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„Was, wenn niemand kommt?“ – Mit Absagen umgehen lernen
Am Wochenende habe ich meinen Geburtstag mit einer Freundin nachgefeiert. Das war so nicht geplant – es gab einfach jede Menge Absagen. Früher wäre das für mich schlimm gewesen. Aber die Wahrheit ist: Ich bin jemand, der sich am liebsten einzeln mit Menschen trifft, da ich mich in Gruppen schnell reizüberflutet fühle. Jedenfalls im privaten Zusammenhang – wenn ich eine Aufgabe habe, wie einen Workshop anleiten, dann fällt es mir leicht zu sehen, wo meine Aufmerksamkeit gerade hingehört. (:
Jedes Jahr an meinem Geburtstag habe ich also ein wenig gemischte Gefühle, wenn ich mir die Frage stelle, möchte ich feiern und Menschen dazu einladen. Was dann häufig passiert ist folgendes: ich schiebe die Entscheidung vor mir her und schicke recht spontan Einladungen. Nicht aus Selbstsabotage, in der Hoffnung, dass dann niemand kommt. Aber manchmal passiert dann natürlich genau das. Und dann denke ich, dass ich mir fürs nächste Jahr vielleicht einfach mal merken sollte, dass ich doch lieber Menschen einzeln treffe und es dementsprechend planen. …
Vielleicht gelingt es mir ja nächstes Jahr. Gestern musste ich jedenfalls daran zurück denken, wie ich einmal meinen Geburtstag feierte, als ich noch in Schweden gelebt habe – und ich damals sehr enttäuscht war, dass mehrere Freundinnen, die ich eingeladen hatte, mir Absagen erteilten. Damals hat meine Freundin La etwas sehr kluges zu mir gesagt: „Ja, das ist jetzt die Frage: bist du enttäuscht über die, die nicht gekommen sind, oder freust du dich über die, die tatsächlich da sind?“ Dieser Perspektivwechsel war sehr heilsam für mich.
Es ist ganz oft eine neue Sicht auf die Dinge, eine neue Information, ein neues Verständnis, die in uns etwas verändern und uns dann auch anders handeln lassen. Denn so funktioniert Entwicklung: viele Denk- und Handlungsmuster lassen sich erst verändern, wenn wir erkennen, welche Annahmen/Vorstellungen/welches Wissen dem bisherigen Muster zugrunde liegen. Es braucht diese Erkenntnis, dass unser Wissen oft eben kein unumstößliches Naturgesetz ist, sondern eine Perspektive.
Das öffnet uns für das Bewusstsein, dass eine andere Perspektive möglich ist. Logischerweise können wir uns erst für eine neue Perspektive entscheiden, wenn wir erkannt haben, dass es sich bei etwas, von dem wir bis dahin dachten „Na, das ist eben so!“ überhaupt um eine Frage der Perspektive handelt. Diese Erkenntnis zuzulassen ist tatsächlich oftmals der schwierigste Schritt. Denn oft hängen wir an einer Perspektive und sie infrage zu stellen kann unter Umständen auch bedeuten, dass noch weitere Überzeugungen, die damit zusammen hängen, plötzlich nicht mehr „sicher“ sind.
Das Schöne ist, dass die Veränderung, die wir uns wünschen, die aber schwer oder sogar unmöglich ist, solange wir an einer bestimmten Perspektive festhängen, ganz leicht gehen kann, sobald wir uns für eine neue Perspektive geöffnet haben.
Denn Handeln oder Denken nach einem Muster, das ja auf einer bestimmten Perspektive beruht, ist gar nicht mehr möglich, wenn sich die Perspektive geändert hat.
Aber dieser Perspektivwechsel bedeutet nicht nur, dass die Freude die Enttäuschung überwiegt. Wenn ich die Dinge so betrachte, kann ich gar nicht mehr die Bedeutung in die Abwesenheit legen. Ich denke dann, dass es für beide Seiten zu diesem Zeitpunkt etwas anderes gibt, was die tatsächliche Anwesenheit erfordert.
So bin ich seit jenem Satz von La nie mehr enttäuscht gewesen, wenn auf eine Verabredung oder Einladung hin Absagen als Antwort kamen. Zum einen, weil weil dieser Perspektivwechsel in mir eine Wertschätzung ausgelöst hat für die Begegnung, die tatsächlich stattfindet. Es ist bedeutsam, wem ich begegne und wer mir begegnet.
