Earlier this year, I closed down my business after 16 years. With one bad decision after another, I finally admitted that it wasn’t a business; it was a prison. I chose entrepreneurship for the promise of freedom and yet, there I was, trapped in stress, brokenness, and brokeness.
In retrospect, my biggest obstacle was thinking I had to balance mind, heart, and Spirit, and I failed dismally doing so.
I convinced myself I was making logical decisions when I was, in fact, allowing my emotions to rule, my fears to dominate, and my unresolved trauma to sabotage. Thinking Spirit didn’t have a place in business, spirituality became a hobby as I played it down while playing small.
After closing down my business, I created room to breathe. I went still enough to hear the guidance I’d been asking for, the guidance that my busy mind and sentimental heart had been blocking for 16 years:
I AM my mind, I AM my heart, and I AM Spirit. These parts of me didn’t need balancing; they needed integration.
So I created this three-step process that helps me gain clarity with my mind, connect with my heart, and check in with Spirit.
1. Gaining clarity with my mind
With logic and reasoning, I begin by creating a list of what’s possible. What are all my options? I don’t need the answers. Like a menu from my favorite coffee shop, I simply need a list from which to choose. Why would I need to know the recipes?
Before, my strategy would be to act on a whim and see how it all worked out. For 16 years—not very well!
2. Connecting to the many possibilities with my heart
With my list of options laid out in front of me, I feel my way through them. One by one, as I imagine each of them done, I ask myself: Does this outcome make me feel warm and fuzzy? If the answer is no, it’s removed from the list.
Trusting my body, the one that makes me feel warmest and fuzziest is an indication to me that my mind and heart are aligned.
3. Checking in with Spirit
In full surrender that I have been placed on this planet for a purpose bigger than what I see, I put it to Spirit: Is this what’s required from me for the next step in my business and in life?
While keeping busy by doing what brings me joy, I watch and wait for the whispers. Sometimes the signs are in my face, perhaps the lyrics in a song or a repeated phrase. Sometimes it’s more subtle. Even the absence of a sign is a signal. But it’s always there, and I am learning to trust it.
Is my business thriving, money overflowing, and clients knocking down my door? No, not yet. But there is peace. There is wisdom. There is freedom.
In true Law of Attraction style, abundance naturally follows, so for now, I have faith, the unyielding kind that moves mountains with a mustard seed.
And I am grateful.
