I was working with a client this morning when this metaphor appeared in my head. I was reminded of my daughter when she was a fiercely independent little girl. She wanted to put her own shoes on to go to playgroup. She’d seen her big brother doing it and she was going to do it herself too. Except that she put her left shoe on her right foot and her right shoe on her left foot. It must have felt really uncomfortable. But she was determined. I suggested to her that she might be more comfortable with them on the other feet. No, she wasn’t having it. She was right. And she was going to be right all day. I suspect deep down she knew that she’d got them on the wrong feet but there was nothing that was going to shift her mind about it.
It got me thinking about how much stuff we make up about ourselves and how we do things. How often do we knowingly and unknowingly believe things we’ve made up to be ‘true’. We don’t or can’t see it any other way. Yet, there’s a nagging deep inside that’s urging us to find another way, to see something from a different perspective but our intellect and ego just won’t budge. This is our intuition wanting to speak up. It knows. It always knows. It just requires us to be a little more open.
The biggest changes come in my own life when I’m prepared to be flexible to seeing something new and fresh and not being so attached to my old thinking. Clients make leaps forward when they really see that the only thing in their way is themselves and their thinking and what they believe to be true.
Our beliefs are all made up, often with the very best of intentions. So, whether you believe it’s impossible to meet the love of your life or find your dream job or improve your relationship with someone you love it’s good to know that you can change this belief in a heartbeat. When you see it for what it is–something you made up once upon a time as a way to protect yourself from being hurt or disappointed.
Know that you can take those ill-fitting shoes off at anytime and trust your intuition to guide you to making a much more comfortable decision.
What in your life could do with a little fresh thinking? I’d love to know.
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