REPHRASING “STUCK”-A Modern Day Parable
Imagine your goal-based vehicle slamming to a stop. Five or six unknown figures stand directly in your path. Assessing escape routes, you realize that you can neither move forward nor back.
“&%^$#@! NO TIME for such nonsense! Not today.
There’s a to-do list pinging commands from your latest productivity app. A nail-biting meeting scheduled the first moment you step through your workplace door. And a crushing feeling that your promise to find “down-time” is careening toward the back burner….AGAIN.
Of course you don’t want to mow down the strange crowd before you. So you honk. But they stand immobile. You yell. But they simply radiate smiles above orange robes and sandaled feet.
Finally you get out of the car. Highly miffed. And they begin to explain…they are here because you called.
“I’M STUCK….AGAIN!”
Spy drones? Phone tapping?
How did they know?
Yet, they look so kind and serene, that you find yourself drifting into the circle of highway hijackers. All ears.
And then you notice…their attention is on an elegant, but very worn book. Ah, here must be the keys to life! A quick glance at splayed pages has you wondering….
Maybe this is the day that you will finally find the wisdom to move forward with your crowning achievement in life. The one that you’ve been imagining for so long. The one that lifts you off of your pillow with sunrise hope each morning. Yet transforms into vapor by noon.
Discomforted by their silence and your looming schedule, you blurt, “Does this book have the answers, or not?”
Your guides chuckle. “No….no answers. Only a question.”
“Questions! I’ve already got more questions than I need. I thought you were here to help me. I’m out of here.”
But…just in case there is some truth to the zen-men’s wise personification, you add…
“Would you kindly move so I can get on with my day?”
As you leap into your vehicle, a low toned emanation drifts from your air conditioning vent. Indistinct at first, but becoming clearer as you attend to the sound. Hmmm…..somewhat like a chant? More akin to wind than words, but you hear it all the same.
What if your purpose is simply the process? If that was true…then you couldn’t get it wrong.
“The process? But if I don’t have goals and action plans and a sheer determination to achieve…I’ll…I’ll…um..er…I don’t know. I guess I would be perpetually stuck in sameness.”
A pit hollows in your stomach. A snatch of unknown fear curls into your sternum, squeezing your breath into weakened thread-like gasps. It’s all true. Life has conspired to keep you in a Groundhog Day type loop. Living the same scenario day after day.
Striving, but never arriving.
Just as soon as the wind is knocked out of your achievement oriented sails, a new whisper arrives. A tiny opening in your terror stricken chest. A glint of empty space that feels…..almost…. comforting. Like a lazy day hike in the Sierras. Or the whiz of a hummingbird streaking past your ear. Interruptive of your precious time, to be sure…and yet..delightful.
A mental reset button.
Gazing through an insect spotted windshield, you ready your trajectory away from this odd morning detour.
Wh…a…t?
Not an orange robe in sight. But there’s a Post-it note directly before your eyes, flapping a Webster-like definition in the final breath of your guide’s chant.
I’m Stuck: 1)Neither a quitter’s final words, nor a victim’s pathetic monologue. 2)Just a loving request for permission to pull aside from the super highway of your dreams. 3)And remember that THIS MOMENT is alive, free, and full of wisdom.
Speed creates an illusion of invincibility. We hurry through our days numbing ourselves to the deeper flow of our lives. We feel shallow and push ourselves to live harder when what we need is to live more deeply and quietly.
Julia Cameron, Walking in This World
So the only question left is, what tools will you use to pull yourself back into the present? And away from the kind of future-facing-fear that makes your passion feel like more of a drudge than a delight.
One of my favorite tools is an art journal. You say you aren’t into cutesy art? I’m not either. But there is a very good reason to employ what I refer to as creative disruption when the going gets tough. Because doing the opposite of striving is the most effective way of breaking the habit of overthinking.
“Play means to me freedom — freedom from fears. It is an expression of the dignity of the soul, enslaved in no bondage of justification.”
Marion Milner, A Life of One’s Own
Processing life artistically and visually allows me to playfully bypass my thinking mind and open the door to a deeper understanding of self. Which always leads to the kind of clarity I need to tackle my TO DO list in a calm and productive manner.
If you would like to see some examples of Creative Disruption, stop by my website, unstuckeveryday.com. In addition to visual reflection prompts, you can also find a tool box full of written journal prompts. Added weekly, in direct connection to blog post topics. And…..free.
