When the doors of perception are cleansed, man will see things as they truly are: INFINITE ~William Blake

This words come from a true alchemist. He understands that our  personal alchemy, our inner magic, can be reached and tapped into when we clear out the years and layers of “stuff” that has been piled on top of it and has buried it from our sight. So today I offer a powerful tool to help you to begin to clear away some of those layers.

The technique I am going to share with you is based on the teaching of Julia Cameron from her fabulous book “The Artist’s Way”.  She created a very powerful technique that she calls “Morning Pages”.  The “Morning Pages” are a way to clear out our minds; the thoughts that are just floating there; the emotions that are just waiting to be expressed. I have come to think of them as “Anytime Pages” because I use her technique any time of the day. The principle is to use stream-of-consciousness writing and pen out, without pausing, three pages in long hand. Just write whatever comes to your mind. WHATEVER! Know that no one will be reading these pages and that you are free and safe to write whatever comes up for you. I use them in the morning, but also any time of day that I feel a sense of overwhelm in my brain or when I feel myself not present in the moment because my mind is flooded with thoughts or emotions that  are taking me out of the now. If done on a daily basis, you will begin to feel lighter and clearer. I feel a difference after one sitting. You will begin to feel more connected to the Source of all Magic. It is truly magical!

I will warn you that there may be mornings or days that your inner mind chatter will tell you that you don’t need to write anything. It will tell you that you are wasting your time or you will suddenly feel the urge to do ANYTHING but write.  But when you push through that fighting ego and just do it, the rewards will  be immense!

As the layers are slowly cleared away, you will begin to feel you inner magician awaken and come to life–just like magic!

A few days ago something came along that woke me up more than ever before to this realization. I heard a song that I hadn’t heard in years which brought me to tears. It also brought my ego voice to its knees and a new perspective rose in its place. Now every time that voice tries to get up from its knees, I will think of this song and laugh at it as I work on living my life in a whole new way…

As you check out Tim McGraw, listen carefully to his lyrics, take them to heart, and… Live Like You Were Dying…

Did you know that we are all innately great multitaskers? It certainly is apparent to me, as I can be feeding my dogs, listening to the radio, talking to a friend, and while all this is  going on, I can be listening to and hearing clearly that little voice in my head telling me all kinds of stuff.  Yeah, you know about that “stuff”.

It’s really a game ya know. But who’s gonna win? Unfortunately, some of us are not into this competition and just roll over and allow the onslaught. I seem to have an unending fascination with this topic as seen in my  January 4th post, but bear with me as I feel this is truly a topic worth exploring!

So what is that little voice really all about? What the heck is that bully up to? You see, it really thinks it is trying to protect us; to keep us safe. And it, being the ego,  is trying to protect itself too. Quite the dichotomy.

So I’ll be bold here and share with you one of the things my little voice really enjoys trying to do with me (I am guessing that it enjoys it because sometimes it can do it so well…).  It so often tricks me into playing small and into not seeing my greatness by telling me how much better everyone else is, how I just can’t do it, and how I will surely fail. What a mouthful!

And when and where did all those thoughts of smallness and incompetence originate? I love that question. I have my theories, some more esoteric than others, but the bottom line is that the voices are a present factor and need to be dealt with, or I will become a six foot tall woman playing life as if I were six inches tall. And I have decided that that is just not a road I will traverse.

As I said, who knows the origin of these less than positive thoughts. But one thing is very clear. They  can be an ongoing block to our connecting with our greatness. Our inner landscape can at times be more treacherous than anything we see in our external landscape. What continues to make it even more interesting is all of the lovely emotions that seem to partner up with the voice.  So what’s a person to do?

Well, below I share with you a couple of little tricks I have discovered in dealing with my not-so-friendly-friend in my head. Perhaps one or two may resonate with you or perhaps you can share your own techniques. Each one is a different approach and some may be more powerful for you than others.

