A Message from My Shower Curtain
Guidance from Unexpected Sources
This week I received two powerful messages that were basically telling me the same thing. One was from a dream and the other was from my shower curtain.
Yes, my shower curtain. No, I don’t have a Harry-Potter-like shower curtain. But, earlier this week when I was having a shower, I peeked at the hem of my otherwise pristine white shower curtain and felt a familiar horror at the mould that had accumulated there. Vibrant purples, blacks. Almost a work of art. But not.
I started down my usual route of not only thinking my shower curtain was disgusting and that I was disgusting for letting it get so bad, but I stopped. This felt familiar. I looked at the mould, realizing, this is how I handle a lot of things in life. I let them get really bad, then beat myself up (which is oh so motivating. not) before I do anything.
Metaphors All Around Us
With the shower curtain, it went something like this. I start to see that it needs to be washed and it starts to take up space in my brain. I push it away, yet every day I see it getting worse. It’s a daily reminder that I look away from, hoping it will get better on its own (when there is no chance of that happening). Until finally, it’s just too bad to ignore, and it becomes a priority, and I wash it. Then, once it has returned to its snowy-white former self, I hang it back up, feeling like a hero. I now see it every day and think how awesome I am. This feels very familiar.
How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything
There’s a saying, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” Where else am I doing this in my life? When I asked myself this question, I realized I do it with pretty much everything. I do it with my health and my workouts. I do it with money. I do it with my hair. I do it with relationships. Pain is my O/S.
Dreams - the Ultimate Metaphors
Enter my dream. I won’t bore you with all the details, but essentially, I was driving my husband’s car. I couldn’t keep my eyes open, but I kept driving. Somehow, I ended up navigating through a city, only to wake up as the car was rolling to a stop at a red light. All I needed to do was put my foot on the brake so I wouldn’t hit the car in front of me, and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t connect from my head to my foot. At the last minute, after agonizingly rolling towards the car, inches before impact, I managed to put my foot on the brake and I stopped the car with an inch to spare.
So, I’m in a safe place, asleep at the wheel, once again waiting to the last minute to do something to avert disaster.
Our lives are talking to us all the time, giving us messages we need. There’s an intelligence at work, if only we can decipher the symbols and the codes.
You Can Use Metaphor Tools Right Now
We can use any object to help us solve a problem. The shower curtain felt familiar to me so I asked myself, how is this like other things in my life. You can do it with anything in front of you.
Think of a problem you’d like an answer to and then find an object in front of you and ask how is the solution like, for example, my TV remote. My problem: I’m finding I don’t have enough time to do the things I want these days, how is the solution like my TV remote? There are a lot of buttons I can push (lots of different things I can change), it’s old and needs to be upgraded (the way I’m managing my time needs an upgrade), the “go right” button is stuck so it’s always an ordeal to go right (I’m avoiding taking the time to fix something and doing workarounds that are time consuming and annoying).
Hmmm. These are resonating with me. Now, I have something to work with. Give it a try! Report back!
Using Dream Analysis
I won’t go into the details of dream analysis, but here is Martha Beck’s article from Oprah Magazine this month. She does a masterful dream analysis for a client and provides a ton of insight. Page 1 and Page 2.
If you have one of those dreams, you know the ones where you think “wtf!!!???”. Ask the questions Martha asks and see if you gain any insights. Or bring them to a coaching session. Often, having someone outside of you, can provide perspective that you can’t see on your own.
Our Minds are Not Enough
We try to solve all our problems with our minds. But, our minds can’t do all the work. You have a whole other side of you that is more creative, more wise, more insightful. Your higher self, your wisdom – it’s there ready to help you decode your life, to help you solve problems.
You just need to notice, access some tools, pay attention. That’s what it takes to receive the deep and profound messages that will guide you out of confusion.
It will feel like you’ve tapped into some sort of magic … because you have.
Book Club News!
The book is out! I’ll have an update next week about when and where. Click the image below to go to a truly inspiring video. Plus get more information about the book and where to get it.
