Stuck in an Energetic Repeat/Loop?

That struck a chord, because it had been always been a very powerful mechanism of propulsion for me. I mean, we idealize that as strong, right? “Pushing through” to get to the other side…

Sometimes, I would skim… especially when I came to a part in a story that triggered me a little because it was divergent to a main storyline. I’ve traditionally gotten impatient with the side story because I wanted to continue with the main one! So I would rush through – push through – the other part of the story to get back to the main theme.

In my active life, I admit, I’d pushed through a LOT when I’d been uncomfortable, when there were things that threatened to stop me up (and there had been a LOT). I’d been impatient with delays (which were really just “side stories”)… because when I wanted to DO something, I simply wanted to do it.

THAT’S what that message meant.

I was really pushed to change my ways in that; suddenly, so many things slowed down to a crawl, that in observation, I was a little impatient with. I judged them as what I deemed “the hold-ups.”

One day, in a car, a huge understanding came through.

You know how when you drive through a neighborhood ALL THE TIME, you know the directions through, you know the turns, even the bumps in the road, if you drive it enough? And then, suddenly, you’re the passenger in the car, and the entire neighborhood looks different! Houses you’ve never noticed, landscapes that have been there, even maybe a pond you might have missed.

Change the scope even more: What happens when you WALK through the neighborhood? You suddenly notice some intimate details you never noticed before. Gardens, front porch furnishings, maybe the smell of freshly cut grass. What if you sat on a bench? You might get to know some dogs that get walked regularly, as well as some details about their owners, too.

What does this have to do with cycling and repeat patterns in our reality?

Here’s the thing: When we TRULY learn how to be Present – fully embodied, fully aware, RIGHT HERE AND NOW – we see so much more than we do when we’re “pushing through”!

When we’re committed to doing inner work – and focus on expanded consciousness – we tend to get a bit incorporeal.

Sometimes we get so focused on the non-physical that we forget that the physical is a fabulous message in representation, so if we’re stuck, we literally have the answer right in front of our noses.

After I had this realization, I finally understood what that message to stop pushing through meant.

When we “push through” challenging situations, yes, we might propel ourselves in to something else. However, when we fail to take in the entire scenery first, we miss things – particularly things we don’t necessarily want to look at. And though we might have gotten through a majority of the major stuff in pushing through, we most often will have some clean up to do on the back end… and thus, a similar repeat of a situation or experience to complete what is often holding you back from FULLY moving forward.

When we become more Present – and we become the pedestrian, the individual sitting on the bench – we take in the full scale of everything going on around us; we get messages and understandings that we don’t otherwise get. And guess what? Most often, when we take the time to do that, we remove the need for “repeats” anymore.

Since this understanding, I’ve realized that having patience with the tangential storylines in a book pretty much always have details embedded in them that do actually feed into a more saturated experience of the main storyline that I would otherwise miss. So, I read much more patiently now. I have many tools of conscious observation that I employ… and in doing so, I find that the repeating patterns have gone by the wayside, one by one.

MANY might teach and learn about inner work, and yet don’t first learn or teach about Presence. Often, we get lost in the “shinies” – all of these wonderful tools of consciousness – and we’ll get some quick fixes, but the problems come back and repeat themselves. I’ve now incorporated these practices into ensuring those with whom I work get the tools to stop, take a seat on the bench in that neighborhood, and see what’s around them… and what’s truly WITHIN them. The result is a fully saturated observance in one’s reality and of themselves, so they can shift energy around what’s there, change it… and change it for good. No more repeats and cycling!

In this photo, I might look like I’m zoned out, but I was actually taking 15 minutes to BE in nature, on that hammock. Watching the leaves blow, listening to the wind, smelling the faint scent of spring’s honeysuckle. AND observing a beautiful cardinal who landed in a branch right above me, who decided to chirp his message very adamantly!

I did get some messages and realizations here, simply from clearing the chatter in my mind for that nice 15-minute break.

Take some time today, and “sit on that bench”… particularly out in nature, if you can. Take some breaths. Put the phone away, be VERY aware of your surroundings, in all of the physical senses. Be Present… if only for 15, 10, or even 5 minutes.

And of course… like and follow Angela Coulter – Conscious Connections on Facebook, and join my Facebook group, the Up-Leveling Community, for more discussion on making and living REAL conscious change.