Two Ways To Do

For decades in my own inner journeys and in guiding the journeys of others, the foundation for the work has been ‘Trust the Process.’ In these journeys I have always found it deeply reassuring to know that I can completely trust Inner Wisdom – mine and my clients’ – to know exactly what needs to happen. What a relief to learn that there is a resource within greater and wiser than the one who has been running the show! All I need to do is remain open and allow the process to flow.

I find that my life now is being blown open. I’m being called upon to trust the process – not just in my journeys – but in my life. This means struggling less to make things happen and being willing to go with the flow – whatever that is. This means letting go of attachment to outcome. This means trusting that good comes to me through Divine plan.

Occasionally this feels sublime. Often it feels scary, even foolish. Sometimes it feels all of the above.

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This morning, as I awake, the image of a beautiful, calm older woman comes to me. Though I have never seen her before, I immediately recognize her as one of my Inner Wisdom Guides.

“There are two ways to get things done,” she tells me. “One is to actively make things happen. This is the way you are taught to get things done in your culture. This is all about ‘Just do it.’”

“The other way to get things done,” she continues, “is to create the conditions in which the desired result is more likely to happen and then trust that this result will come to you on its own – a result of your preparation, patience and perseverance … and your trust.”

My Guide goes on to explain that this second way of doing is not as well known or appreciated in our culture, but it is no less powerful and effective. Nor is it more powerful and effective. They are both equally important. The thing is to be open to both, to be capable of both, because different situations call for different ways of doing.

It’s like hunting, she explains. If you are hunting a deer, you can go after that deer. You can track it and stalk it until you run that animal down. Or you can sit very quietly in a blind, sprinkle some corn and wait patiently for the deer to come to you. Each of these strategies has its merits.

My Guide reminds me of the quiet breathing practice I have adopted to help me get back to sleep when I wake up in the middle of the night. If I try to pursue sleep, it eludes me. The harder I grasp for sleep, the more I push it away with my anxieties – ‘What if I can’t get back to sleep? What if my day will be ruined by that awful not-enough-sleep feeling?’ When I breathe gently, barely audibly, I drift softly back into sleep, lulled by the soft sound of my breathing, like the gentle sound of waves lapping on a beach.

Throughout my life, as a child of my culture, I have specialized in the more active, aggressive way of doing. Now, I am just learning how this more quiet, passive way of doing can operate in my life. I sense that the energy I create through trust and acceptance can make things happen in more subtle but no less powerful ways than the familiar habit of working hard.

I am so new to this that I find it difficult to comprehend, let alone write about. Certainly, though, you’ll be hearing more about the unfolding of all of this in future blogs. Stay tuned!

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“The more we open to the unconditional love that is always there waiting for us, the more joy and equilibrium we experience in our days here on Earth.”