It is really easy to convince ourselves that we are always directing the activities in our lives. We think that we are in charge. And, yet, we often find ourselves acting against our plans, our choices, our mental outlines for our lives.
Have you ever planned to diet/exercise/be more productive/call a friend, etc., and then found that you didn’t follow through? Was it because you didn’t want to do what you thought or was it because something ‘came up’ and you didn’t get to it?
What do you believe about what ‘comes up’ in your life?
The Director of a stage play is the one who determines how a scene will look, who will stand where when, when and where entrances and exits will occur. The Actors look the way the Director wants them to look, stands where they are told to stand, moves where and when they are told to move.
When you look at your own life, how many times have you intended to go in one direction and something happens to shift that plan?
Of course, many times unforeseen situations arise and we must be in flow, be adaptable. And your unconscious mind can bring those so-called ‘unforeseen situations’ into the scenario for an unconscious reason because your conscious plan conflicts with a belief held at the unconscious level.
I see this in clients all the time. The intention is there. Everything seems to be lined up. And then something happens.
I’ve seen it in my own life. It’s called ‘self-sabotage’ and it doesn’t go away because the conscious mind makes a decision to change things.
On January 1 every year millions of people make New Year’s resolutions and, by February 1, most of those resolutions have been broken. I stopped that dance a long time ago!
It is in your unconscious mind that the programs and habits of a lifetime reside. If you were told as a child that you ‘don’t deserve X, Y or Z’ then your unconscious mind continues to believe that event if you are decades beyond hearing that phrase. If you told yourself when you were a teenager going through puberty and wishing for a date that you were too ugly to be asked out/to ask out that girl you liked, then that inner teenager might still believe that about you even if the mirror in today’s reality doesn’t confirm that truth.
What did you used to believe about yourself, life, the world around you that might be holding you back today? Is it your unconscious mind that is the Director while you and your conscious mind are merely the Actors on the stage?
You can’t just decide to do things differently and have your unconscious mind let go of those old beliefs. They are programs that are running all the time. They are beliefs that trump conscious decisions many times.
The work is to go inside and uncover the programs and reprogram your mind.
Ask yourself if you are really the Director or if there is something unconscious at work today that you would like to reprogram. Then do the work and get the appropriate help to do that reprogramming.
Decide to be the Director AND the Actor in the play of your life!











Blocked? – Richard’s Commentary
June 11, 2014 — RichardIt was a bright, sunny day with low humidity and a light breeze – a lovely June day in Maryland. I stopped at the bank on the way home to get some cash for the farmers’ market the next day. Because it was a sunny, bright day I wore my new “reader sunglasses” – sunglasses with a bifocal area for magnification to aid these aging eyes when reading in bright light. I needed to take them off to see the ATM screen at the bank; I placed them on the handy ledge below the machine.
I was halfway home when I realized I wasn’t wearing my sunglasses – my route is shady and the light less bright. I quick search of my many-pocketed vest – my alternative to carrying a purse – turned up empty. Reverse, dash back to the bank – no sunglasses on the ledge. Inside the bank the teller I know by name is free – “did anyone turn in a pair of sunglasses in the last few minutes?” She looks at other tellers and in their lost-and-found area – “no, sorry.”
I am disappointed – mostly in myself. Why these lapses? And when will I listen to my unconscious mind, my intuition? You see, when I placed my sunglasses on that little ledge under the ATM I had a brief glimpse of forgetting them there – just a flash. And I may even have muttered to myself – “don’t forget your sunglasses there.”
If I listened to that voice my unconscious mind heard “forget your sunglasses there.” The unconscious mind does not process negatives. It only hears and processes positive statements – I learned this in hypnosis and NLP training when I went to a few classes with Rosemary when she was earning her certifications.
So, how am I blocked from listening to my intuition, changing my language used in “self-talk” to make only positive statement and become more fully aware, in every moment, of what is going on within me and all around me? And, what do I do about it?
Here’s what Rosemary writes in her post about this subject:
Be grateful for your unconscious mind. It keeps your heart pumping and your brain functioning and your lungs breathing and a whole lot of other processes operating in your life without your having to consciously make things happen. However, that same unconscious mind is operating in ways that can cause patterns and blocks that you might not know consciously, and might not have chosen if you did know, and you struggle with understanding why you can’t get things done or why you seem to be blocked from your successes.
Yes, that seems true for me and does explain the blockage to becoming fully aware so that sunglasses are not lost. Is there a solution to the blocks; a way to move into full awareness?
Rosemary writes: …if you are reading these words, then you are called to continue forward on your path. Take a step in the direction of your dreams. If you feel blocked, if you stumble, rejoice that you are growing. There are ways to see beyond what is holding you back. There are tools to help you and people to support you in your growth.
Another lesson, another growth opportunity. Is this what my lost sunglasses episode is telling me? Here you can imagine hearing a loud groan!
It was just about a year ago (June 28, 2013, as a matter of fact) that I wrote a similar post here titled “Awareness.” In that post I told the Zen tale of Nan-in and Tenno. The master, Nan-in, asked Tenno when he arrived on a rainy day to which side of the door he had placed his umbrella and clogs on entering Nan-in’s house. Tenno could not answer; he studied at the feet of Nan-in for 10 more years to become fully aware!
I guess this means I have another nine years to go, another nine years of practice and study and “lessons in lost sunglasses”!