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  • Newsletter
  • Home
  • About
    • The Happy Fan Club
  • Offerings
    • Redesign Your Life 2.0
    • Get Creative
    • Personal Coaching
  • Creativity Conversations
  • LET'S CONNECT!
  • Blog
    • Live Free Your Way
    • Seeing Things Differently
    • Mistaking Assumptions for Truth
    • How Humor Keeps Us Sane
    • Know Thyself
    • Peach Pie for Breakfast
    • Explore Experience Express
    • Should You Be Downshifting?
    • Stop the Hustle!
    • Do Your Habits Serve or Sabotage
    • Settle Down? Down Where?
    • What Lights You Up?
    • Saying Yes When Your Mind Says No
    • Independence From What?
    • Letting Ourselves Off the Hook
    • Letting Go of Assumptions
    • Is Kindness Allowed?
    • How to Throw a Wrench in the Works
    • Happiness
    • Daring to be Lighthearted
    • What Happens When You See Things Differently
    • Find Delight in Everyday Life
    • Are You Saying What Needs to Be Said
    • Is Your Life in Alignment
    • Are You Trapped by Your Past
    • Can You Love Your Life
    • The Hallmark of Creativity
    • Out Of Ideas?
    • Waking Up to a New World
    • Are You a Possibilitarian?
    • Want to Love Your Life?
    • Is Creativity Necessary
    • What's Stopping You?
    • An Unexpected Discovery
    • Free Your Mind
    • Is Your Creative Genius Hiding
    • Empty Headed or Clear Minded?
    • Is Stress Really Necessary?
    • Will Creativity Improve Your Life?
    • Is Creativity In Your Future?
    • Replace Fear With Love
    • How to Get Out of Your Own Way
    • Just Take A Moment
    • You Don't Have To - You Get To
    • The Good News About Being Stuck
    • Interested in Inner Freedom?
    • Are You a Hoarder?
    • What Remains
    • Co-vid 19 Free Pass to the Roller Coaster
    • Grace Under Pressure
    • Now is the Time To Notice
    • Hanging With the Wrong Crowd
    • Make Your Life Simpler
    • What Could Be Different For You
    • Everything is a Miracle
    • Do You Have A Negativity Bias
    • Are You Really Seeing Or Just Assuming?
    • Happiness and Resilience
    • Wherever You Go, There You Are
    • Is Stress Making You Sick?
    • What I Wish My Humans Knew
    • Looking Backwards
    • Daring to Change Course
    • Lost in Thought or Taking Action?
    • Still Can't Focus?
    • Do Your Thoughts Get Dark and Gloomy?
    • Can't Focus?
    • An Instant Formula for New Ideas
    • Talk Yourself Out of Another Great Idea?
    • Is Your Busyness Keeping You From Getting Things Done?
    • What's that Feeling In the Pit of My Stomach?
    • How Cool is This?
    • How to Make Your New Year Happier
    • Why Be Open To Life?
    • Simple Ways to Transform Your Life
    • Get Clarity and Confidence
    • Are You Driven by Fear or Love?
    • The Number One Way to Keep Your Vision Alive and Well
    • Why Stop Trying to Figure it Out?
    • What Are You Trying to Prove?
    • Do Your Goals Reflect Your Hearts Desire
    • Why My Cat is My Spiritual Teacher
    • Surviving the Holidays
    • 3 Convincing Reasons
    • 3 Secrets to Enjoying the Holidays
    • 5 Quick Steps to Get Your Mojo Back
    • 3 Ways to Keep Your Energy High
    • 5 Reasons to Do Good
    • Pain Relief for the Soul
    • Tired of Living by the Rules? Go Rogue!
    • What? You've Made a Mess? Excellent!
    • Why You Need to Be Inspired Now
    • Change Your Life in Just 48 Hours?
    • The Cure For Mental Overload
    • 5 Infallible Ways to Stay Inspired
  • Newsletter

An Unexpected Discovery

3/15/2021

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Over the weekend I did a massive reorganization of both my office desk and my art supplies and now I have fresh space in which to create. In sorting out the piles of papers that were meant to be filed, I discovered a short piece of writing that I wrote, but I don't remember writing it!

​That used to happen to me a lot when I was in college and graduate school, after I had cranked out a paper or thesis I would wonder, did I write that? But since this writing was a helpful reminder for me, I thought it was worth sharing with you.

Every explanation we tell ourselves about what's happening is simply a story we've crafted based on our frequently changing interpretation of events. Stories can be told on a purely physical level: "my son yells at me," "I need to lose weight," or simply "the sun is shining." Our descriptions of what we are experiencing  are like containers of meaning as  we go from one moment to the next. It's easy to overlook the fact that those descriptions change depending on our moods and levels of awareness. But that's what happens.

One moment the world looks wonderful and full of promise. The next moment the world looks dark and despairing.

Sometimes our stories are more esoteric: "in a past life my son was my overbearing husband," or "demonic forces are attacking me" or "my guardian angel watches over me."

Have you noticed how our stories include thoughts and feelings that are automatically generated based on how we see the world?

Whether mundane or exotic and whether our stories are factually true or not, our view of life becomes limited when our stories contain an expectation or a disappointment. We lose our connection with what's happening right in front of us when we expect or assume a specific outcome. 

For example, if I'm worried about the outcome of a project I'm working on, I'm not only imagining an undesirable future but experiencing negative feelings that come with that projection. My mind becomes too busy with how something will turn out than focusing on the tasks at hand. So of course that makes it so much harder to keep spinning the initial thread of inspiration.

Life has a funny way of surprising us with what happens next, but if we're not caught up in our imaginations trying to predict or make assumptions, we can respond with more flexibility and creativity in the moment and things go so much more smoothly.

The life force that animates each and every one of us contains all the intelligence and resilience and adaptability and problem solving skills we'll ever need. And the way to connect with that life force within us (regardless of what we call it) is to just take a moment to listen inwardly and notice whether we've been spirited away by the stories we tell or fully present to life.

Once we've taken the measure of where our attention is, we can refocus and pick up right where we left off. Or, an even better way forward will make itself known to us.
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