Wenn der Fokus umgekehrt ist, ist die Verletzung vorbestimmt. Denn aus dieser Perspektive versucht man Bedeutung in dem zu finden, was nicht statfindet. Aus dieser Betrachtungsweise gibt es ja eigentlich nur die Möglichkeit, es als Abwertung zu interpretieren. Und gleichzeitig wertet man selbst durch diesen Fokus die Begegnung ab, die tatsächlich stattfindet. Man ist eben damit beschäftigt, sich über die zu grämen, die nicht da sind und übersieht dabei diejenigen, die vor einem stehen.
Wie geht es Dir damit? Teile Dich gerne unten auf der Seite in den Kommentaren mit.
Alles Liebe,
Sarine
PS: Dieses Beispiel veranschaulicht übrigens ganz gut, was „Fülle(denken)“ und „Mangel(denken)“ sind und wie sie wirken. Oft beschäftigen wir uns mit diesen beiden im Zusammenhang mit Geld (was ja auch verständlich ist). Aber Fülle und Mangel sind Prinzipien, die sich eben nicht nur finanziell ausdrücken, sondern in allen Lebensbereichen. Zum Beispiel, wenn wir Absagen erhalten. Nicht nur am Geburtstag. 😉
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Loslassen. Auf neues einlassen. Repeat
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Loslassen. Auf neues einlassen. Repeat
Hallo Ihr Lieben,
es ist mal wieder Zeit für ein Update hier. Ich habe ja immer wieder Phasen, wo ich mich aus der online-Kommunikation zurück ziehe. Meistens, weil ich mittendrin in etwas bin und sozusagen die Geschichte erstmal erleben möchte, bevor ich sie erzähle. So auch dieses Mal.
Am Sonntag kam dann der Moment, wo ich wusste, es ist so weit! Etwas möchte geteilt werden. Der Moment, wo ich mich bei meiner Morgenmeditation dabei ertappe, wie ich innerlich anfange einen Blogpost zu formulieren.
Das ist das Zeichen, dass die Geschichte zwar noch lange nicht fertig ist (das ist sie ja nie), aber dass sie so weit fortgeschritten ist, dass sie jetzt bitte geteilt werden möchte.
Zuhause-Zuhause?
Bei mir war – wie bei vielen von euch auch – in den letzten Monaten mal wieder Umbruch angesagt. Der Auszug aus Amritabha kam – wie das immer so ist – überraschend und gleichzeitig auch nicht. Ich wusste zwar schon während meines Einzuges, dass ich nur für eine gewisse Zeit dort sein würde, hatte nie das Gefühl, dass es mein Zuhause-Zuhause würde (auch wenn es ein wunderschöner Ort ist). Das gehört für mich einfach zu den Dingen, die wir (unsere Seele) schon lange im Voraus entschieden haben. Bei denen es dann auch nichts „zu wollen“ gibt, wenn sie dann da sind und der Verstand meint, einen Weg zu erkennen wo in Wahrheit gar keiner ist.
Ein Geschenk – immer wieder loslassen
Also ja, ich ging davon aus, dass ich noch etwas länger dort sein würde, dass ich die neue Hausgemeinschaft am Anfang begleiten würde. Aber während des Sommers verschwand bei mir der Fluss auf allen Ebenen so gründlich, dass mir klar wurde, dass der Weg, wie ich ihn bisher gegangen war, so nicht weiter führte.
Wenn ich auf eines stolz bin, dann darauf, dass ich immer bereit bin, alles in meinem Leben in Frage zu stellen. Haha, das klingt jetzt irgendwie nicht so positiv, aber ich empfinde es als totales Geschenk.
Denn erst, wenn wir bereit sind, eine Frage wirklich offen zu stellen – in diesem Fall das „Was muss ich in meinem Leben ändern, damit es wieder in Fluss kommt“ – erst dann gibt es überhaupt die Möglichkeit zu echter Veränderung.
Solange wir Bedingungen haben, was sich aber bitteschön auf keinen Fall ändern darf, ja, so lange können eben nur gewisse Teile des Mosaiks neu sortiert werden. Und im Zweifel lässt sich daraus nur eine Wiederholung des vorigen Bildes zusammen legen.
