Insight Into Indecision

I want to share something I practice sometimes when I am undecided about a choice. There are lots of times in life when we find ourselves stuck on indecision. Some choices in life are more significant than others, but my tip will work regardless of whether you are choosing where to dine out or where to live. When faced with a decision, we get in our head to analyze. When we hit the wall of indecision, though, we need to then get out of the head. 

What do I mean by get out of your head? Well, first we need to take a step back to see a  bigger perspective.  Let’s remember who you really are. You are an eternal spirit soul. Who you are is not material, you are not your body. Your body is like the vehicle you are hooked into for living a life on Earth. You have other layers besides the physical body for managing and maintaining your soul’s performance in the material realms. You have a mind for sensing and processing, reviewing and planning. It is a tool for you to use; it is not meant to use and control you. When the mind becomes over active it can impede our progress.

Indecision, therefore, is a problem created by the mind. Often we can see and understand different perspectives, both pros and cons of a situation so logic doesn’t always win you a solution. We remember the voices and opinions of others weighing in, influencing our own thoughts. Sometimes our mental capacity for decision making is tapped out from overwhelm, stress, health issues, brain fog, etc and even simple decisions can’t be made. The mind can be helpful at first to map out a reasonable or predictable outcome for our choices. The mind is also great for imagining what we hope the best case scenario would be. On the other hand, the mind is also responsible for the worry and doubt that creep in to contaminate and blur both our real and imagined perspectives. It can be difficult to decipher between the voice of our true eternal higher self and the voice of our mental chatter. So we need to move out of the head.

Did you know the body naturally and automatically reacts to the thoughts in our head? When we experience stress and overwhelm, the nervous system has an automatic response in the body which we call fight or flight or also the stress response. Even low grade stress and habitual negative thoughts, if sustained over a longer period of time, can create chronic health issues as a result of the body’s response. We also have the opposite effect when we practice affirmations and stress reduction techniques to turn on the parasympathetic system or relaxation response. The body itself is designed to connect with our soul and act as a navigation system. It responds to both external stimuli and internal stimuli. The key take away from understanding this mind-body relationship is that we can use it to our advantage. We can use the mind correctly as a tool to consciously think and visualize something and bring awareness to the body to sense its reaction. 

Let’s try a couple of examples. Close your eyes and imagine spiders or cockroaches crawling all over your body, infesting your bed as you sleep. What is happening in your body as you imagine this creepy scenario? It’s not really happening but I bet your body is reacting to some extent. Maybe you feel your body tense up, your shoulders draw upward and inward, maybe you notice your breath getting shallow and tight, your overall energy is contracting. Notice how your gut reacts; is it rising up, sinking down, tightening? There is no right or wrong here, you are simply observing and feeling the visceral sensations in response to your thoughts. Now let’s imagine something completely different. Visualize yourself receiving a coveted award for being the best at what you love to do. Observe the sensations within your body. How is it different from the last undesirable scenario? Is there a feeling of being weightless, can you feel energy expanding within you anywhere? Do you want to take a deep breath, do you want to smile? Play around with opposite scenarios that might work better for you, in order to better sense how your body feels in response to desirable versus undesirable situations. The more you try this, the more sensitive you will become to reading your body’s subtle cues.

This exercise works well for yes or no questions or comparing between two choices. In practice, for a yes or no question you simply ask the question internally. Focus on the question. Adding a visualization of it in your mind’s eye may also help to keep your mind one pointed. If you feel an expansion of energy in all or any direction, a lightness or spark of joy, then this indicates a yes. Feelings of contraction, a pulling down in the pit of your gut, cringe or tension, then this would indicate a no response. For a decision between two different choices, then do the exercise twice, once for each scenario and compare your observations; whichever the body feels a stronger yes response for is the preferred choice.

The following are some tips for sensing the body’s subtle sensations. First, and in the beginning,  sit or lie down in a quiet space without distraction. Sit comfortably in a neutral position so your body is not tensed anywhere. Try to get relaxed with some deep cleansing breaths. Try not to have expectations on what you think the body will do or how it will respond. Try not to be attached to a response you hope to get.  To notice the subtleties of the body it really does help to have a clear mind. You want to be a non judgemental witness to your body’s experience. Over time, the more you practice, the more sensitive you become and the easier it will be to do it anywhere and anytime.

The body is naturally always in motion between expansion and contraction, even at rest. I first learned this during my years studying healing arts. When I first started studying cranio-sacral therapy I struggled at first with sensing the subtlety of feeling the cranio- sacral flow which moves the body through a contraction/expansion cycle. In fact,  knew that course was going to be an important one for me, so I decided to postpone it for when I was better able to focus and prioritize the concepts. That course ended up being most crucial to my development as a healer and understanding of the connection between energy and matter. I became adept at practicing, and over time felt more and more drawn to focusing solely on the energy body because of it’s deeper fundamental role in our health and wellness. What I know is that anyone can do this, it takes practice of getting into a steady headspace and familiarizing yourself with how your body feels and moves at rest and in response to your conscious thoughts.

We struggle with choice because we want to make the best decision for ourselves. What we think is the best decision, though, may not actually be what is in our best interest. What we want is not always what we need, right? Our minds can play tricks on us. So we have to be honest about what we actually experience for this exercise. Trust yourself and trust your body signals. I would venture the proposition that the body is more trustworthy than our mind. What do you think? 

If you still find yourself struggling with life’s choices and in need of some more clarity and guidance, send me a message to find out how I can help you. I’d love to be of service!