Last post was about Inner Guidance. Now let’s discuss what you do with that guidance.
To begin, let’s explore this question: what is your relationship to your power in this lifetime?
And if your power is expressed through how you choose to focus your time and energy, what are you choosing to focus on? Do you tend to focus on perceived limits and constraints? Like not having enough time, money, or love?
Or do you spend more time and energy focusing on healing, creating, and thriving in this world, as it is, despite or maybe even because of these limitations?
First, a Brief Story About an Evil Li’l Mastermind I Once Knew
I am joking about the evil part, but maybe not about the mastermind part. And the reference to “little” is because this happened when I was in 3rd grade.
As a quick bit of context, I lived a somewhat gypsy-like experience as a child, moving frequently. As such, I found myself in a strange and new school as 3rd grade began.
A few memories stand out from that time. This is one of them.
This school had a rather enthusiastic phsyical education teacher. I recall one of the things we were working on was jumping hurdles. I personally found this to be somewhat terrifying, not being a fan of performing / competing publicly or really doing anything in public, let alone bonking on a hurdle and falling on my face.
So when I overheard one kid telling another the secret to having a great run at the hurdles, I tuned in. Here’s a close approximation to the secret he shared: “as you are jumping over each hurdle, pay close attention to whether you are inhaling or exhaling, you should always be inhaling”.
Shortly thereafter, the recipient of this sage advice went out, armed with “The Secret”, and proceeded to crash on nearly every hurdle. I glanced over at the provider of the secret, who was laughing his little a** off.
Wait, what? This was all on purpose? Seriously? What the heck?
I didn’t understand the mechanics of all of this at the time, but what was clear to me was that this one kid, in his quest for dominance, somehow totally knew how to throw his perceived opponent off his game.
Now, as a healer, coach, and energy worker - it’s all much clearer.
The moment the other kid took in this outer-guidance, and chose to change his focus — to change where his attention would be directed, namely - away from being FULLY in his body and in the moment and more into his head, thinking “am I inhaling or exhaling”… he could no longer do the thing he was envisioning, and could do so easily before.
It was such an ingenious and devious thing to witness! And people wonder why I have trust issues, LOL.
One More Story About Jumping — And Focus
This story happened about a decade or so ago, back when I was going through my training in Integrative Chakra Therapy.
As part of the training, we held weekends where small groups of “healers in training” would do free sessions for the public.
So two or three of us would tune into the client, assess current state, do the work, reassess, etc… and in the end, we would gently sit the client up and do a debrief, sharing what we sensed and what we did.
In this particular case, a young woman entered the room, sat on the table, and didn’t mention much in particular that she wanted help with. So this was definitely a cold type of reading of the energy. Great for training purposes I suppose.
Keep in mind, I knew absolutely nothing about this person. When I got very quiet, showed up and got out of the way, tuning in as I had been trained — what I saw in my mind was imagery of her taking a big leap. It was very clear: I saw her crouching down and taking the biggest jump ever.
So I did the thing I have tried to avoid ever since, I let my imagination try to make sense of things. Surely, I thought to myself, she must be making a big change in her life, taking a big leap… maybe she’s afraid, unsure.
When it came time for the debrief, I tried to explain what I saw, but was focusing on my interpretation of it rather than “the raw data”.
The client looked puzzled.
Quite sure of myself, trying to explain, I finally said something like “well, it looked to me like you are taking a big leap of some kind”.
“Ohhh!”, she said, “I just came from the gym. We were doing a long jump competition today. I wanted to break my previous best distance. And I did!”
Ummm, wow - that’s great! And boy oh boy did I NOT break my previous best… but then again, there is no best or worst when it comes to doing healing work. Not really.
I felt a little embarassed, but it was also not lost on me, even in the moment, that I had a crystal clear image of a very meaningful event in this person’s life. I simply chose to somehow ignore the literal, obvious vision — the data itself, choosing instead to go into imagination.
I made the mistake of trying to make sense of something that was not asking to be made sense of.
It would be difficult to overstate how much I learned from this humbling experience.
Why bring it up here and now?
I share this story as another way to point to our tendency to focus on limitation and constraints. At some level, I felt as if the vision that I had was not enough. I was operating from a place of lack — I don’t have enough meaning here. Surely, it must mean something more than what was shown to me.
I wish I could say this was just a rookie healer mistake, but I still see it happening all around me, even with practitioners that have been practicing for many years.
We are all human, living in this place, and can fall back into these patterns rather easily. So the goal isn’t for me to should all over you, and wag a finger and urge you towards some impossible image of perfection.
Rather, the desire here, my intention is to simply remind and invite us all to remember how our imaginations can get the best of us. To suggest that we give space to the notion that what we see and feel in our hearts is often more than enough, just as it is… that we often have much more at our disposal than we realize. More information, more energy, more opportunity, and more love.
Let’s Talk About Chess for a Minute. Did You Know?
Imagine sitting down to play a game of chess with a friend, and spending all of your time and energy complaining about how “there are only 64 squares on the board, how limiting! Why can't there be more? If only I had more spaces, surely I would be a better chess player.”
And it’s not just the number of space, each and every piece on the board is limited too!