Veränderung in (fast) allen Lebensbereichen
In dem Moment, wo mir klar wurde, dass als nächstes sowohl eine Anstellung als auch ein Ortswechsel anstanden, konnte ich auch in Bezug auf Amritabha etwas sehen, was sich vorher (aufgrund meiner Prämisse, dass ich doch da sei, um das Neue zu begleiten) nicht in meinem Sichtfeld befand: dass es überhaupt nicht sinnvoll wäre, dabei zu sein, um nur den Anfang einer Veränderung mitzugestalten.
Auf der einen Seite möchte ich gerne meine Kreativität in einen Ort/eine Sache stecken, wo ich weiß, dass ich sie nicht nur beginnen, sondern dann eben leben und tragen möchte. Eben an einem Zuhause-Zuhause-Ort. Und auf der anderen Seite ist es doch auch viel schöner, wenn die Menschen, deren Zuhause-Zuhause dieser Ort ist, selbst den Anfang gestalten – und eben nicht etwas übernehmen, was ihnen vielleicht gar nicht entspricht. Ich spreche hier natürlich nur von meinem Standpunkt aus, es gibt da sicher andere Möglichkeiten für andere Wesen.
Danke & auf Wiedersehen
Ich bedanke mich an dieser Stelle aus tiefstem Herzen für all die wundervollen Begegnungen, die ich auf Amritabha gehabt habe. Das klingt jetzt vielleicht unpersönlich, aber es sind dann doch ein paar zu viele gewesen, um jede*n von euch einzeln anzuschreiben. Aber sei Dir gewiss: wenn wir uns auf Amritabha begegnet sind, dann hast Du einen Eindruck bei mir hinterlassen.
Ich kenne keinen zweiten Ort, an dem es so leicht ist, sich gegenseitig ins Herz zu schließen. Und wenn es etwas gibt, was ich schätze, dann sind das Begegnungen, die unter die Oberfläche gehen. Es ist mir wichtig, diesen Dank auch Dir gegenüber auszusprechen, weil Amritabha für mich immer weiter gefasst ist, als das unmittelbare Team. Natürlich bin ich Agni, MaRa, Fe San und meinen ehemaligen HausmitbewohnerInnen besonders dankbar für die Zeit.
Aber Amritabha hat sich in meinen Augen durch jedes einzelne Wesen gezeigt, das diesen Ort besucht. Ich habe so viele schöne Momente der Gemeinschaft in allen möglichen Konstellationen erlebt. Einfach nur Danke. Schön zu wissen, dass es Dich gibt. Ich freue mich auf ein Wiedersehen. Schreib mich gerne an, wenn Du in Frankfurt bist und Dich auf einen Kaffee mit mir treffen magst: hallo@sarineturhede.com
VERANSTALTUNGSHINWEIS
Ich freue mich riesig, dass Andreas Lohmann mit seiner „Erdheilungstour“ in meine Heimatstadt Friedberg kommt! Noch mehr würde ich mich freuen, wenn Du auch mit dabei bist. Ich kann Dir versprechen, es lohnt sich. Andreas hat einen unglaublichen Wissensschatz, seine „Stadtführungen“ sind gleichzeitig auch interaktiv und Du erlebst nicht nur Orte aus einer neuen Perspektive, sondern auch deine eigenen Landschaftsheilungs-Fähigkeiten (auch ohne Vorkenntnisse).
WANN 16. November, 10 bis 17 Uhr
WO Friedberg (genauer Treffpunkt wird noch bekannt gegeben)
KOSTEN Wer teilnimmt, zahlt nach eigenem Ermessen
ANMELDUNG Schreib mir einfach eine Mail an hallo@sarineturhede.com oder melde dich über die Facebook-Veranstaltung an.
Falls Du mehr über das Thema Erdheilung (und besonders Andreas Lohmanns Arbeit) wissen möchtest, findest du dazu jede Menge wertvolle Information auf seiner Webseite:
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More on abundance
I am still thinking a lot about the whole abundance thing. No matter what angle I look at it from, and no matter in what form or what area of my life I experience it, I always come to one conclusion: it’s everything. It’s the key to everything and anything we desire in life. It’s the one thing we should be putting all our energy into, the only thing we really can do to make sure all our dreams will come true: see to it that our mind is in a state of abundance. The rest will follow.
I had this realization for the first time a few weeks ago, when I saw an interview with online business coach and entrepreneur Mara Stix. As I understood her, the further up she got in her pursuit of financial success, the less her personal wealth concerned her. Once she had arrived at a level of income that afforded her the standard of living that she wanted, there was nothing that even more money could have contributed to that area of her life. Instead other things became a focus of interest, like how to expand her business, and how to manifest more and bigger things she would like to see in the world.
