Brigitte and Michael at the Beach
My husband Michael and I recently went to Tampa, FL on business and decided to stay two extra nights at a beach hotel. We just love the beach, so decided “why not?”
We soon came to find out, however, that a sand-castle contest and festival going on right in front of our hotel, so there was not the expected silence Michael loves. Personally I don’t mind it so much, what with the beach and my shopping . . .
On day two a few things happened. One is I picked up the Tampa “Natural Awakening” and read the article from Michael A. Singer, “12 Steps to Spiritual Awakening.” Really good article . . . in it Singer points out to “notice that you’re always try to be okay,” to “watch the mind strive to figure out how everything needs to be for you to be okay” and he invites us to stop trying to make everything o.k. and just accept and be.
Although I’m familiar with the idea, it was wonderful to read. Then the second thing happened immediately. Michael wanted to take the car and discover a new beach . . . about an hour away. I really didn’t want to go anywhere, and we were leaving the next day, so I thought “why go to another beach? Isn’t sand just sand?” …you get the picture.
I remembered Singer’s advice to “just accept” – so I looked at it. I watched when we got lost, then had to find a store to change money to pay the tolls, then….
As you can tell, nothing went easily . . . at least that’s how it looked to me! I actually said to Michael: “this acceptance thing just does not work for me! Maybe it works for other people, but as you can see, not for me.”
When we finally were on our way, we crossed over this incredible beautiful bridge – a piece of art connecting Tampa to other beaches – and ended up in a beach restaurant that had elements of Goa, Bahamas, Hilton Head and Florida all in one. One word came to mind: paradise.
So we sat there and I felt very grateful to have followed Michael on this adventure and grateful for this beauty all around us. Then I pondered my resistance to following pretty much anyone’s ideas but my own. Can you imaging how my life looks like?
Since I’m a Logical Soul® Practitioner and the so-called “mother” of Logical Soul® I courageously said to Michael “can you test me on a few statements, like ‘it’s safe to follow people’s directions’?”
Michael obliged. He is smart, he never “makes me do it” and the short form to my resistance to follow anyone’s ideas went back when I was two years old and my mother had an idea how to potty train me. Well let me just tell you, that I made a decision right there that mirrored my distaste of peoples’ ideas about what’s good for me and what not.
There you have it. Michael’s idea about going to another beach met the resistance of an unhappy two year old. See? One and one does not make two! I had no logical access to why I was so resistant. The access is the important and only thing that makes a difference.
