An Unusual New Year’s Resolution: WAIT

Here we are: The time of year that begs us, pleads with us, to set resolutions, goals, intentions for the year ahead. Rolling into January and holding ourselves to new or re-newed vows seem to go hand-in-hand.

I’m writing today to challenge this mindset. To offer that maybe this is not what your approach should be this year.

Now, before I go on, I want to share a disclaimer:
I LOVE intentions. I’m a huge believer in creating space for our desires and dreams. You won’t ever hear me putting down a good visioning session.

And … I also appreciate balance. Some part of me knows – and has experienced – the detriment that can come from always doing, grasping, running, rushing, heading forward and making sure that Things Are Happening.

Hence this topic.

As I was moving through the end of December and the first few days of January, I was spending regular time on my meditation cushion, asking about specifics for the New Year. I started to formulate some focused intentions here and there, but they were feeling contrived. Forced. And even a bit flat.

And that’s when I started to hear an undeniably strong message: Wait….

… for what is meant to come to you of its own accord.

… for what you cannot yet hear.

… for the guidance that can only come from your patience and willingness to not push things.

This all sounds very wise, doesn’t it? I had no problem with the concept. It’s a pretty dazzling one.

But I came to realize that it’s the actual act of waiting that is oftentimes the greatest challenge.

I’m often struck by how much we are built to seek out the “next thing.” To be the ones that manifest endlessly, lest something not manifest itself. Making sure that we preempt any potential inertia or failure to launch by just. doing. something.

And yet we all know where this often leads: Exhaustion. Dejection. Resentment. A feeling that we’re hauling the load all by ourselves.

This is why the practice of Waiting is so incredibly valuable and important.

It is how Spirit gets activated. How the forces outside of us, that are attuned to us, get the signal that we’re willing to not force an agenda, but open to all things that are possible.

It’s a practice that asks us to let go of our doing self and welcome in our trusting self.

To stand in the discomfort of Not Knowing and Not Having All The Answers Right Now and trust that there is a bigger design that is unfolding, if we are just willing to give it a little breathing room.

Now, this doesn’t mean that I’m to remain in a perpetual state of waitingness.

I know, from past experience, that there will be a time when I will receive a suggestion, a nudge, maybe even a shove from the Universe, and it will be time for me to do something. That I will be asked to step forward, out of the state of waiting, and into the realm of Action.

How do we know when that point is? When it’s time to take action?

It’s a feeling. One that we get to know through the act of waiting. As we undertake the work of cultivating patience, we are simultaneously learning the difference between busy-body work and true-calling work.

Because when we slow down and wait, we aren’t just making space to hear what is required of us. We are also teaching the body what it is to stop moving from a place of neurosis or habit.  We are creating an experience of balance between waiting and taking action that starts to become more the norm than the exception to the rule.

Consider this as an approach for the start of your New Year … the discipline of waiting.

Bring your curiosity and openmindedness with you. Let your fear come with you. Just don’t let it take you down.

And don’t be too surprised when powerful insights and unexpectedly valuable gifts start presenting themselves, giving you good reason to go out there and make some things happen.

 

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2 Responses to An Unusual New Year’s Resolution: WAIT

  1. Neal Rohr January 18, 2016 at 10:32 pm #

    More beautiful writing and thoughts

    • Kimberly Jonas January 19, 2016 at 7:48 am #

      Thank you, Neal. Hope that 2016 is starting off well for you!

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