↩️ TREE 671: You know when to walk away

L A W R E N C E × J E F F
chapter · 6
part · 2

‘I have not followed all these methods. On the contrary, from I know not what instincts, I found they discouraged me.’ —Brother Lawrence

Lawrence had an inkling about how to live the life he chose and the insight that he needed to pay attention to his inkling, even though his approach was different to the received wisdom of the day.

I have the inkling. I haven’t been as good at Lawrence of listening to it. I’m getting better. One thing I’ve learned is to not spend a lot of time with ideas/methods/gurus that discourage me.

I used to think there was something wrong with me if I couldn’t get on board with an ‘important’ idea/method/guru, especially if a charismatic person was speaking with conviction about it. I’ve learned there isn’t something wrong with me. Nor is there necessarily something wrong with the idea/method/guru. Maybe they are on a different path than me so their directions aren’t helpful. Maybe it’s just the wrong time. I know – after relearning this lesson dozens of times – that when I feel the discouragement, the energy drop, I can walk away with no fear that I’m missing something important for me.

When the feeling goes the opposite way, towards energy and joy, I know I need to lean in and pay attention, even if – especially if! – the message is a difficult one.

Example: a couple weeks ago, a free book dropped into my inbox. I took a quick look at it and had an inkling that I needed to read it, even though I’d never heard of the book and no one important had told me I should. My inkling was right. The book is turning out to be a crucial education for a thing I’m about to do.

You have an inkling too.

If you reflect on what it’s told you in the past, I’m certain you’ll find it’s much better at pointing you in the right direction than the external voices insisting they know what you should do.

I listened to Adia Victoria’s Silences album for the first time while I wrote this post I’ve listened to a lot of good albums lately. This is my favourite in quite a while.

Grow slowly
Jeff