Why do I feel stuck in life?
Let me answer that with a story…
My tires are spinning as the butt-end of my car dangerously slides back and forth in about 8 inches of heavy, wet snow. I shouldn’t even be out here driving. But I feel like I don’t have any choice. You see, I’m stuck. Literally and figuratively. At any moment, I’m about to be stuck in the snow but I’m also stuck in my job driving for a rideshare company that shall not be named.
And I’m broke. And that makes me feel desperate. Like I have to be out here in the middle of this once in a decade blizzard in Seattle, looking for fares so I can pay my car payment, and get gas, so I can go out and look for fares, so I can pay…you get the idea.
To make matters worse, my passenger in the back seat is criticizing me for how my car is handling in the snow…and I just want to scream all kinds of nasty profanities at him and kick him out into the storm. Of course, I don’t.
Do you know that feeling when you’ve been stuck for so long that you just don’t see any other pathway? But at the same time, you also know that something just has to change?
So I drop my passenger off and I finally get home…safely. I’m still feeling pretty down, but as I look out the window, the snow is still falling, white fluffiness covering the front yard and the branches of the cedar tree in front of the house…and you know…it’s just beautiful. And all that frustration I was feeling while I was out there driving just kind of melts away.
That’s when I realized that I wasn’t stuck in a SITUATION…I was stuck in a WAY OF THINKING. Somewhere along the way I had decided that there were no other options…except maybe to complain about all the different ways I felt stuck. And then I started to laugh because it started to dawn on me that I really did have a whole bunch of choices. I wasn’t stuck…not really.
It’s All About Possibilities
And so I started looking into other possibilities…not just for a job…but for a career…And I started to journal about it, and think about it, and listen to my heart about it. And I now believe…that it was that willingness to be open to something new…that one day out of the blue I was able to hear my partner (now my beautiful wife) tell me about an old friend of hers who taught a hypnotherapy certification course just a few miles from our house. And the rest is history.
So what changed? As I look back on it now, she may have even mentioned that training program before. But because I was stuck in a constricted way of thinking, I just didn’t hear it. So it was really about relaxing into that openness, that willingness to entertain the possibility that there was another way. Another path…that was just right for me. I just had to open my eyes and take a look around, and be curious, and willing to take a few steps towards something I maybe hadn’t thought of before.
Getting Unstuck
What I’d like to suggest today is for you to begin to open your heart, and your mind, to what’s out there…waiting for you. There are all kinds of ways you can do this. But the easiest way is when you’re in a relaxed state…we don’t even have to call it hypnosis…just a state where you can be a little more quiet…a little more spacious.
Just simply close your eyes for a moment. And let yourself breath so that your breathing starts to just be what it wants to be. And notice how that already starts to feel pretty good and pretty relaxing.
Now, and you can do this for as long or short a time as you like, bring your hand to your heart and just let it rest there. Feel the rise and fall of your chest and the beating of your heart. And just be there for a moment. There’s nothing else to do or to strive for. Just allow yourself some time to be with your breathing and your beating heart.
And now…just listen.