Last fall I had a vision of something I should build. It was as if the idea rained down on me after I had emptied my mind. While I was completely aware of the magnitude of that project, I was also overcome by a certainty that my mind wasn’t just making this up. I just knew that I had conceived this idea because it wanted to be manifested by someone. And If that idea saw me fit to be that someone, then it would also see to it that the means for its manifestation would be provided, regardless of whether or not I could see how at that point. I could not see anything at all about how to get there.
Since then, I have mostly practiced to let the idea go, to be open to any signs without trying to force things. I didn’t want to feel like I was just waiting for the right time to manifest this project. Therefore I have been focusing on being happy, doing whatever makes me happy. At the end of the day that’s what determines what kind of life I have. For the most part, that worked well, but there were definitely some days where I did wonder what anything I was doing had to do with that vision, if I hadn’t missed the exit and was headed in the wrong direction after all.
When I watched that interview with Mara Stix, it was like a switch was flicked. Suddenly I understood that I had been doing exactly the right thing, and why my personal happiness was essential to the whole project. Because how are you going to manifest something big and joyful, that requires a large amount of resources (both when it comes to material and labor) if not out of a sense of abundance?!
We need to be in a state of abundance on the personal plane before we can help abundance to manifest elsewhere. There is no other way. Actively inviting (and permitting!) abundance to flow into all areas of our life then is not just a mind-game, something fun to do, it is deeply meaningful.
For me this insight is very important when it comes to dealing with that voice that says it’s selfish to let your actions be ruled by what feels good, what seems like it would be fun. That you can’t have both – happiness and success, love and wealth. That voice may have served us and our ancestors in the past. Life was tough, we had to work hard in order to survive, pursuing our passion often came at a price. We know how to do that. And it is clearly still possible to live that way, if that is what we want. I see lots of people doing it, and I thought it was the way it had to be up until about a year ago.
When I look around, however, I see that times have changed. Something else is possible. We can rest in the certainty that our survival is secured. It’s time to find other life missions. Let’s start by following the signs happiness is putting up for us.
The interview with Mara Stix (in German) is part of a series of money mindset interviews by Linda Benninghoff (MyMoneyMind). They are available for free when you sign up for her newsletter.
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On abundance
I have been thinking about money a lot lately. Or rather: I have been observing the way I think about money, and how I handle money.
Three things have triggered this sudden interest: First off, I am at my grandparents‘ house, and a lot of family-related issues have surfaced since my arrival, the importance of success, prestige and financial wealth being a dominant theme. Second, I have come across the blogs of two women who talk about how to deal with money issues in a way that really speaks to me (Mara Stix and MyMoneyMind – both in German). Third, for the first time in my adult-life, I don’t have an income. I am currently living on my savings. Some days that feels like the greatest luxury, other days it terrifies me.
The money mystery
Not all of the insights that keep coming are new, but what is new is that for the first time in my life I am taking an active interest in my financial situation. I am realizing how much my avoiding the topic has been connected to my fear of lack of control. I have mostly lived with the feeling that I can afford everything I really want to do – which is not a bad place to start. However, since I avoided thinking about money, I always felt a powerlessness, both regarding my income and my expenses. It seemed like a kind of magic: if I went into my savings because I wanted to travel, money suddenly appeared (often only after I bought the tickets). The times I did try to take responsibility, I thought tracking my expenses was the best way to gain control – but suddenly all I saw was money running through my fingers like sand, and I hated the feeling of having to think over every cent I spent. It made me feel poor, even though technically I wasn’t.
I wasn’t able to connect the dots, so I thought that it was best for me not to actively think about money – I thought that was the part that made it „disappear“ because whenever I just did what I felt like, I was fine! I honestly thought that thinking about money was the problem. I am taking the liberty to blame my German heritage at least partly for that – just look at German expressions and proverbs about money, and you’ll understand: money stinks; stinking rich; Money isn’t something you talk about, it’s something you have; … the list goes on, not everything translates well but you get the gist.
Family business
This is also where family history comes into play: like everything else, my family’s values and ideas about money shaped my own values and ideas about money. Since I avoided thinking about money, I naturally was blind to how my family’s way of handling money had shaped my own view on it.
