I’m two weeks in to the RECONNECT course with a wonderful bunch of intrepid explorers and things are starting to be seen differently.
Minds don’t necessarily like it, but minds have got very little to do with what we’re reconnecting to, so that’s maybe not all that surprising.
😉
Minds are also doing that very natural thing where they hop, skip and jump into the future, trying to figure out what all this baffling nonsense that Giles is throwing at them means for real life situations.
(Which is where change occurs.)
Take for instance one participant, who has a decision to make. It’s a time-sensitive, clear-cut decision that involves their values and other people’s opinions and they don’t know what to do.
(Like most decisions, eh?)
And as part of the course, and the plethora of additional materials I’ve shared with the participants, their mind has heard that we’re not in control of what thoughts arise, we don’t get to choose (for who is this ‘chooser’ anyway, but for more thought arising, being believed?) and essentially we’re being lived by life, witness to it all, but not in control.
Which begs the question, Oh what’s the point?!?!
😆
I laugh, because I went through this—I remember throwing all my toys out of the pram and getting really pissed off with a renowned teacher I was having a coaching session with—and pretty much every client and every group I work with goes through this same reaction.
The struggle is real!
A mind hears that the crown it wears—the one it feels it’s earned by being in charge of things around here for all your life—is actually made of the same stuff as fairly dust and unicorn farts (i.e. imagination) and very understandably it has a bit of a tantrum.
And this can show up in all sorts of ways. Anger (me), confusion, despair, apathy, fear, avoidance, denial…
…and ultimately, a freedom of sorts.
I can’t remember which book of his it’s in, but Michael Neill describes this acknowledgment as getting up the courage to let go of the reins… and then noticing that the reins we’ve just let go of were only ever attached to a rocking horse, that’s on the back of a boat, sailing happily down a river.
Because when we see that we never were in control in the first place, it brings a real lightness to everything. It’s not that decisions don’t get made—the mind body organism will continue to do what makes sense, whatever the mind has to say about that.
No, we just that we get distance from the voice that:
- is trying to secure its very existence by continuing to insist that it’s doing all this
- says that what happens affects how it will feel in the future
- believes that there are consequences to its standing in the pecking order
- insists that what’s going on must also be considered in the context of what others think of it…
…and with all that going on, it’s no wonder we get stuck!!
There’s something deeper within us, that removes the need to keep turning our attention to this blathering mind for ‘advice’; something that is more than aware of our place in the whole, our relationships with others, and the unique path we’re on.
You can trust that ‘something deeper within you’ to do what makes sense, when the time comes.
And… you can absolutely guarantee that the mind will observe any actions taken, immediately label this as ‘a decision’ and subsequently have a lot to say about it all, pulling your emotions hither and thither with it, as it does so!
The more you can see this—by slowing down, examining your own experience, getting your own evidence—the fewer ‘decisions’ you will have to make.
Ahhh, there’s that ‘freedom of sorts’ again.
💖
Giles
In this profoundly insightful 1h28 Decision-Making Video Masterclass, we go beyond conventional ‘tips for smarter decisions’, to explore the mechanics of choice itself:
• How do we ‘decide for the best’?
• Best for whom?
• How do things change when we're aligned with our inner resources… and when the illusion of control evaporates?