EASE ON DOWN...

To shake myself out of some recent doldrums and stagnation, I decided to try a mental exercise: removing obstacles using visual imagery. It was a little disorienting, to start, as I closed my eyes, and found myself in a desert landscape -- not sandy, but craggy, of hard, red stone. Foreign – almost Martian.

I walked through a narrow canyon, and there they were, in front of me. Amorphous. Ruddy brown. Like a cross between moving boxes and boulders. And as I continued, approaching them, unsure how to get them out of my way, somehow, suddenly, they’d moved. To my right. And they’d become transparent, nearly invisible, but I knew they were still there. I could feel them. I strained my eyes trying to see them, see how to destroy them. How do you fight an opponent you can’t see?? But that was the whole point of the exercise, right -- to exorcise them?? 
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I think there may actually have appeared a light bulb over my head.
I’d been so intent on getting fully rid of the obstacles, I hadn't noticed they were no longer in my way. I’d missed the point completely.

Maybe I can’t level every stumbling block on my path, but that doesn’t mean I have to stumble. I can acknowledge my fears and my failings without being ruled by them. Once I finally understood, it seemed so simple. I was a little embarrassed I hadn’t seen it before. Of course, I had seen it before, sort of. We all know this stuff in the fronts of our brains, but learning it in the sub-conscious, seems to be another thing entirely, and it can take some doing. It was a small moment to experience, the whole episode was probably not longer than 10 seconds, actually; but it drastically shifted my perspective. And for now, at least, I’m feeling super empowered by it. Here’s hoping it sticks.