So here are the facts: I have never been actually poor. Even as a kid, my parents (and my grandparents, too) had savings accounts for us, so as an adult it was a given for me to keep it that way. I have gone into these savings whenever I wanted to travel or if I really wanted to buy something that my regular income didn’t cover. I have never spent any money I didn’t have, meaning, I have always made sure my credit cards had their limit at the amount that the balance on my account covered. I have been fortunate to have parents who paid for my university studies. The only time I went into debt was when I bought a house with my boyfriend. And even then, we would have had the means to pay cash, and that was the main reason we felt comfortable taking the loan. (Before you get the idea that I am loaded: houses on the Swedish countryside are ridiculously cheap, at least in the less populated areas, for obvious reasons – lack of jobs, schools, etc.) Since I no longer own that house, I don’t have that mortgage anymore, either.
All that sounds pretty good, right? Then here’s the real question: how is it possible for someone like me to have money issues? How could I for even the fraction of a second be under the impression that I am poor – let alone for longer periods of her life? The answer, as the a fore-mentioned blogs reminded me, is that wealth has less to do with your bank account balance than your state of mind. The Secret, anyone?
Abundance and scarcity – It’s all in your mind
According to the law of attraction, what you think is what you get. When you experience yourself as being in a state of abundance internally, abundance is what you get externally. Same goes for scarcity, of course. That explains why money always „magically“ appeared, when I decided to spend it on something that wasn’t a necessity for survival but just something I knew I’d enjoy. You can only make that kind of decision out of a sense of abundance, with the confidence that you’re provided for, that the money you’re spending on something fun won’t be missing when it’s time to pay the rent. The law of attraction is also the explanation why money suddenly seemed to be disappearing whenever I focused on money: the only way of focusing on money I knew was looking at the expenses. Naturally that created a sense of scarcity, which in turn invited scarcity into my life.
In the past few days I have been observing myself, and experimenting with some of the insights I’ve had.
How much money does it take to feel rich?
I started tracking my expenses shortly before I understood that the focus on them can produce the scarcity-mindset that leads into panic. After giving it some thought, I decided that I’d continue anyway because I wanted to know how much I need to live comfortably. Of course, the sky is the limit but sometimes it helps to have an actual number. It feels easier to think, „OK, I need X€“ thank thinking „I need a lot of money“. What was even more surprising: My X turned out to be not even a crazy high number. I have only been tracking my expenses for little over a month but I am seeing that I’m nowhere even near that number, and I have been making an effort to not be cheap. That was one of things I had promised myself: if I was going to live on my savings, I didn’t want to do it feeling like I can’t afford anything. I mean, savings are finite, so I obviously need a new source of income at some point. I’d rather have short while of fun with my money than a long period of dreading every cent I’m spending of it. From that perspective, keeping track has calmed my mind tremendously, and has reduced that aspect of lack of control. Just goes to show that it’s not what we do, it’s how we do it that makes all the difference.
Napkins, prayers and wedding dresses
Speaking of intention: I found that when it comes to spending money, how I feel about it has often very little to do with the actual amount.
The other day I found myself fretting over buying paper napkins. I was standing in front of the shelf thinking „Yeah, but I don’t really need those. Sure, these are prettier but I still have napkins at home, better use those up first.“ Then I realized: I was acting as if this were a life-and-death-situation when in fact it was napkins – that cost 99c! Also, the reason why I still had napkins at home was that I never wanted to use them because they were depicting a scene from a children’s book in which a teacher is chastising his student. (I’d really like to meet the genius that thought „Hey, this’ll make for great merchandise – how about some napkins!“. No wait, I don’t.) I came to my senses and bought the happy napkins. Really, they have hearts and birds and little doodles and it even says „Happy“ on them!
The next „exercise“ was more legit: taking my wedding dress to the dry-cleaner’s because I was planning on selling it. I learned that depending on the dress, it was going to cost somewhere between 75 and 140€. If you consider how my mind felt about the napkins you can do the math and figure out how it felt about that … Was I even going to get that money for the dress?! Heck, I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to sell it at all – not because of the dress but because I don’t consider myself to be a good sales-person (that’s another story for another time). Then it occurred to me that this was just what I needed as incentive. If it costs that much to clean it (and I knew I wouldn’t have the guts to only pretend I cleaned it and sell it as is), there was no way that I wasn’t going to sell the dress. So the same mind that almost wasn’t going to spend 99c on napkins was suddenly ok with spending up to 140€ not knowing whether that would turn out to be money down the drain or an investment. (Still not a life-and-death-situation, though.)
