Forgiveness, Writers Block, and Just Doing The Thing

As a birthday gift for myself I signed up for the DailyOm Course “A Year to Clear What’s Holding You Back.” It give you a quick daily reading to help you clear your mind of negative patterns and get in touch with your higher self. All that good stuff. One of the lessons earlier in the week is really sitting with me. It was called the "4 action steps of clearing." It can be used with any task where you may experience internal resistance. Those action steps are:

Intention

Action

Non-Identification

Compassion

Intention- This is the thing I want to do and why it’s important that it gets done

Action- I am doing the thing

Non-Identification- I observe any negative whiny nonsense that happens in my mind but I don’t attach to it or even label it as whiny nonsense just observe it and keep doing the action

Compassion- I hold love for myself as I power thru something that might be hard. I complete the action and find a sense of peace

So I read this lesson and went about my day. Immediately applied it to chores and doing dishes and continued to apply it while going about my busy day. What I love about these four steps is that it allows me to observe the chatter that’s going on but also acknowledge that chatter as a separate thing rather than getting overwhelmed.

The same day that I encountered these four steps I also read a quote by Richard Rohr about forgiveness that stuck with me-  “to accept reality is to forgive reality for being what it is.” I connected this passage to the non-identification/ compassion steps: when I observe but don’t attach to the chatter and hold compassion for myself I am forgiving myself for the negative thoughts or mistakes I make and work to find that peaceful sense of flow and focus. I also find again and again that when I complete the task the more difficult I had perceived it to be, the more excitement there is at the end.

Now I get super meta about this- as I go thru the task of writing my (mostly) weekly blog I am following these 4 steps:

Intention- I am writing this blog. I have some nifty stuff to say.

Action- Writing the blog

Non-identification- in the back of my mind I notice the voices that create writer’s block building tension. “This is dumb. I don’t want to do this right now. Yada yada yada” I hear y’all but look at me I’m still typing, suckas!

Compassion- I create a peaceful space inside. I am super proud of myself as I write and I also know that I have so much more to grow and that is awesome.

What I’m learning is that the key is to show up. To commit to the intention and the action and let the rest flow. It’s a lesson that I continue to learn. I feel like I lost momentum in my various creative projects and having these four steps helps me to power thru. Funny how building a spiritual practice is...a practice.