Lama-Coach-PopStar

To be a member of The Consciousness Collaborative, you need to be excellent at what you do and actively involved in your own personal growth work. Even if I weren't the founder and director of the network, I can't really imagine not walking this talk.

To that end, I have a variety of self-contained practices to support my personal growth, in addition to a wealth of practitioners who provide guidance, feedback, and a nudge as needed. Early last year, I could feel the call for my next stretch. In July, I reconnected with a woman possessing huge presence who struck me as one tough cookie. Generally speaking, individual people don't frighten me. This woman, though, instilled just enough fear in me that I knew she would push my growing edge. Experience has taught me that doing something I'm afraid of manifests growth, so I hired her as my personal coach.

I love her description of this work, "It's like you went to sleep one night and someone moved all of the furniture by only two inches. So, it all looks the same, but it feels different and you keep bumping into stuff and stubbing your toes!"

Without conscious intention, I hired a "Spiritual Coach." I selected her because she scared the pants off me, but it turns out her title is relevant. In the process of tackling different aspects of my life, we kept bumping up against my relationship (or lack thereof) with Spirit...God...Universal Energy...Creator...the Source...I can't seem to land on what to call it, and yet when everything got moved those two inches, this is what I stubbed my toes on.

I've mentioned before that one aspect of What's Next?! Workshop is discovering your unique gifts. Before offering this process publicly, I practiced on myself. I learned to respect and take ownership of the gift that allows me to put puzzle pieces together and anticipate a likely outcome - or in some cases, all possible permutations of outcome. For example, I knew "the spoiler" within the first few minutes of the watching the Sixth Sense. I usually know who-done-it in murder mysteries, and could foresee the events that would follow the 9/11 tragedy. The information drops in without intentional thought; I simply "get it," and my appreciation for this gift is tremendous, since it provided feelings of safety growing up in a chaotic world. The flip side of this talent, though, results in control freakery, and learning to use the gift as a support to me, rather than a defense has been part of my life's work.

How does this relate? My Spiritual Coach believes, in the words of Marianne Williamson, I'm "playing small in the world." Oh good grief! What am I supposed to do with that? I've got my vision board. I'm using my gift of seeing the possible end game for good. I'm working my path. What else is there? "I think you don't even know yet what the possibilities are for you." What? "Like all of us, you're still limited by what you know. It's time for you to be fully open to what you don't yet know." Umm...how exactly? "Ask spirit to show you?" Okay, I'll fess up. I'm not even sure I believe in this spirit stuff. I mean, I know we're all connected and assume there is a greater consciousness. And I do have lots of experiences with my shower ideas, when things drop in and take hold. But, come on, seriously? "Ask spirit" is your answer?

If nothing else, I commit to the homework. I asked the question again and again for a week, and I wasn't coy. "Show me specifically what I'm being called for. Not something vague!" A week went by...I'd had a couple of ideas that I jotted down, but nothing felt like a real answer.

In conversation with my coach, I explained that the shower was always the sure-fire access point, and I had nothin'! "Well, that may not be the only way the information is coming in, boo." Fine. Exasperated and considering looking on eBay for steal-toed boots, we concluded our session.

The next day I popped on Facebook, and at the top of my newsfeed was a post from Supercoach, Michael Neill. I've worked with Michael in the past; he's great. Interestingly, he posted a video interview of one of my favorite musical artists, Jason Mraz. The theme of the post and the video were about creativity and our relationship with the unknown. I'm pretty sure that Jason crawled into my head and picked out a few of my thoughts to share in his interview.

Essentially, the message from both of these men centered on a relationship with Spirit and trusting in that which is "greater than" and manifests through our humanity. Hmm...as I'm writing this, I guess Elizabeth Gilbert tried to tell me this, too. Truly, we can only take in information when we are ready and willing to be with it. As I laughed and cried about the Michael/Jason offering, I accepted the invitation to allow room for the bigger vision. That same night, my husband and I went to a lecture and book signing of his friend, Lama Surya Das. Want to guess the message of the evening? Same story - different station.

With this learning, I offer these thoughts. We are each bestowed this time in humanity. I believe our purpose is to manifest our best self and share that with the world. And yet, how often do we limit what we manifest by the blinders of our own vision and plan? I encourage you to allow yourself to be open to more than what you already know and believe. Lama Surya Das said during his lecture, "Let go...the trick is to let things come and go...see them as they actually are, not what you imagine they should be."

With love and a thirst for the unknown,
Joanne Lutz