1. So let’s say the bully just  teased you with, “Forget that! You could NEVER do that!” Close your eyes, take three or four deep breaths, and fully hear that statement. Recognize it. Acknowledge it.  Then label it. Perhaps you could call it something as simple as FEAR  or INSECURITY. Whatever label works best for you. The minute you label it, it becomes something outside of yourself and looses its charge. Acknowledge it again and accept it by saying, “I accept that I have this fear”.  Accepting it helps it dissolve as you are no longer pushing it away as resistance can make it grow. Take the time to honor it.  Recognize and acknowledge the feelings that are coming up too. They too can be diffused in this way as well.
2. Be polite to the voice but firm and simply say, “Thank you for sharing”. You are the boss anyway, right? (I must give a nod to T. Harv Eker for that one)
3. Perhaps the bully’s words are indeed signaling to you that there is something deeper going on. So take a pen and paper in hand and write out the words it gave you. Then just do some free association writing. This will get all of that “stuff” out of your head so you can now go forward with a clear focus.
4. Play a game with the silly statement the bully flung out at you. Use affirmations to put it out of its misery. First think of the opposite of what it told you. For example, if it told you , “You are a failure”, the contrary could be “I am a success”. Take out your trusty pen and paper again and make two columns. In the left-hand column write out the positive affirmation of “I am a success”. In the right-hand column write what is still coming up for you contrary to that. Perhaps what comes up from hearing the positive is a denial of it and looks like, “No! I can’t do anything right!” and you put that in the right-hand column. But just keep on writing out your positive statement in the left hand column until you no longer hear a negative response and no longer need to write anything in the right-hand column. Once you have neutralized the enemy, you can just continue penning out the positive. You win!
5. Hold the thought that anything that comes into your mind that is negative and does not speak to the Truth of You and your greatness is simply a lie. Choose in that moment to not believe it since it is a lie, and focus on the positive and what is the Truth.
6. When all else fails, just do what a very dear friend of mine does. Just stand up to that bully voice and its nasty little words and say, “JUST SHUT UP!!!!”

No matter how we deal with that voice, the bottom line is that we must find a way to not allow it to shroud the beauty and the power that is us, our True Selves. We are all destined for greatness. We are all designed for greatness. It’s just that our inner voices have their own agenda…

I looked at my measly pile of chips.  An odd sight as I was used to seeing  large chunks of change.  I looked at my cards and thought to myself, “Nope. Can’t do it”, and I folded. My brother dealt the next hand. My prospects dimmed as my pile continued to shrink.  I looked at my melting chip pile.  I looked at my cards.  “Nope. Can’t do it”  and folded again.

For some reason in that moment I became aware of the biting little voice inside my head. It was saying, “No! Hold onto what you have! Don’t be stupid! Don’t bet any more! You are close to having NOTHING! You will have NOTHING SOON!”  In retrospect I saw that the din of the vicious bully ego voice was drowning out the sweet, compassionate  tones of my intuition; my connection to my inner knowing.  That voice was telling me, “You have a great chance of being a winner this time! Go for it! It is safe!”  But in that moment, the bully won and I folded  (It turned out that if I had trusted and stuck in the game, I would have won the whole pot!).

My Mom dealt the next hand. Then, in a strangely timed moment of incredible awareness, I immediately saw the parallel to my everyday life and how I approach my issues surrounding my abundance with the same trepidation. The bully will say, “Hey! Hold onto all you’ve got! You don’t have enough! Don’t do it! You will end up with NOTHING!”  And the melodious voice of my intuition will gently whisper,  “It  will all be okay. You will be taken care of. You are safe. TRUST!”  So right then and there I saw how I could make a different choice, and I dared the bully to take me out again with its lies.  But this time it folded and I, the Inner True Me, won!

Trust. Trust. Trust.  Today I choose to fully trust.  Neat mantra, eh?

Just goes to show that our lessons are lying in wait for us everywhere.  Even under a poker chip.