19. Go Where You Are Led
EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Life is made up of common and inspired moments. Today I discuss how the thought that creates either the ordinary or the inspired comes from the same place—yet thoughts have different resonances of inspiration.
Episode theme song ‘Be Still the Earth’ by Tankestrøm
TRANSCRIPT
Hey, welcome back, on whatever day you're listening to this. I'm here on Thursday, December 1st as a matter of fact. Happy December—the month of immense holidays.
Can you believe that 2022 is coming to an end?
Okay. Well—follow through. That's what we're going be talking about today— follow through.
This concept dawned on me when I was meditating the other day, and I asked God, the Universe, to show me what I'm supposed to do next. And the thing that came through was something extremely unexpected.
Now, I haven't thought about this person in way too long, but the message that came through when I asked that question and got quiet and listened was Contact Cheri. And I was like, “What?”
Now, this is a friend of mine, she and her husband and kids—we became close back in the day, in the early days of my moving to Austin in the early nineties.
We've been good friends, but I have not, like many of my friends I love, I haven't talked to her in a while, so this was a very unexpected prompt from the Universe, and so I was like, “Okay.”
So I make a little sticky note to myself. I put it on my desk and I keep looking at it for three days and I don't do anything.
And so finally I do another meditation and I ask “What's next?” And I don't ask what's next every day, although I think I'm going to start.
Something different came through and I was like, “Oh shit. I haven't reached out to Cheri yet.”
So I did it. I texted her and it was so lovely. I started to think about this as I was walking, doing my daily walk yesterday.
How simple follow-through on something can make all the difference. Now, like many of the things I bring forth in my mind, this is probably a pretty obvious concept to most, but I express it because these common things or ideas are like, well, duh, but they ripple into other things for me, and I think that's another beautiful thing about thought.
Because it's transient. It moves in and then it moves out. Unless we grip it and hang onto it and give it meaning that is, and then it leads to something else. It leads to other things. It gets out of the way That thought gets out of the way for us to move on to other things. And that's kind of a beautiful thing.
And so the other thing about thought reaching out to Cheri brought out how critical follow-up is. And then the thought after that was the piece I thought was absolutely, at the time, seemingly mind-bending for me. And that is how the simple act of follow-through with the intention of knowing it was inspired from somewhere far greater than just my little pee brain mind.
And listen, I'm not talking about to-do list follow through where I've gotta get all these things done. I'm talking about having inspiration from the Universe, a push in another direction, a push to do something that came out of seemingly nowhere. Like the thought of me getting in contact with Cheri.
That was seemingly out of nowhere. That voice came from somewhere that was not in the front of my mind. So if we follow through with that, there's a magical component to it. It's different than, “All right, I gotta do this. I gotta create this, I gotta do that invoice and send it. Those are to-do list things. Well, you know, you gotta do that.
So just do those. And I say this with crassness, but I'm just as bad about following up on that kind of stuff. You know, the old dreaded paperwork.
Back to the magical piece of follow-through. Follow through on something that is inspired, that's a whole different ballgame. It's not just a random thought of, “Oh, I need to take out the trash.”
Of course, those are things we need to do, and those thoughts come in. Those thoughts go. But I'm talking about thoughts and following through on thoughts that are divinely inspired or whatever you want to call it, coming from the Creative Source of All Things, coming from a Higher Self or from that place where—The Void of Nothingness that some people would call it.
I think of those kinds of thoughts from Creative Source, Creative Intelligence, that we're all connected to—those are the seeds of magical inspiration. Those are the things that set the most creative and the most miraculous and the most magical things into motion. It’s like our heart, our soul, our connection to Source knows when an idea or a task or command is truly inspired.
And this one thing during a meditation, when all else has fallen away, I ask a simple question of “What's next to do?” And this thing comes through both times. I'm just, I'm talking about the other time, wasn't to contact a human being. It was actually to write something that was equally fascinating. Because once I got it down, it blew open my mind to a whole other thing where a course was born. Something that is coming into form.
Something started to form because I took a moment, I asked a question, I sat and I listened. And what came through was a thought that was inspired. It was a thought that came from the same place all thought comes from, but that had an element of almost conversational. Like I ask a question, I get an answer, and…
Of course, I have people say to me, “Well, your mind just went there.”
Well, okay, if you look at the construct of Mind, Consciousness, and Thought, I would say yes. It did just go there. There was nothing that preempted that thought coming. I didn't follow it up for three days. I didn't call Cheri, I didn't text her. I never even, looked at that damn sticky note over and over again.
I was like, “Oh, I gotta do that.” I would walk away, and go do something else. But then when I finally did it—and I have no idea if I had done it Monday when I actually heard it come through— it could have been a whole other thing. I don't know. But it did, when I finally followed through with it, create a ripple effect of reconnection.
And it also got me thinking about this.
When we follow through on something that is inspired, magic happens. Watch it.
Again. I want to be really clear. This is a distinction between a to-do list and something that comes to you where you know, this is something, it's actually rooting and it's like, “Whoa.”
Okay. Yes, to the point I'm trying to make—it is simply thought. I could have let that go and my, I wouldn't have died. I wouldn't, my life wouldn't have gone to pieces. But something happened when I did follow through. And every moment from then on when I've been able to follow through on something that came to me that felt inspired, really incredible things happen.
And remember, as I've discussed before, we decide what lands. We decide, what is inspiration. We decide how much weight we give something, how much meaning we give a thought. And we know when that thought is inspired, is something bigger than a to-do list. We know when something needs to have follow-through.
This is where the shift is.
This is the difference between a to-do list item and something that comes through that we go, “Ah, I'm supposed to do something with this.”
The second you move forward on following a passion or somewhere you're being led, if you will, magical and wonderful things will happen.
So just try it.
Sit quietly, let all thought go away, or let it come in, whatever.
Try to get quiet in your mind and then just stay in that space for a while, even if you have to play ambient music in the background…
...and then ask the question o Source, God, the Universe, Existence, Divine Nothingness, whatever you want to call it.
See what comes through and then follow through with that.
And I guarantee you that kind of follow-through will inspire you to do more follow-through on other things that inspire you.
New thought will always come through and inspire us.
It's always there for the taking. From a source, from a well of inspiration, from a Creativity that we are all a part of, a Divine Intelligence that is limitless.
I'll see you tomorrow.
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The podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jenée Arthur.
Cover art by Jenée Arthur
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