How to make the answers you seek feel safe

A few years back I went through one of the hardest periods of my life. Definitely in the top 3. Unlike the previous 2 extreme times of challenge I was raw doggin this one, and looking for solutions to my pain that weren't numbing mechanisms.

I started seeing a spiritual teacher and got into some pretty woo shit that really helped. It's amazing how open even the most rigid mind can be when you are broken. So at this point I was ready to do anything to make myself feel better. And the counsel I got was not what I wanted, but exactly what I needed.

Sit every morning facing east.

There were no other instructions.

Ummm (raises hand) excuse me, should I be sitting on something in particular? Is there a period of time that makes it work better? Can I drink coffee?

Sit every morning facing east.

Okay.....

So I started this practice. Every morning I would sit on my sheepskin rug facing east. At the time I lived on top of a big hill that overlooked an incredible mountain range and the sunrises were epic. But I was all but dead inside, so mostly I cried. Some days I would just sit and look at the mountains, some days I would read. Some days I pulled tarot cards. Most days I wrote. Every day I cried.

East is the direction for new beginnings. In our culture, when something is new to us, it is shiny and exciting. All we want to do is pour our attention into it until the shine wears off and soon we forget about it.

But the true beginning of something is often not what we think. It is dark and quiet. It is messy and fragile. It is a spark that could catch fire and slow burn or burn out quickly depending on how we handle it.

Beginnings take time. How long, often unknown. It can be so uncomfortable because the human mind (especially the entrepreneurs mind) wants to create rapid solutions to move through it. But so often, that is not the answer. We want to be to the part where everything is sunshine and rainbows and sometimes new beginning look and feel like death. They are raw and gritty.

But yes, you can have coffee.

This week in Teaching Lab in the Innovation Lab we talked about how emotionally challenging it can be to be an entrepreneur and how lonely that is. We discussed how our personal lives bleed deeply into our ability to stay focused and grow our businesses.

And I was reminded of this period of my life where all I wanted was a solution that would make the discomfort go away. I had put myself in the situation I was in. I was ready for growth. But the path to growth felt vague and muddled. And the only thing I could do was sit and let it unfold, which is the literal opposite of how I work in the world. If a new idea comes up, it's go time. If something new comes into my life, tell me how to do and I will do it.

Which is why sitting and facing east was the most annoying set of directions I have ever received and also the most impactful.

Because it taught me how to start a foundational practice. It taught me how to listen to myself all the way through before jumping into action. It taught me how to be comfortable in stillness and the value of negative space.

This week I wrote a post on social that talks about what I call CEO Mondays. It's essentially the same idea as sitting facing east but on a bigger scale and business focused. It's the practice of creating negative space to let the growth you are trying to cultivate have what it needs to really take hold.

If you try to make a seedling fruit, you are going to be highly disappointed.

I know the internet and biz-fluencers want you to believe there are fast answers and quick solutions to your growth needs, and sometimes there are, but creating the type of growth you really want can take time & space. It can feel like death before the life really starts to show through, which goes against our western ways of thinking. But life is the beginning of death & death is the beginning of life.

And most of the time you have to sit in the discomfort of the unknown before the answers feel safe enough to present themselves to you.

I hope this message brings you a sense of ease. Let yourself sit in the unknown and make space for what's to come, because when it does, you need to be ready.