This week, I’ll be fully immersed in a 50-hour intensive training on Energy and the Subtle Body that is being taught by my yoga teacher, Justin Ritchie, at Laughing Lotus.
That’s pretty much all I know about it.
Justin mentioned it during class one day in mid-December, and I heard a thought:
“That sounds cool. I want to learn about that.”
Even though I have personally experienced the effects of energy work, I can’t quite shake the left-brained lawyer in me who wants to “see the proof” and understand, intellectually, how and why these forms of healing work. I know that Justin “nerds out” on the science behind this stuff. He sometimes mentions it in class, and I assume he will spend more time diving into it during the intensive training.
I assume, because I did not ask to see the syllabus before registering.
That’s right. I made an investment in something without reading a sales page, without hearing a sales pitch, without receiving an endless stream of emails warning me that this would be my last chance, and so on.
Sit and contemplate that for a moment.
It may seem strange to commit to a 50-hour training without knowing more. No syllabus. No lengthy sales page. No FAQ. The left-brained lawyer in me thinks this is ridiculous.
But the other part of me, the part that I’ve been working to embrace for the past five years, felt the calling. She knew, instinctively, that this was something I need to do. And, this time, I listened to her.
I didn’t dwell in the questions. I didn’t ask to see a syllabus. I didn’t ask if there would be homework.
I said YES to expanding myself and my capacity for growth.
I registered for the class. I trusted that everything would work itself out.
It turns out there was homework: a big reading assignment in the textbook (yes, a textbook!) and a written assignment to be turned in before the training started. That was in addition to the application to be admitted into the training. Justin is a smart guy: he didn’t reveal the homework until the welcome letter.
Honestly, if I had known that there was pre-training homework I might not have registered.
That’s not to say I didn’t feel any resistance before registering.
I was already heavily committed in January. I’m in the middle of a huge declutter project in my apartment, and had scheduled a 2-day intensive with a team of organizing experts this past Friday and Saturday. During the last week of January, I’ll be attending the Inman Connect real estate conference in New York.
Each of these commitments is “full immersion”——they require my complete focus. This means many full days off of email and social media, altered schedules, and little white space. Each requires at least a day of recovery and catch-up time.
And, of course, there is work to be done, clients, follow ups, planning… an endless list of stuff “to do.”
When is there not stuff to do?
So often, we feel a calling to do something and then hear the pushback from within our own minds. We resist our own inner knowing.
You don’t have to look hard for reasons not to do something. The reasons not to leap are like rats in the subway: they will always be there.
The timing will never be perfect. There will always be other things you think need to be done first. There will always be parts of your life that are unresolved, or loose ends that you think need to be tied up first. But at what cost?
The pushback you feel; the reasons why it’s not a good time — that’s your mind trying to keep you small. It’s trying to keep you safe from the risk of exploring new avenues.
What life experiences are you missing while you wait for the perfect timing?
Sometimes, you just have to trust your intuition and take the leap. Trust that it will work out.
As it turns out, this January has been busier than usual for me. Had I known what was coming up, perhaps I wouldn’t have registered. But I committed. And when I commit to something, I play full out. None of that crap where I’m there but I’m on my phone the whole time. So I managed to delegate what needed to be done immediately and reschedule some other things, and you know what? If something really needs to get done, it will. It usually does.
I still don’t know much about what to expect this week, other than long hours. But I’m excited to see how it unfolds.
Where in your life are you resisting following your inner guidance because your rational mind is telling you that it’s not the “right time?” Please share in the comments, or connect with me privately if you’re shy.