As I approached the dry-cleaner’s with my dress the next day, I noticed how much I was worked up over the whole situation. Of course, it was more than the money – I clearly hadn’t really come to terms with the whole decision to sell my wedding dress … I stopped, took a deep breath and prayed. More specifically, I prayed for help to let go of my fears, to stay with love, and for the whole situation to resolve itself in the best way possible, regardless of my fears. This is what happened: when the lady at the dry-cleaner’s saw my dress she said: „OK, this may have been your wedding dress, but here it’s an evening gown. That’ll be 17€.“
Do I think that was an answer to my prayer? Maybe. OK, I do. But I am not sure that that prayer was my prayer. Maybe the fact that I had made a deliberate choice to be fine with the cost and not fret over it was that prayer already. Maybe that was the step that was enough to tell the universe I was ready, that it was OK to come and meet me (more than) half-way. Maybe that prayer on top was just for me and my fear. Maybe it got me an additional discount. I don’t know.
I have been doing a lot more things since then: taking my beloved cat wrist watch in to get fixed (it was so cheap that the cost of fixing it was absurdly disproportionate to the original price). Buying a new pair of glasses AND sunglasses even though I don’t „need“ them (everything is relative – I’ve had my glasses for 9 years, and besides, some might say that there are more decadent things to own than a second pair of glasses). Buying a bunch of flowers for the house (my no. 1 quick fix tip for creating spaces with a sense of abundance when a place is lacking that feel). Eating out (I haven’t felt like cooking or doing the dishes lately, so I decided that it’s time to take a break at least some days).
The luxury of not buying something
As I am conducting my little experiments, I notice several things:
1. I can afford everything I really want because none of the things that I find pleasure in turn out to cost as much money as my fear wants to make me believe. For instance, I have no desire for objects that are mere status symbols. I tried on two pair of sunglasses that looked almost identical. Both were brand names but one was about half the price of the other. Of course I didn’t get the expensive one, just because it had the Michael Kors logo! I don’t think I will ever define wealth as the ability to afford brand names for their own sake. (Which is not to say I judge people who do – if it makes you happy, it’s cool. It’s just not me.)2. When my mind is in a state of abundance, I actually buy less of certain products. I used to buy a lot of groceries in bulk – because it’s „cheaper“ that way. I bought stuff just because it was on sale. I bought things „just in case“. All of these types of purchases come from the scarcity mindset. The amount of money you spend on those can just as easily add up to a small fortune – or even a large one. I love having an empty fridge because that makes it easier for me to eat whatever I feel like on any given day. If the fridge is full, I feel burdened by the „task“ of taking care of its content before it goes bad.
3. When I am in a state of abundance, I suddenly have to focus more on what I really want. I wouldn’t buy a pair of glasses that cost a fortune when I don’t feel like they’re „totally me“. However, I have probably spent a fortune on things that were not „totally me“ – just because they were cheap. Abundance then is not just being able to afford „expensive stuff“ – it is also being able to afford not buying something that doesn’t feel 100% right. In that sense, I can feel rich not buying something. It is about living in the awareness that I am provided for, always.
You may have noticed that my focus here was purely on the expense side. That’s because the income side has been even more „magical“ in the bewildering and confusing sense to me. I am in the process of changing that but not quite at a point where I have anything ready for sharing yet. If things keep going the way they are right now, that is going to change.
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On choices
As some of you know, I have lived a pretty secluded life over the past few years. House on the Swedish countryside, no internet at home, limited cell phone use, long distances to my friends and not very travel-friendly (or super travel-friendly, depending on how you look at it – pretty much every outing was a trip in its own rights).
I am grateful for the experience. It taught me to appreciate and value things I didn’t use to pay much attention to – or that I even used to avoid. Being close to nature. Being alone with myself without any distractions. Stillness, both on the outside and within me.
On my good days, I could appreciate the gift that this period of my life was, even then. On my bad days, I hated that I didn’t have a choice.
If I allowed myself to give up my resistance and surrender to what it was I would have wanted to distract myself from, I always came out on the other side being thankful for it. I don’t know if I’d had the strength to make myself do that if I’d had a choice.
More often than not I was glad to have an excuse to switch my phone off and not be available all all the time. I found that I am not as adverse to being outdoors as I thought I was, moreover: I discovered the deep feeling of connection to all living things that you only experience when you find yourself fully immersed in the beauty of nature. There’s no cell phone plan for that.
