Divine: In this step, you stop calculating and relying upon money for safety and desire fulfillment. Years ago, before I knew about Flow, I used to keep a running tally of my bank balance in my head. Whenever I felt unsafe, I would calculate in hopes of feeling better. Sometimes the total would ease my fears, but often it would only aggravate them because, to the mind, there is never enough love, energy or money.

Today, whenever I feel fearful about money, I know it is only a cue from the Divine to re-center my attention on the love right here, right now. All Flow is created in the present moment, all wealth manifests here and now as well.

I do know people who don’t pay any attention to their finances, who spend wildly and have no money. Their practice requires taking more responsibility for their finances, though the same focus on the Divine applies. We’re looking for that middle point between too much focus on money and too little. It is not that I forget completely about my finances. I balance my checkbook and pay my bills on time. I simply don’t rely on money for safety. Any time I feel unsafe, I think of the Divine and feel the ease of that connection.

3.    Give freely of your love, energy and wealth: This is where the gathered attention moves into physical action. Whenever called upon to pay anything, do so with love. I used to be so afraid about money that I would have anxiety attacks at the grocery store. I needed to buy food, but the expense of it filled me with uncontrollable fear. I sat through that fear, recognizing it as simply an emotion—not reality. Then I began to recast my thinking while buying and paying for anything.

First I acknowledged how the things I was buying would enhance my spiritual walk—nourishing food, clothing that makes me feel pretty and expansive, and house repairs that keep me sheltered and comfortable. Over time, I relaxed with this, and now I just see it all as Flow. Each day I am blessed to give. I expand the concept to helping my loved ones and friends. Really, love, energy and money are just different forms of the great Divine Flow, so generosity with any of them will return the same to me.

Practice Steps:

1.    Do a spiritual practice for 5 to 30 minutes each morning, noting how your mind will want to run out, but lovingly bringing it back to the text before you. Practice this re-centering on the now as you go through your day.

2.    Each time during the day that your mind tries to rely on money for safety, gently draw the attention back to the state of love established in the morning practice and focus on the task before you.

3.    Whatever you are asked to give, whether love to your spouse, energy to work, or money to the plumber, do so with gratitude and a sense of the Flow, knowing that you have infinite wealth at your disposal and you must Flow it into your creation.

Lesley S. King is the author of many travel books and articles. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Audubon Magazine and Frommer’s Travel Guides. Her newest project, The Inner Adventure, helps readers discover the treasure in every experience. Check it out at www.lesleysking.blogspot.com.