I have a variety of techniques and tricks for making decisions. One of my favorites is simply to pick a path, at random if you must, and start moving decisively in that direction.
- If it's the right course to take, it will generally unfold fairly effortlessly; new opportunities and assistance quickly pop up out of nowhere and you glide on through.
- If it's the wrong course of action, the signs will similarly rise up to meet you -- roadblocks, red flags, warnings, difficulty. No big deal; you can immediately course-correct and proceed toward the other option with greater confidence.
Sitting on the fence wondering, wringing your hands, evaluating won't reveal anything -- including all the resources the Universe has wrapped up and waiting for you.
Blind Spots But, as with all intuitive information and potential actions, there are blind spots. Blind spots are likely attached to karma and the very lessons you came here to learn. These greater, recurring challenges not only come up over and over again until you get the lesson and move on, they like to also return in graduated, escalated, elevated form.
Even when you get it, and think you've successfully completed the lesson, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll never encounter the issue again -- quite the contrary. The same lesson returns in a new format, a new package -- sometimes disguised or costumed in some way that makes it harder to recognize. Your lessons and the decisions that accompany them can come back bigger, faster, slightly more challenging than the time before, like flipping the board in a video game and finding yourself on a new screen where the monsters move faster, in a choreography that you can no longer predict.
For these types of recurring challenges, the idea of succeeding comes down to a matter of how quickly you can recognize them for what they are and apply what you've learned in the past. In many cases, the new test may require that you zap the monsters in a completely new way.
There are a few decisions that my spirit guides are probably sick of listening to -- I keep presenting them with the same choice, the same set of options regarding the same decision, over and over again.
I consciously, intellectually realize that the question keeps coming back, seasonally, yearly… I've found myself at this crossroads over and over again for a few years now. I've been here before, asking the same question.
Should I keep this or should I release this?
Every time I come to this fork in the road, I keep choosing to take the way to the left, and I always end up right back at this same point. Obviously, this path is a circle.
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
I sure do love this definition of insanity; but I do not enjoy feeling crazy. Instead of pausing to chuckle over it with philosophical detachment, I could actually listen to the wisdom of it and apply it, for God's sake.
How many times do I really need to run this loop? The most basic logical, practical function of my Thinking Mind can handle this one without intuition, without the input of my spirit guides…
Actually, if I followed my heart and my intuition, I might only have needed to go round a few times before realizing how comic-bordering-on-mad my actions have become.
Intuition as Common Sense Intuition is not a means of by-passing common sense; it often is the common sense that's buried right in front of you under a pile of the intellectual scraps -- maybes, what ifs, buts...
Intuitive impulses are also instantaneous, like catching a fast ball. The ball hits your mitt, and instead of winding up for a pitch, releasing it, returning the volley, your mind says let's hold on to it for minute. Let's think about this. You start dribbling the ball, absentmindedly juggling back and forth, looking for options, considering possibilities, predicting trajectories, potential targets, and projected outcomes.
Wind up long enough, and you become paralyzed.
I want off this loop; I need a new approach.
Inner Peace Audio I'm the first one to admit that, left to my own methods, I am not likely to be found chanting mantras and trying to empty my mind. Clarity as a result of experiencing no-thought or even concentrating on observing my thoughts in the present with detachment... not happening for me so much.
Now, give me a guided audio meditation, lead me into an attunement, walk me through a creative visualization and I am all over it. With a strong sense of direction and a specific mission, my spirit's astral wings go warp drive in a few breaths or heartbeats.
You know how you can read about abstract scientific or mathematical concepts and your eyes start to cross; you look at a spread sheet or lists of data and the impact doesn't necessarily jump out at you... But watch a visualization, a computer animation, or just glance at a graphic representation and you immediately get it.
So, I decided to apply the Decision Making Meditation from Adam Kayce's Inner Peace Audio to give me that different perspective. The results were amazing -- there was the data, the common sense of what I already knew intellectually, but now it came to life in a clairvoyant experience that drove home the emotion and the energy of this choice I can't seem to get beyond.
I was able to see what the energy of the choice I kept making looked like -- in my left hand, it became a heavy slug, or like a dying fish. When the energy of the right hand choice came in, I watched its behavior... My higher self's mouth dropped. The different path I knew I wanted to try moved like a dolphin -- it dipped briefly toward the slug and then spiraled up like a rocket.
Seeing this depicted in such dramatic, graphic terms was the perspective I was missing. It gave me a renewed sense of confidence and urgency -- and courage -- to proceed on that new path.
One of my clients, Susan has totally one-upped me on her practice with these meditations -- she wrote me that on the weekends, she hikes to a favorite spot on top of a mountain and listens to the MP3s. Dramatic. Powerful. I wouldn't doubt she's up there right now in a lotus position with a dreamy look on her face. :-)
I plan to do something similar this afternoon... if I don't make it to a matinee of Prince Caspian. :-)
What are some of your favorite tips, tricks, or techniques for decision making? Have you listened to Adam's collection or have a similar recommendation you'd like to share?