Having gone through those experiences, especially through my own resistance, I can see how I benefit from them now that I am in a different place, where I suddenly do have all those choices I wanted so badly back then.
I can actually feel the need to go outside and find a place where I feel close to nature because I know now that these are places where I connect with myself. I can feel the need to turn my computer and phone off at a certain point during the day. I am not afraid anymore of missing out if I’m not connected to social media 24/7. I understand now that when the feeling arises that I am losing touch with myself, the answer is never to be found outside of myself, in distraction. I always find it by turning inwards, towards whatever shape that feeling comes in. It may be triggered by my mind getting hung up on something someone said, or something I read somewhere that struck a chord.
Therefore I continue to be grateful for knowing the place where the lack of choices forced me to turn to the only thing that was left: facing myself. Now that I am in a place again where I have many options, this makes it easy for me to choose.
Facing ourselves, tackling that resistance even when we technically don’t have to, when we could distract ourselves, is always worth it. For all the things we try to avoid seeing in and about ourselves lead to great treasures.
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On living truth vs. speaking truth
For the most part of my life I have been hasty in my actions. I always thought that if I don’t do things right away, that means I will never do them. Or – another classic – if I don’t do them, no one will.
Last year I was finally able to see that that sort of reflex-like compulsion has nothing to do with acting on your gut instinct, let alone going with the flow. The real gut instinct kind of impulses don’t even give you time to consider – you just find yourself doing what needs to be done, and your actions come easily, there is no fear, you’re so engaged in the task that the mind doesn’t have time to fret over what will happen if you don’t do this or that.
First there was a situation at work, a meeting, where I felt that there was a huge gap between the content of what was being said and the truth of the situation addressed. Really, an elephant fit snugly into that gap. The „If I don’t say how I really see things, then I am responsible if this continues“-reflex was beginning to kick in. At the same time, I suddenly knew with absolute certainty that if I did speak my truth, the only thing that changed would be that I exposed myself to people who were not interested at all in changing the situation.
I said nothing, and for a while I felt like I was going to pass out or have a heart attack. Then that feeling passed, and suddenly I was completely at peace. With everything. Myself, my work place, the world. Literally everything. For the rest of the day, I could see everyone and everything for who and what they really were, and I had nothing but love for all of it. The shyness and awkwardness I normally felt when entering an office full of people was gone, I could joke around with anyone, and everything I said came straight from my heart, sans detours via the mind.
I didn’t understand it at the time but this is how I interpret the situation today: If I had said what I thought I had to say that day, it would not have been me living my truth. It would have been me looking to others to confirm what I myself wasn’t able to face. Which they could not have done. So when I realized that speaking up wouldn’t have gotten me the reassurance I wanted, that was the moment I had to do the job myself: acknowledge my truth.
The second situation was also work-related. A colleague said something that I suppose was well-meant advice but it pushed a button, and I felt „I need to blog about this because everything about what she said is just so backwards, and I cannot let that fly! If I don’t make a stand and say how wrong this is, then it’s my fault that people thinking like that rule this world!“ Thanks to the no internet at home situation, I was yet again stopped from acting on my compulsion.
When I turned to my friend and healer La for advice, she suggested that I write it all down just to get it out of my system. She also recommended that I don’t publish anything as long as I am emotionally involved. That, my friends, is some of the best advice I have ever got, and I can not stress its value enough. I found that writing alone was medicine for my bruised ego. There was nothing that sharing my rage could have improved on. Through writing I reached the core of what was really my issue here. Again, it was a truth that I had not been able to accept myself, and therefore I wanted to direct my anger at someone whom I wanted to assert it for me. Which she didn’t do.
This situation taught me that it’s not always a good idea to share everything on your mind instantly. There is greater benefit in working through the rough stuff in a protected environment, alone or with someone you trust one hundred percent.
The most important part about truth is that we ourselves understand and acknowledge it. Only then can we live it. And truth wants to be lived more than it wants to be spoken. That might sound a little strange coming from someone who spends so much time on finding the right words to express her truth. For a while I did in fact struggle with the point of my writing when I understood that words really aren’t that important. Then I realized that for me writing is a big part of living my truth. Regardless of whether or not that means anything to anyone. When my writing comes from my awareness that I do it mostly for me, not to convince anyone of anything, I can do it with ease. Those who „get me“ do so no matter what. Those who don’t will always have an opportunity to find wrong both in my words and my actions.
