What people say
I can honestly say that, for the first time in 50 years, I’m learning how to just be. How to relish the present moment, which, magically and mysteriously, unlocks the door to the treasure house that is the rest of my life.
- Jennifer Green, Salem, Oregon
From the moment Jon and I connected, I had this deep experience of loving presence and complete trust. Something bypassed my mind and my ability to figure things out, and communicated directly to my heart and soul that I was safe and in the right place. There was a creation of power in our relationship that he honored and witnessed as being mine. It was my power. I had the experience of being wonderfully, beautifully powerful, in the most loving, energized way.
- Laura Lind-Blum, The Idea Midwife, Waterbury Center, Vermont
Jon can help you recognize where you are, and become more clear. My work with him has not been about plotting out my future, it has been about helping me come into deeper relationship with myself so that next steps unfold easily and effortlessly.
He creates a safe, spacious container for you to go as deep or wide or high as you’re capable of in any given moment. It’s a matter of him being able to see the facets and help me make them real in me.
- Sandra Leader, Carmel, CA
My feelings changed from, “Quick, fix me, I can’t stand how I feel, make it better, hurry,” to, it’s not about hurry, and it’s not about fixing, it’s about staying where you are and getting more and more and deeper and deeper sensations that this is okay. You’re fine, this is okay.
It helps me reframe experience. I don’t see anything that’s happening quite the same as I’ve ever seen it before, because my viewpoint has been enlarged. There’s more, there’s peace, there’s joy, there’s love, there’s health, there’s everything.
- Layne Young, artist, Salem, Oregon
The Heart’s Wisdom
January 11 2011
The start of a new year is traditionally a time for reflection on the past and for looking ahead to the future. It’s a time when many people set goals for what they want to accomplish and how they want to live their lives.
Of course, many of those goals don’t last very long — often because they’re reactions to what people believe “should” be, instead of responses arising from real inspiration and understanding.
For instance, setting a goal to exercise more because you think you “should” is a far cry from choosing to pay attention to your body’s impulse to move. Similarly, resolving to be more focused and productive at work isn’t going to help you fill your deeper need for a vocation that’s truly satisfying to you.
Whether you’re reading this now, in the opening days of 2011, or you’ve come upon it on my website weeks, months, or even years later, this is your opportunity to live your life from the fullest experience of who you are. Now is your chance to discover your own inspiration — and to learn what it means to live as a full expression of that inspiration.
Here are some suggestions to help you begin your exploration.
What do you want?
Ask yourself, “What do I want more than anything else?”
You probably won’t discover an answer right away. In fact, many of my clients are startled to feel a barrier between themselves and their understanding of what they want more than anything else.
Being in touch with what you want most can seem frightening — and it’s fear that creates the barrier. As one client said, “If I let myself know what I want, then there’s this question about how — and whether — I can reach it. As long as I don’t know, as long as it’s just a vague intuition, I can feel safe from the risk of failure.”
She added, “I’m also beginning to see that feeling like I need to know how is just another way of keeping myself from looking more deeply.”
Listen and accept what you know
Getting in touch with what you want more than anything else is a process that one client calls “peeling the onion.” It’s a process of unfolding and allowing.
And that means being willing to listen deeply and to accept all of what you know.
Discovering what you most deeply want has great potential for creating change. And change often means giving up the apparent safety of what’s familiar in order to step into the unknown.
When my clients feel stuck in this process, I sometimes ask, “What do you know that you don’t want to know?”
“I’m paying a high price,” answered one client ruefully, “to keep myself feeling safe in this little box. Deep down, I really want change, but I’ve been refusing to let myself know how much I want it. Because once I let myself know ... there’s no turning back. And that’s both exciting — and scary!”
Inspiration and “Yes, But”
Be willing to hear and feel the inspiration and be willing to hear and feel the “Yes, but...” thoughts that come up.
Allow yourself to experience both the inspiration and the doubt without letting either of them pull you in. Taken separately, the inspiration can be intoxicating — and the “Yes, but” thoughts can feel defeating.
Experienced as a whole, they balance each other.
From a balanced perspective, you can explore the “Yes, but” thoughts with compassion for whatever fears may be arising — and you can experience inspiration from the stability of your grounded wholeness.
Go deeper
At the core of true inspiration is the gift of deep conviction. From that depth arises powerful intention and action.
Inspiration, conviction, intention, and action. Combine those with caring, wise support from the people around you — and you may be surprised at what might happen.
What would it mean to you to know, inhabit, and live your heart’s intention?
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, German theoretical physicist and Nobel prizewinner.
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