September 28 2018
“And finally, he said, it’s not the careful calculations that matter. It’s imagination, intuition, and dreams. That’s how breakthroughs come.
It’s like writing a book, she said.” Janett Turner Hospital (Australian writer)
As a writer, I find the truth in Hospital’s words. As a therapist, I continue to experience the same truth. As regular people, we spend far more time in careful calculations that in reality, don’t matter. When I stop. When I notice my breathing. When I let myself stare out of the window. Those are the moments I often have a breakthrough.
Reflecting on Blood Draw, Tom had his breakthroughs while driving and being alone with himself. He set his careful calculating on his driving, an excellent job for that part of our mind. It loves to have a job and do well at it. Tom could then review and reflect on what he had learned, remembered, and let it form into a resolution. Azure honored the silences. Bernice sat on the iron benches to check her truth. And so on.
My mind is quite good at careful calculations. Clearly, it’s a necessary survival tool for success. I see a comparison with the “monkey mind” that Buddhist teachers describe getting in the way of our meditating.
As a survival tool, it won’t go away. Scratch that idea. The calculating is needed so we don’t “lose” our mind. What to do? Give it a job. Let it pay attention to driving while I go elsewhere. Notice when it is tired and allow it a rest. Praise the careful part of our mind and say it’s okay to stop, to rest, to let go. It is not easy.
While it is otherwise occupied, welcome in your intuition, imagination, and dreams. Be open to a breakthrough. Really, when I think of letting go, I automatically exhale. Picture the whole and unlimited dimension of imagination. Let yourself daydream. Not just allowing it, but willingly and consciously giving your mind permission to daydream. Night dreams are a bit more difficult. Often if I tell myself before I go to sleep that I will remember my dreams, it does work. In the morning, write down the dream/s. See what comes to you in terms of breakthrough.
Another option is to notice the careful calculations that occur in the middle of the night. Change the course. Change it away from worries and anxieties (what else would keep us awake!) and towards a creation of better stories, better outcomes, and less dire imagined stories. Give your mind over to your imagination of joyful and positive outcomes. Why not?
Intuition is the harder one. When we have had childhood trauma and/or difficulties resulting in wounds, much of the damage happens to our intuition. However the trust has been broken, our intuition has been betrayed. It no longer trusts itself. I trusted, I intuited that person was safe who proved to be unsafe. We conclude our intuition did not and does not do a very good job. Hold up. Back then, it was not about intuition betraying us, it was about that person betraying us and our trust. Our trust and intuition were not wrong. The betrayer was wrong.
Intuition repair is another topic for another time. For now, just begin to notice when you get a sense of information coming to you from your body senses, your heart senses, or your “knowingness without words.” Stay with it. It’s the opposite of careful calculation. Trust it. Even if we misread it, it speaks the truth.
Good fortune to you on your journey to imagination, intuition, and dreams. They are all within you. Enjoy the breakthroughs!
Thanks for visiting!
Peace
Gabrielle