{{lessons learned from Reading: wisdom from life as an intuitive reader.  Everyone is my teacher.  second in a series.}}

~~ This post was first published July 2012 with the title “Your Own Way: How to Get Out of It” ~  bringin’ it back here because wisdom from Mom is timeless!~~

___________

 

Back when I was a green-newbie at the whole “doing intuitive work for other people” thing, [*cough* twentyoddsomethingyears ago] my mother told me something I now know would be one of the most useful instructions I would ever receive in my life:

“… just remember to get out of – stay out of – your own way.”

Instinctively, I got it:

I had already had the felt experience of being compelled to say certain things whenever I was working with someone, when I’d known from a place of calm what wanted to be said (though often it made little sense to me, personally!) When I followed that “compelled to say” feeling, it was always right on the mark. Made perfect sense to them. Bingo!

Always.

Intellectually, though, I’d mess it up:

At times I’d feel “compelled to say” something, then hesitate a beat too long – and those logical left-brain know-it-alls (dear things!) would rush in to edit, to make it “sound better.” And.. it would go flat, and the simple and patient bit of truth that was finding its way to flow in would, instead, flow on by. (“bye-bye!”)

To be sure, I had a perfect classroom of sorts. Nothing like immediate feedback from another person to show me – over and over again- that the calm/knowing feeling that accompanied some odd-sounding ideas was the wanted feeling. The helpful, useful, right feeling. Delicioso.

And that feedback showed me, too, that the impulse to override or think I “knew better” from a place of intellect was, while not necessarily being a wrong feeling, tinged with urgency and reactiveness and not even a bit delicious.

As I learned to notice these two distinct states – calm/knowing vs. reactive impulse – as they occurred, I realized I could choose which way to go each time. Toward “delicious,” of course!

Making the choice to follow calm/knowing is ~ us, staying out of our own way.

___________

{{upcoming topics: why it can be a good sign when we don’t take our own advice (!), and getting feedback when you’re the only one you have to ‘practice on’}}