Recently, I had one of those amazing AHA moments that can bring me to tears of joy. I had been freaking out a bit, thinking that a friend had misinterpreted a comment I made by text message… I know. I know. Text is a terrible place for sarcasm. Anyway. I entered this tailspin after he didn’t respond, and then I didn’t hear from him for 2 days (unusual in this friendship).
Over the course of two days, I went through anxiety, shame, justification, and sour-grape thoughts. I was ready to write him off when my phone rang. We talked for a few minutes about some things we had discussed doing that weekend, and he mentioned that he had been crazy-busy the last couple of days trying to get everything done so we could leave town early Friday.
That’s when it hit me… all the tail-spinning I had been doing for 48 hrs was based on stuff I was totally making up. None of it was real. I was causing my own suffering through the intricate stories of my mind.
SILLY RIGHT?
A few days later, I had a mentoring session with a patient I’ve worked with for about a year. At the end of our session, I hung up the phone and reflected on our conversation. My thought – “how interesting… the things I just said to her are exactly what I needed to hear.”
[picture my jaw drop]
Wait! Holy shit! The things I just said to her are EXACTLY what I needed to hear! How often does that happen?”
[I flip through patient notes from the last 3 months. I realize it happens all the time.]
EVERYTHING I teach is a lesson I am working through on some level. Every patient I have draws out of me a piece of wisdom applicable in her life, but also applicable in mine.
It is as though the Universe delivers clients, relationships, challenges, life events that are perfectly planned to draw my own wisdom out of me, like a voice whispering from my shoulder – “the answers are already within. Just listen.”