One Tiny Attitude Shift That’ll Hugely Impact Your Life
And transform this slightly crazy world
Warning: I’m going to get spiritual, so look away now if that’s not your bag.
What if I told you, that self-help at some point becomes an oxymoron?
Relying on the ‘self’ that got you stuck can’t help you get unstuck.
The ‘you can do this!’ or the ‘there’s nothing you can’t do!’ self-helpers brigade realizes this at some point in their journey.
I know I did.
You can’t do ANYTHING you put your mind to
We tell ourselves we can control everything and do anything we put our minds to. No, we can’t. That’s bollocks.
I used to be very much into positive affirmations, manic productivity, and getting sh*t done. So many to-do lists, calendars, and detailed plans for every minute of every day and night.
I became rigidly structured and self-obsessed. I tried to force life to work out the way I wanted it, I was like a machine.
No spontaneity and no fun at all.
Disconnected and discontented.
Until I finally woke up to the reality of the life I had been living, if you can call it that. Doing, seeking, wanting, striving, clinging, grabbing, wasn’t going to cut it anymore.
I experienced a seismic surrender of the ego self. The great unraveling began.
A moment of reckoning. A shift in attitude.
And everything changed.
Sometimes the most important ingredient for a spiritual shift is a cataclysmic event
What we set out to do, as individuals and as a society is a 180-degree shift from what happened.
Coronavirus. Quarantine. Enough said.
Everything on the outside feels unstable. We are all navigating the rollercoaster of uncertainty. There are moments of reckoning and change. Lurches, steep drops, pauses, anticipation. Sometimes the carriage feels slow, sometimes it’s exhilarating and fast.
And we are all strapped in together.
There is much more going on than the global, political, and environmental upheavals we can see and hear.
The world is experiencing a spiritual revolution.
Most of us are aware (if we are honest with ourselves) there’s far more going on at the level of consciousness than is apparent to the ego mind trying to make sense of it all.
Here comes the attitude shift…
What if I told you we are all being called?
Called by the divine, the quantum field, the creator, love, God, higher self? It has many names and it doesn’t care what you call it.
But we are being called. To remember who we are and what we’ve been birthed for.
First, we must recognize who we are not;
- We are not the stories we tell ourselves; beliefs/past conditioning/familiar habits.
- We are not the sum of what we gain and lose in this life.
- We are not how much ‘stuff’ we can get done in a day.
We’re something else.
Something much greater than that.
‘I’m not this hair, I’m not this skin, I’m the soul, That lives within’ — Rumi
The Shift
And in the middle of the global mess…everything is perfect.
We now have to look for security and stability on the inside. We have to be more interested in finding divine help than in proving we don’t need it.
This is a HUGE turning point.
We don’t know what we don’t know, but once we become aware and accept it, we can choose how we want to consciously move forward. The key is to grab hold of this awareness and not let go.
We want deeper answers, meaning, experiences, and feelings.
We want to release ourselves from the grip of low frequencies.
We want to evolve.
The Conditions
These ‘givens’ are not just the conditions of existing; they are the conditions of evolving, for your life to unfold with meaning and purpose-filled acts.
A tiny shift in attitude ripens everything that happens in your life; the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Each one is synchronicity connected to a discovery:
- If I had not found myself alone and embraced solitude; I would not have discovered the vast inner world of wisdom and healing power within.
- If I had not learned that everything is impermanent; I would not have discovered the power of letting go.
- If I had not understood life is unpredictable; I would not have had my eyes and heart opened by the unexpected.
- If I had not felt grief and suffering; I would not have this depth of character and open-hearted compassion for all of life.
- If I had not experienced disappointments; I would not have the humility to surrender old ideas and feel the mystery in ordinary things.
Easy to see in retrospect. Much harder to keep this awareness in the present.
The Process
This tiny attitude shift comes from learning to lean into the divine in the present.
When we find ourselves in the valleys, quietly kick-ass, and look difficulty in the eye with open-hearted awareness. Give thanks to the divine on the mountain top of overcoming and let go, with grace.
And then, help others do the same.
If your day is too rigid, structured, and over-planned you will miss the surprises, opportunities, and alternate choices.
Chance encounters and signs call you to a more intense, inspiring experience. Follow them and don’t put up with anything that brings your energy down.
Mysterious coincidences are happening more and more in everyone’s life. There’s no need to search, grasp, cling, or force anything. These tiny little miracles are unfolding in front of our eyes and calling us forward to another side of life.
‘Respond to every call that excites your spirit, be oblivious to those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death.’ — Rumi
The Path
Once you start the journey it becomes more compelling.
The path from self-help to divine help does not mean we live in a pink fluffy cloud of woo woo — that’s called spiritual bypassing.
We stay awake to the truth with a sense of discernment. We shift our attitude from self to other. And we make more meaningful choices with a divine sense of purpose.
More insights are revealed. No ‘hustle’ required.
The quieter the mind is the easier it is to hear and follow the miracles that lead to new opportunities, ideas, and insights.
If you want to live a purpose-filled, passionate, creative life that feels magical and inspiring, you have to be awake to the magic.
Here’s what you can do:
1. Slow down
Consciously walk and move a little slower. Hurry tramples watchfulness and awake-ness.
2. Welcome surprises
Anticipate them, look for them, and expect the unexpected.
3. Have ‘Sunday Sessions’
Spend a half hour alone looking to the week ahead. Conceptualize your goals, visualize them, and lay out the general route towards them. But know there will be surprise twists and turns.
4. Set up Split-Page Scheduling
I love this.
Make a list of your priorities/tasks on the left-hand side of a clean page each morning. Now draw a line down the center. On the right-hand side jot down new ideas, coincidences, a chance meeting, insights, opportunities, obstacles, a beautiful flower, or anything you notice as you move through your day.
Structure to the left, spontaneity to the right. It’s amazing how you begin to connect the dots from this simple action.
5. Have faith
Something cosmic connects everything. When we believe in the connections, we begin to see them. Have faith, everything is happening for a reason and there is an opportunity (and beauty) in everything.
‘I don’t think that anything happens by coincidence. No one is here by accident. Everyone who crosses our path has a message for us.’ — Celestine Prophecy
We must come back to a place of unity and harmony if we are to continue to thrive and evolve in this world
Stay awake to coincidences, intuitive thoughts, and hunches.
Make space in your day for introspection.
Visualize your goals but be open and flexible for surprises that might take you on a detour.
The Universe is designed to help you, but you have to pay attention and follow the signs.
And remember, we are all strapped in together.
