Sometimes the most obvious things of all are hidden right in plain sight. . .

The big question that has perplexed humans forever and probably something many become awareof at certain points in their lives - is how to access that great untapped reservoir of potential inside of us

The answer has a lot to with listening, trusting and following one's intuition, inner-knowing or their "heart" - something that people sometimes do when it's easy, comfortable, convenient but rarely, if ever when it's inconvenient, uncomfortable, challenging or confronting.

What seems to get in the way of someone following what they sense or know what to do are these pesky emotions - fear, anger, sadness, grief, etc - negative and non-neutral emotions which mostly get a bad rap - but notice that these emotions are also an inescapable, unavoidable, and inevitable part of life and a big part of what it is to be human.

We do a pretty good job however with an infinite number of ways of suppressing the negative feelings, distracting ourselves from them, organizing whole lives around NOT FEELING them. For example, you might have the sense to take a risk and start a business but stay in a secure job so as to not have to feel the fear that might come as a result of having a rainy day when you were short on money (so put up with or stay in something knowing there's so much more). Or, you stay in a relationship not saying what you'd desperately love to say of what's really there inside you, terrified that if you did, you might have to face certain feelings that could potentially come with breaking up, getting a divorce, having to be single with the thought "would anyone ever love me" and so on.

We have whole industries and economies and a whole healing paradigm that's not about feeling but rather about suppressing, distracting, and avoiding certain feelings.

Notice even how coaching is about helping people to not feel. . .for example - relationship coaching or counselling with the emphasis on giving people strategies to "stay together" versus communicate everything there is to communicate (at the risk of bringing the fear of possibly breaking up the relationship even if both people were really freed up in life beyond that), money coaching to make a ton of money so as to never ever have the feelings of having a rainy day versus helping someone go and do what they would really love to be doing even if that brought up all their fears around money and survival, health coaching which more often is about getting relief from physical symptoms versus making shifts and changes in diet and exercise which would bring up uncomfortable feelings, and on and on.

But notice how despite our best attempts to not feel them - the emotions keep on having a way of coming back over and over again . . .have you ever considered that might be that way because it's actually part of the design?

Consider that these emotions were already in you right from the day you were born when you came into this world. I know it looks like "external" circumstances are the cause of them - i.e. "I'm angry because of what he or she said or did" or "I'm afraid of X happening (some external circumstance)" and so on . . .I know it really really looks like that.

So we go about trying to fix or change or rearrange external circumstances OUTSIDE of us. . .trying to control, manage, rearrange external things, people, etc. (rarely if ever with the thought the real issue is actually about something inside us from long ago) - all in an exhausting attempt to not feel certain things. But maybe, if you just had the feelings and "processed out" the negative and non-neutral things, you wouldn't be perturbed by stuff on the outside and all that energy, time and money, trying to fix, control and change, rearrange - all of it could be refocused in a completely different direction.

Consider that the world is just doing what it's doing, people are just doing what they're doing, and so on. . .and it's actually all an opportunity. . .

Maybe - the external things (world events, what people are doing, etc etc) are there to "trigger" those emotions already in us so we can see ourselves more clearly and "feel" and "process out" the negative and "non-neutral" emotions - to be left in a more loving, balanced, peaceful, compassionate state with a lot more clarity and freedom in life.

My daughter in the first few weeks of life, used to laugh and giggle uncontrollably in her sleep. . .how could that be possible when she didn't even have language yet? Maybe because she already had the emotion in her. Similarly, she used to get angry prior to having language. . .and it wasn't something that she learned from me or her mom. . .

This is a monumental paradigm shift to contemplate. . .that there is nothing really wrong with negative and non-neutral emotions (i.e. anger, fear, sadness, grief) . . .that they are a normal and natural part of being alive - and they are actually there to be felt. . .

If you can feel them, there can be all the freedom in the world on the other side to follow your deeper intuition and whatever you really feel called to be doing in this world and literally have miracles happen in your life.

I went to an event years ago that was very different from any course or program or workshop I'd ever been to. I used to come to events with the intention of learning something new - all the events, courses, ceremonies, shamanistic events, counselling, healing work or workshops I'd been to prior to that had been places to come and learn something or to heal from something that I thought was wrong with me. . .and there was something that needed to be fixed. However, at this event I discovered that I had all the answers inside me and there was nothing really to learn and there was nothing wrong with me. . .it was really about listening to the answers, trusting and following them. The only issues I had in life were when I wasn't listening, trusting and following my intuition.

The event was also all about "feeling". There was nothing to learn, nothing to heal, nothing to fix, nothing to change, no spiritual or religious dogma, no counselling, no psychotherapy, no one trying to save you from feeling something horrible or terrible, no one coaching or telling you what you should or shouldn't do. Rather, it was an unconditionally loving space where someone could share and get heard, without any judgment and just given the space to feel everything - and stuff they'd never ever been able to feel their entire life. . .truly a very rare gift.

Anyhow, a community eventually started up where we did weekends like this for many years. . .and what we found was truly remarkable. . .that people could have more happen for them and more movement in their life from feeling something even in one weekend than they often could with decades of counselling, psychology, psychotherapy work, workshops, programs, courses, and so on.

This might sound really unpopular . .after all. . .who in their right mind would want to go do a weekend event to have the feelings you've spent your whole life and organized all of life around not feeling. . .maybe only the very few who can hear and actually have a flash that there might be something really remarkable here to explore. Perhaps those who felt "pulled" to do it this lifetime. I've come to see that maybe all the really really profound growth happens from feeling the full range of emotions and that perhaps this is really the only game in town at the end of the day.

Despite COVID, we've started doing these groups again . . .it's not organization and there's nothing to join, nowhere to get, just stuff to feel. . .we have a couple of events coming up on the West Coast of Canada this spring (next weekend and in March), then potentially some events on the west coast of the States after that. . .just putting the word out and always curious to see if any of this resonates with people. . .of course it's going to bring up everything for anyone seriously looking at it - and that's actually the design!

Question is - how bad do you want to have a life totally freed up to follow your heart and intuition and what are you willing to do for that? The reality is - once you've felt through something and "processed out" the negative and non-neutral emotions - there's whole unimaginable worlds of possibility that open up on the other side. . .things that previously looked utterly impossible come possible and I could share tons of stories of miracles people had around this.

I believe life coaching in its purest form is about that as well. . .listening fully and just giving people the space to just have their feelings and not judge. It's an art form to do this really well and I found it takes years to get really good at being this sort of coach for people. . .so as not to get triggered by anything anyone has to say, not fixing, or judging and giving someone the space to be and feel so they can listen, trust and follow their intuition. it's a really big paradigm shift and extremely few coaches out there doing this sort of work in the world. By the way . . . life works out better than you could ever imagine when doing this. . .