Making space for something new
Sometimes life is messy and confusing, and you have no idea what’s happening.
Are you on the right path? Are you focusing on the things that actually matter? Are your efforts making a difference?
This morning I had the good fortune of being invited to be a test subject for a wonderful friend of mine. She’s studying to be a massage therapist – and a damn good one, from what I just experienced! As part of her training, she had to perform a 1-hour massage focusing on one particular part of the body.
Naturally, as an artist who does a LOT of work with my hands, when she asked me if I would be willing to have just my arms massaged for a full hour, while instructors took notes and evaluated her performance, I said YES PLEASE.
Needless to say, my arms are now very relaxed as I type this.
But it wasn’t that easy for them to chill out. Towards the beginning of the massage, she picked up my hand in both of hers and gently shook my arm from side to side, encouraging it to release and be supported by her grip.
Which it really didn’t want to do.
“Feel free to let your arm be loose,” she whispered gently.
It took several attempts and arm waggles to really get my arm to relax and stop trying to DO something. Despite my best intentions to relax my arm, it just had its own plans.
If you’re anything like me, I bet your arms and hands do a lot for you. They’re constantly building, preparing, creating, working, holding (thank you, hands 🙏).
They’re not very used to NOT doing.
Cosmic Moth, acrylic on wood, 8”x10”, 2019.
Sometimes the hardest thing when you’re faced with circumstances that are new and unknown is LETTING GO of what you already know or think you know, in order to make room for what you are about to learn.
Sometimes the simplest - and yet most difficult - thing to do is to stop doing. I have a hunch you already know this.
Clarity has a way of bubbling up to the surface when it’s ready. As much as you want to have the answers NOW (at least I know I do!), sometimes the clearest path to where you need to go will only reveal itself to you when you stop trying to get to it, and let it come to you.
In other words, get out of your own way. Allow stories, habits and patterns from your past to release in order to make room for something new – even if you don’t know what that is yet.
Rather than making typical new years’ resolutions, it can be empowering to use the new year as an opportunity to reflect on how far you’ve come already, and rather than affirming what you WILL or WON’T do this year, decide instead what to let go.
The beauty of this is that you really don’t have to DO anything at all.
It’s an exercise of trust. Trust that you’re on the right path. Trust that you have an intuitive wisdom that goes way beyond your rational mind. Trust that you will be held and supported as you go forth into the unknown future.
Now I’d love to hear from you. What are you willing let go as you move into the new decade, in order to make room for something new? Let me know in the comments below.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being here.