Eckhart Tolle writes about that phenomenon in The Power Of Now: that words/language can be used as signs pointing to the truth but that they themselves never are the truth, never can be. If that is the case, there is no need to burden my head with the struggle to find the perfect words. Instead I may trust that when I write from the heart and keep the editing to a minimum, I am producing the best kind of signs. You know, not the ones that point you to my truth but the ones that point you to your own.
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On control and powerlessness
When we don’t live our light, our shadows step in. One of mine comes in the form of eating disorders, which I have struggled with since I was 15. Depending on my life situation, they are a more or less dominant part in everyday life. I am only now understanding in what ways they have served me.
I have always been terrified of that part of me. Not only did it seem uncontrollable, it seemed to be controlling me. I used to try and fight that part, not understanding that it was no accident that that only made it worse.
What I know now:
1. The eating disorder kicks in when I feel like I am not in control of things – more specifically, when I cannot accept that feeling of not being in control. Suppressed fear of control results in actual (self-induced) loss of control. Sounds simple but I could not see that connection until recently.2. There is no winning in fighting. I can only lose if I try to wage a war on myself (or anyone else for that matter). As long as I hate that part of me that seems so out of control and destructive, it will control me. That is not winning.
3. Only when I allow myself to see that this dis-order is the (misguided) attempt to serve an actual need, am I able to find ways to truly fulfill that need without self-destruction. When I started to search for a way to live with myself, to live with my eating disorder, that was when it started to loosen its grip on me.
That meant accepting two things: 1. I am not in control of everything (and sometimes of nothing at all), 2. I am terrified of that feeling. Yeah, it’s the second one that is the biggie. What happens when I binge-eat is that I try to suppress and mollify those feelings. At the same time, this creates (more) suffering. In that sense the destructive nature of this habit is doing the exact same thing that I am trying to avoid: forcing me to face my truth – the fact that I am full of fear of not being in control.
The fear of not being in control naturally comes from experiences where my own powerlessness seemed to threaten my life or at least my well-being. My childhood like many others was full of those experiences (I also believe this is a theme we all have spent numerous lives exploring). Who does not have a memory of a situation where you found yourself at the mercy of others who were unable or unwilling to use their power over you with kindness?
The truth is this: there is nothing we could have done in those situations. That is the real misunderstanding, the origin of this need for control: the belief that if only we had done this or that, things would have turned out right. When it comes to abusive relationships where one experiences being at the mercy of the other, there is in fact nothing one can do right within that relationship. As a child we can hardly walk away from that. That’s what second chances (karma) are for.
As an adult I drew a work situation into my life that gave me a chance to re-live that feeling of complete powerlessness, of not being able to deal with a person who did not only not care about my well-being but who was perfectly willing and capable of throwing me under the bus if it served her agenda. When the scenario in my mind was at its worst, I felt like Alice in Wonderland who didn’t know whether the Queen of Hearts was going to invite her to a round of cricket or call her henchmen to decapitate her. It took me a while to get through the panic and see that my life was not in fact threatened. That my mind was reacting to an echo from the past. That this time I could in fact walk away, and that that was the only thing I could do right.
As I wrote in my post on How to deal with conflicting emotions:
Our ego is a lot less in control than it likes to make us believe. When I look back at my life, I was hardly ever aware of the significance of the events that really shaped its course. The things that seemed important, which I worked myself up over, turned out not to be. The things that were, were never entirely up to me. In fact, I could even “mess them up” and “somehow” they worked out anyway – because that was the way things were needed to be for me to stay on my path.
For the most part of my life, I have poured my energy into all the things I had no power over: the milestones that were already set, the situations and people I could not change. It’s only in the recent past that I began to see where my power is truly effective and needed: that it’s all the little things in between, the ones that aren’t the game changers but the ones that „fill out the space“ between the big events. I’ve come to believe those are my life. Or rather, they determine what kind of life I am leading, whether it’s happy or not.
With all that in mind, I’d like to re-adjust what I said about acceptance of not being in control. I don’t want to accept the fact that I am not in control of parts of my life. I want to embrace it. I want to enjoy the fact that a burden has been lifted from my shoulders – because that is what this really is, when you walk around thinking that you have to fix the big stuff all by yourself. One false move and you’ve ruined everything! Who wants to live like that? Not me.
So what to do with all that freed up energy? Put it into making sure all the small stuff in between is as light and happy as possible.
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