“I’ve spent the last 30 years making the wrong decisions.” We sat in silence as the weight of this conclusion sank in.
My client was working a job she hated. It was the same job she’d walked out of 20 years ago. Back then she hated it too.
It wasn’t as though she hadn’t tried. She’d studied self help programs, tried this technique and that strategy, even trained as a coach and found she had a knack for helping others, but nothing stuck. Whenever she tried to move in a better direction by leaving the jobs and relationships she wanted to get away from, she then stalled, fell into self doubt and despair.
What’s not working, really.
When life doesn’t work out the way you hoped it would, or dreamed it would, and you end up in a situation you don’t enjoy it’s easy to conclude that:
- You need to leave or get away from the situation, job or relationship.
- Or, you need to change whatever is wrong about yourself.
But one of the most powerful insights on the path of awakening is that life is on your side, moving you in the direction of what you long for, even when it appears otherwise.
You cannot push off from quicksand.
Whenever you’re in judgement and conclude that something is wrong or bad about your life, or yourself, you create the energy of resistance.
And if you try to take steps to improve your life when you’re in resistance it’s like trying to launch yourself off a pool of quicksand. The more you try to get away from what’s not working, the more you sink.
There’s a universal principle at work here.
What you resist persists.
Just as quicksand is not a good base to push off from, any attempt to create what you want by trying to move away from what you don’t want only sticks you to the same life patterns repeating.
You may succeed in rearranging things on the surface of your life, a bit like shifting furniture around, but you won’t change neighborhoods.
To create what truly liberates you requires a transformation in consciousness.
Your acceptance and embrace of whatever is happening now is what transforms and evolves you and your life, and allows entirely new possibilities to flow into your experience.
Open to life pulling you forward.
What’s difficult, painful or irritating is not an enemy to your freedom and fulfillment. It’s simply an invitation to practice acceptance.
When you allow life to be as it is you open yourself up to the natural flow of life.
No longer in the noise and struggle trying to get away from what you don’t like, you begin to hear the whispers of your higher calling which pull you in the direction of joy and peace.
The next time you find yourself thinking you need to move away from, or change this or that about yourself or your life.Pause.
Check to see if you’re in judgment.
Make space inside yourself to allow what you don’t like.
Open to the possibility that life is on your side.
Just like my client, the pull of your true purpose will get stronger and stronger and inspiration, events and resources and will show up to move you and your life in the direction of what makes your heart sing.
I love “you cannot push off from quicksand” – the image says it all and is so vivid, I have the feeling it will stick with me and reappear in times of need. Thanks Fiona!
You’re welcome, Amy!
Love this! Especially how the pain in your life isn’t there to hurt you but to lead you into acceptance. Life is not out to get us? Very good to hear. I open to the possibility that life is rooting for me. 🙂
Love what you wrote: ..pain isn’t there to hurt but to lead into acceptance. Life is definitely rooting for you, Denise! Love, Fiona