Each piece is constrained in how it can move on the board. Some more than others, but even the queen, which can move in any direction any number of space — even it cannot move on the board the same way that the knight can move.
A common challenge people have even getting started with chess is to learn all of the rules, which are nothing but constraints.
On top of all of these constraints, when people begin to compete - they ADD a whole new constraint, a chess clock!
Despite all of these constraints placed upon this game, a game that has been with us for over 1,500 years, it continues to provide a valuable experience.
In any given chess game, there are 20 possible opening moves.
How many possibilities by the 10th move? That number grows to 169,518,829,100,544,000,000.
Even with all of these rules and constraints, all playing out on a board comprised of a mere 64 squares, it is estimated that there are more possible chess games than the number of atoms in the observable universe.
Now flash back to the idea of sitting there focused on the perceived limits of this game. How silly is that? And yet, how often do we do the exact same thing in our own lives???
Ways That I Have Let My Own Misdirected Focus Get in the Way – and What I Am Doing About It
As I have shared before, as coaches and healers of any kind, we must be willing to take the medicine we are provided. As I am once again reminded of this tendency to focus on limitation, I am called to get honest with myself at the same time.
When it comes to writing here on Substack, for example, I often hold myself back, out of a concern that I am not properly sharing “the whole picture”. I feel a sense of responsibility, a fear that I might state something incorrectly, send someone down a wrong path, or some other imagined crime.
It’s super clear to me now how all of that mental nonsense is really just an excuse to avoid showing up, being in my Power, and simply sharing what I can of my own experiences and observations.
That is all that this is about: Sharing.
What you decide to pick up or ignore is always your choice. And why would I ever want to project onto you any kind of limitation in your ability to make the absolutely perfect choice in each and every instance???
This all speaks to the very name of this substack. Goes Rogue is first and foremost stated in present tense becuase it is now, and ongoing. And the activity at play is one of breaking out of boxes, loops, and unnecessary rules or habits.
The question I am playing with now is this:
How might I choose to (1) be aware of, and experience the pure awareness that is at the still center of, well, everything… and also, at the same time (2) honor the purpose behind my coming into Being in the first place, by showing up fully as THIS person. By playing the game that is here and now, with all of its limitations and constraints, and simply doing my best to channel my true power properly? The power that makes itself available to me, that moves through me? Rather than hand it off to others?
It’s About Us, Not Them
When we focus on limitations and constraints, one of the fascinating things that is born in the imagination is the “THEM” construct. For me, I have had a tendency to focus on the humans that show up in this world to me as being rather parasitic. They take the creativity from others and use it for their own power and control.
I won’t name names, but you might have your own version of this — whether it’s someone in your own personal circle or someone on the world stage — they’re bad news because they appear to WANT your energy, your attention, your creativity, and do not appear to be doing much good with any of it. And in some cases, they are doing outright terrible things. This is how it has appeared to me. And how it still shows up for me at times. This “is the story I am telling myself” as Brené Brown might say.
But why? Why is this the story I am telling myself?
Is this perhaps an easier pill to swallow than to look at the other side of the equation? For one to “take power” there must be another who is willing to give it away.
Is the giver of power a victim? Or, is it possible, or perhaps even likely that in some cases, the giver of power is simply a person who is either ignorant that they have any power in the first place, or is otherwise simply not ready to channel that power themselves?
There is likely no easy or universal answer here. Suffice it to say that the story is more complex and nuanced than a simple good guy / bad guy script.
Why it matters to me is because it helps me better understand my own work, my own goals and intentions.
In other words, it helps me move beyond the blur of trying to do everything, everywhere, all at once - and bring into focus the desire to help others awaken to the power they have within themselves, innately, to shift their own energy into better and betters forms and formats in their own lives.
When I am coming from a place of limitation, I feel like giving up. What good is my work, in the face of so much evil in the world?
Do you see it in action? How focusing on limitation is a form of giving our power away???
The truth (for me) is that for every single person that wakes up to their own personal power, the ripple effect in the game is asymmetrical. For each person that awakens to their power, they begin to affect all of those around them, because when we feel empowered, we recognize the same in others, providing each and every one of them with yet another bridge to make greater contact with the All That Is.
The Ever Unfolding, Unknowable, Game of Experience
What if the game is perfect, as it is?
What would happen if I wake up every day with the clear understanding that it’s not my job to fix anything, to convince anyone of anything. That my job is me. And part of me is showing up for others, to witness their wholeness, to listen, to ask questions, and to always do my best to avoid those same early mistakes: trying to “make sense” of things not calling for sense-making, and going into imagination instead of simply observing the data stream itself, which is already giving me everything that I need.
Is this not more than enough? A true experience of abundance?
To help me move through this and more, I am still loving this question: How Good Can It Get?
Wait, isn’t “good” a part of the duality?
Yes, as is everything around us.
If it helps, just breathe and remember — there is nothing stopping you from BOTH, from tapping into the pure, non-dual endless awareness at the still center of your heart, while also pursuing the Good back here in the space-time game of life.
Power and empowerment is quite the rich exploration! This was a good read, Roger. Thanks for sharing your experience and insights … and for sending me ‘in’ again with new inquiry. 🪷