What Should I Do?

Right?

This is so common. What should I do? How do I know if something is good for me? How do I know whether I should start exercise even though I'm tired? Or should I eat this or that? Or should I text a particular person, or end communication?

So many ways to make a decision "whether or not," but still it's difficult to know how to make the decision, and what to do. This is a spiritual website and a spirituality-based blog, so you might think that you'll receive advice right now to watch your dreams, listen to your intuition, or draw a tarot card. These are valid forms of inquiry, and I'm not dismissing them. However, unless you're practiced in using spiritual techniques to get your questions answered, you might come away more confused than when you started.

Might I suggest just doing it? 'Just doing it' gets you inside your body, moving your physical body through space, and seeing how that is. Just trying.

Let's say you're really torn from not knowing if you should go to the gym or get out and exercise because you think you might be too tired or worn out and maybe sore--or whatever it is. Just try. Put on the clothes, lace up the shoes, get the keys and head out the door. And, while you are doing all those steps, truly pay attention to the feeling in your body. What we are trying to move from the head (where all those questions are) and into the body, that knows what it is feeling.

And then just noticing. Does your body feel relaxed? Does it feel calm? Does it feel underfed or under slept? Maybe your body is actually feeling kind of excited about exercise and really wants to try that new class or new hiking trail. Maybe your body wants to sit in the bathtub. Or maybe we need tea and a good book. Or maybe just a nap.

If you are debating whether or not to send the text, try writing it out. Say what you really are wanting to say. Then copy it, put it somewhere else on your phone, and wait. Then notice. Your body may experience emotions around this person or issue you were texting about--emotions that wanted to be expressed. And maybe just expressing them is enough. Or, you may look at the text later and discover what you truly wanted to do with it before your head got to worrying about it.

Am I going to have another up of coffee? There is so much wisdom in the moment when you pause, when you are in the midst of deciding, "Am I going to have another cup of coffee?" Pause. Breathe. You might begin to notice things you never realized were going on in that moment.

And that is where it gets real and where you meet yourself. Trying, noticing, pausing in the moment.

Having spent a lot of time watching snails, they seem to be natural teachers of this--trying, noticing, pausing in the moment. Their little bodies stretch slowly out from the shell. Their 'antennae' reach to the sides and the back, feeling their way on the limb or on the rock. They stop. And then they start again, maybe in another direction. Snails are exceptionally slow, yet I think they are much like other animals who might be moving at faster paces. In general, animals are in their bodies, not in their heads (less brain matter than us, lucky buggers). They use their bodies to feel, explore, and determine if something is what or where they want to be.

A slower kind of inquiry sets the stage for even bigger inquiry, bigger stakes. If you try, notice, pause with the little things, it's easier to take risks. You can ask the questions that feel like they really matter because you have started to build a more trusted relationship between your mind and your body.

Should I ask for the promotion? Do I need to have that difficult conversation with my father? Would it be better if I moved out and lived on my own?

After trying, noticing, and pausing, maybe these questions won't seem as big. And after trying this inquiry you will start accessing intuition, spiritual guidance, attunement with energy and all those other spiritual tools you might want to use, because you are learning to connect to the body, release the thinking mind, remain open-minded and non-judgmental, feel into your self-compassion, and trust yourself.