I’ve been experiencing massive life change over the past few months, and at an accelerated pace, too, so I decided to do a little spiritual investigating to see if I could find any common factors that might be instigating these changes.
I do a lot of journaling, so my first step was poring over my entries, looking for themes. What I found was surprising even to me, so in this series of posts, I outline what I believe are the ingredients for radical life change.
Now, this list is by no means exhaustive, but these are the practices that I have found to be immensely powerful for me right now. The other thing I discovered? These practices don’t need to be done perfectly. In fact, perfection is one of those things that blocks flow, which is an important ingredient of radical life change. In my experience, taking these ingredients to heart and simply doing your best as often as you can is all that’s being asked of you.
Radical Life Change Ingredient #1
Trust that there is wise timing for every event.
I have learned that when I find myself in a situation that isn’t unfolding the way I had hoped or expected, it’s so important to pause, giving wise timing room to transpire. Without that pause, my typical response is to try and force the situation to adhere to my timetable.
Here’s a recent example: I was deciding between two school programs and feeling really impatient when it came to hearing back from administrators or getting paperwork in the mail, etc. I found myself making lots of extra phone calls and really trying to move things along according to my expected timeline. Luckily, the universe ignored me because, looking back, I can see how every event unfolded precisely when it needed to.
Here’s a really clear example of this: Had I been able to force Program A to give me the information I wanted when I wanted it, I would have made a decision before I had an important piece of information from Program B that I didn’t even know was coming my way. And I can pretty much guarantee that my decision made without that information would have been a costly one, certainly from a financial point of view, and undoubtedly from an energetic, emotional, and spiritual one, too.
The bottom line is that there is wise timing for everything in your life. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.” (Ecclesiastes, King James Bible)
This is abundantly clear in nature, and what is also clear is how much damage we are causing by ignoring these natural cycles and demanding that we have access to anything we want, when we want it. The Earth suffers under this ceaseless, frenetic pace, out of tune with the cycle of life, and so do we.
How to Set Your Wise-Timing Watch
How can you discern what the proper timing is? Well, here’s where a connection to your intuition, to your inner knowing, comes in. Your body, your emotions, and your spirit give you messages and cues all the time. The problem? Many of us aren’t listening.
For me, this can range from the small (I get a twinge of nausea if I’m about to eat something that my body doesn’t want or need) to the large (I feel “out of sync” with things if I’m pushing things too hard or dragging my feet excessively).
To tune into the radio station of divine timing, all it takes is listening to your intuition on a regular basis. The more you do this, the louder and clearer your inner voice becomes. This doesn’t mean you will always hear that voice 100% accurately, and indeed, there will be times when you trust your intuition and things still don’t work out the way you’d hoped.
To me, listening to your intuition isn’t any different from other skills. If you’re learning how to play the piano, hitting one wrong key doesn’t mean you give up playing piano for life (unless you’re super melodramatic)–you just keep practicing! But many of us take this all or nothing approach when it comes to listening to our intuition: If we’re off one time, then we can’t ever trust ourselves again.
Radical life change happens when you trust that there is wise timing and you use your intuition to access it.
Perhaps you ask your procrastination if it’s keeping you from rushing into a situation that isn’t soul compatible. And then you listen to its advice.
Maybe the excitement you feel when you think about taking a class is your intuition lighting the way to your joy: follow it.
If things seem to be taking their sweet ass time, and your efforts to speed things along are only making things worse, maybe that’s the universe telling you to hand over the bull whip and trust in flow.
Every day, all around you, are cues and clues to the natural ebb and flow of your life. Learn to quiet your thinking mind and be present for these signs of wise timing.
You might also enjoy this post: “When Waiting Is Making You Crazy.”
