It was a glorious late afternoon in September and I’d been sitting down at the beach enjoying the sun and my book. Now it was time to stroll home but as I left the beach I passed a young woman who intercepted me and asked if she could pose a question. For a millisecond I hesitated – was this some kind of scam or request for money, then I responded that of course she could. The question she asked me entirely took me aback. “ I am living in Vancouver and have been thinking that I should move to Squamish but I feel so frightened, can you help me?” For a brief moment I felt a sense of awe and wonder that she should have chosen me out of all the people she could have encountered on that day. What a bizarre synchronicity! During my life I have learned to trust these moments; it seemed like a “divine appointment.”
About 21-years ago I developed a decision making model. I had named it DecisionClarity and for about twelve years it was the major passion in my life. It began with the opportunity to do a weekly presentation on decision making for people living with a cancer diagnosis who were exploring complementary therapies. Frequently they faced challenging decisions about different treatments, about quality of life and sometimes life and death. I tried to offer them a process to make decisions and allow them to get in touch with their own deeper sense of knowing or intuition. This work became the focus of my life, I wrote and published a book titled Life‘s Little Book for Big Decisions as well as a companion CD. I did presentations and workshops; it took me as far afield as California and London but was mostly centred in Vancouver. I also did individual counselling to guide people through the process. It was my passion, felt meaningful and fulfilling but then in 2012 it stopped.
I never really understood why. Intuitive decision making has become more main stream and perhaps my time was done. However I sensed the vacuum would lead to something else and indeed out of this loss came my spiritual coaching practice and my passion for dream exploration and doing workshops. Well recently following Covid my life became once again a blank slate. My work seemed to have faded away, but at 77 I did not feel discontented, perhaps it was time to relax.
I decided it was time to rid myself of the surplus books that were residing behind my couch upstairs. I had sold about 850 of the 1,000 I had printed so I decided to distribute the rest in the little free libraries popping up in the neighbourhood. There are seven close to me and somewhat to my surprise every week or so they would all be picked up.
When I expressed my astonishment to a friend of mine who is familiar with my work, she expressed her opinion that it was as valuable today as when I wrote it. Then to my surprise out of the blue I got an order for my book! I took this as a sign to at least float a seminar on Zoom. I had four acceptances, but this diminished to two on the day and only one seemed really engaged. I decided that I had given it a try and I could now let it rest.
However the appearance of this young woman suggests that for now it won’t let me rest. Fortunately I had done the workshop earlier in the week so the concepts were fresh in my mind. I suggested that fear was a powerful emotion but could not necessarily be equated with intuition. I suggested to her that although she may not think she knows what to do, at a deeper level of her being she really does know. I asked her if she’d be interested in a simple decision making process called body sense or muscle testing.
My familiarity with this process had been refreshed during my preparation for the workshop earlier in the week. It had been gifted to me by a young woman who approached me after one of my presentations to explain that she had recently tried this when visiting a health food store. She was trying to decide which of two supplements to buy. She had asked the assistant for guidance and the assistant has said that she believed her body knew which one would be right for her. She suggested she stretch out her arm, hold one supplement over her heart and visualize taking this one. The assistant then placed light pressure on the outstretched arm which collapsed weakly in response. When she tried the same with the other supplement her arm held firm demonstrating the body’s approval.
I explained the process to her and she stretched out her right arm, while placing the other hand over her heart, closed her eyes and held the intention of staying in Vancouver. I applied light pressure to the arm and it immediately collapsed. Then we repeated the process with the intention of going to Squamish and when I applied pressure the arm had great resistance. I observed, “well your body wants to go to Squamish.”
I then gave her a practice to help with seeking additional guidance by setting an intention, developing an affirmation seeking guidance and then paying attention to signs and synchronicities for reinforcement of her decision. We parted with her expressing I think both gratitude and a little confusion.
As I strolled away I could not help but wonder about this experience. Powerful synchronicities (meaningful coincidences) had often guided my path. What was this going to mean for me? I realized that I may be ready to let go of decision making but perhaps it was not ready to let go of me. A friend of mine later commented that perhaps I should be more open to spontaneous decision making as opposed to the more structured approach I usually follow. Perhaps it is time to make a decision!
Posted by ta44 
SoulClarity 