There is a story of a rock climber. He was making his way down a massive rock face as night fell upon him. He descended to the best of his ability in the murky darkness until he could go no further. He shimmied down to the lowest point on his rope and hung there in fear and disbelief. The temperature on the rock wall was dropping quickly.
He scrambled his brain for answers. What am I going to do?! There simply wasn't anything he could do to control or change his situation.
He began to cry and scream into the frigid night air: Someone please help me! I'm all alone up on this wall! I'm freezing to death! Anybody out there?! Help me please!
A quiet voice answered: Let go.
The climber shouted back: I can't let go! I will crash to the ground and die! Oh, please help me! Please help me!
Once again the voice responded: Let go.
Again, the climber refused to let go. He couldn't see the ground below in the moonless night and did not trust the instructions this mysterious voice was giving him.
As minutes turned to hours, temperatures on the rock face dropped to freezing. The climber succumbed to hypothermia and died.
Sometime after dawn the next morning, a few hikers happened upon the rock wall. They saw the dead climber dangling from his rope.
He was four feet from the ground.
There is No Magic Pill
Oftentimes people will come to me with situations in their lives that have created much suffering and emotional upheaval and they want an answer now!
A quick fix.
A magic pill.
They go on and on about how they've tried everything and no matter what they do it doesn't make a difference. As always I listen attentively, ask a lot of questions and assist them in finding a strategy to take them forward. But sometimes there is no strategy; there is nothing one can to do to alter or shift the situation. Their hands are tied and there is only one positive and healthy thing to do.
Unfortunately, it's the one thing people do not like to hear...
Let go.
After the typical mouth open, wide-eyed response, I am usually hit with a meek, "Yeah, I know you're right, buuuut... [Insert 6,000 excuses here]."
You see, sometimes our soul hears the truth, but our ego wants to control.
It's not good enough to let go, we want to do something!
However, when there is no feasible answer, there is no feasible answer.
As humans we are always trying to control, control, control. We think we have the ability to change/control anything that crosses our path and we believe we have the capabilities to handle it to our perfect satisfaction every time.
Sorry, guys, it's simply not true.
There are many things in life that are out of our hands. As Byron Katie, founder of TheWork.com states, "I can find only three kinds of business in the universe: mine, yours and God's. Much of our stress comes from mentally living out of our business."
If we are working ourselves to death trying to find a solution for a problem that is out of our hands, we are causing ourselves unnecessary suffering.
Be willing to hand it over.
Release it to God/Universe.
The universe is self-correcting and self-organizing. We must learn to trust it with situations that are bigger than we are.
I have a mental practice I call: Give it to God.
If I find myself struggling over something that I cannot control, I mentally wrap my worry/fear/problem in a gold box and send into the cosmos like a helium balloon. I watch it until it disappears from view and I believe with all my soul that it will be taken care of in the highest way possible for all concerned. I let go.
But alas, among all this "letting go" there is one thing we can do...
We can get quiet, go within and listen to what our soul/spirit is telling us.
We can learn to trust our inner voice. The voice that knows all. The voice that whispers to us amidst chaos that we typically bat away like an annoying gnat.
What if you choose to listen to this voice?
What if you knew for sure this voice possessed wisdom beyond time, space and the physical plane?
What if all the answers we ever needed were coming to us all day, every day in a quiet, unobtrusive way and we were ignoring them?
I know you've experienced these messages before because you are a soul and all souls are divinely connected to the universe.. There are no exceptions. Period.
At this point, you might be realizing you do receive messages but are unsure how to discern what is real and what is not.
That's a great question and oftentimes the reason many fail to listen to their inner voice.
There are three ways to know your guidance is real:
1. You will receive only the next best step. Just enough to move into the next square on the board. God will not overwhelm us with a complicated plan, but will lead us step by step to the best possible outcome.
2. It will feel right. Somewhere in your body, you will know beyond a doubt it is the next best step.
However...
3.The answer might feel uncomfortable. Ego seeks to keep us comfortable, God seeks to grow us. Oftentimes growing is uncomfortable. We may feel resistance to the next best step because we will be stepping outside our comfort zone.
If I've learned one thing, I've learned this:
The times I've tried to control outcome, things got way out of hand. The times I let go and allowed for the natural unfolding, things worked out better than I ever could have imagined.
Situations are put in our paths to learn from, grow from and evolve from. Some things in life we cannot control; we can only let go of. It is in letting go that we release ourselves from unnecessary suffering by the constraints of our ego and move closer to our Higher Self and a more peaceful life.
If you've enjoyed this piece and are thirsty for more of Kristen's articles or feel guided to work one-on-one with her, please visit Kristen's Website. Be sure to sign up for Kristen's newsletter while you're there to receive related articles, links and promos.