A few weeks ago a friend shared a video on Facebook, Inside Amy Shumer - The Universe - Uncensored. According to Bill Nye, who narrates video, the Universe exists to pass on messages to women in their twenties. The funniest part of the video is how the women interpret the "messages". (Little heads up, there are a couple F bombs in the video)
Silliness aside, the video brings up an important point. Getting information and interpreting it are two very different things.
Although both the video and this post are focused on interpreting guidance, messages from the Universe, intuition and gut feelings, the gap between information and interpretation exists even in our daily interactions. Think about how many times you've heard a friend say something and thought you knew what she meant, only to find out a few days later she was referring to some entirely different?
Most of us have engaged in conversation for as long as we've been able to talk. We regularly exchange words with friends, co workers, family and check out clerks. We have a lot of practice conversing. Given how easy it is to mishear, misinterpret and misunderstand what's communicated in the interactions we've engaged in for years, it's kinda silly to think we aren't missing in similar ways when we interpret guidance and our own gut nudges.
So how do we bridge the gap between information and interpretation? Practice, practice, practice. If there's a shortcut to this one, I haven't found it. You're not going to pick up the subtleties and nuances of Portuguese two months after learning to speak it.
The misses in interpretation seem to fall roughly into six categories:
1. Not asking questions
2. Not catching the story
3. Making assumptions about context
4. Projecting
5. Falling into the right/wrong trap
6. Language mismatch
Not asking questions - When a friend or a boss says something confusing we ask them to clarify what they said, right? Well, some of us do. Some of us allow our fear of looking stupid or feeling vulnerable because we don't already know the answer to stop us.
I've worked with numerous clients who've received guidance they don't understand. Sometimes that guidance is received in the course of our session. Usually the client will begin asking me questions about the information they got. My response is to inquire if they've asked their guides, the Universe or their soul those questions. Most of the time they haven't. It surprises me how often that option doesn't even occur to them.
Whether it's a set of confusing instructions from your boss or guidance that seems to make no sense....ask questions!!!!
What if you don't know who or what you're talking to when you ask questions? Ask anyway. When your computer does something wonky and you call tech support in India, you don't know who is giving you advice on how to fix the problem. You don't have to know who you're talking to in order to ask.
Once you've asked, it's up to you to listen for the answer. Sometimes the answers are immediate. Often they aren't. This is a different sort of conversation than the one you have with a friend over dinner. There is usually more silence. Frequently the answers are whispered or arrive in an unexpected way.
You may not get an answer for days, weeks or even months. The answer might arrive via a dream, an snippet of conversation you overhear in coffee shop or an unexpected opportunity.
Not catching the story - Our brain/ego thrives definitions and explanations. The brain inherently tries to put our experience together in a way that makes logical, linear sense. Something as nebulous as a gut feeling or guidance from an intangible source is a big red flag. Things that can be defined, categorized and explained are safe. Confusing messages from an unknown source are scary and dangerous.
So your brain jumps in to offer an explanation by telling about what happened that lets you turn the "I don't know" experience into something known. This is the same mental process that leaps in to try to make us more comfortable when we're triggered. When we get triggered, the mind and ego jump in to explain by telling us a story that usually has more to do with our wounding and our relationship to the trigger than anything that's happening in the moment.
This storytelling is also a way for your brain/ego to make itself comfortable by discounting or pushing away information that's threatening to your internal status quo.
Sometimes catching the story can be as simple as going back to the moment when you received the guidance or felt the gut nudge and looking at what actually happened. Distinguishing between what information you got and what you told yourself about it allows you stay with "I don't know." Simple, not easy and it takes practice.
Simplified, catching the story is all about asking questions. While this may be a new place to ask questions, the process is no different from using self-questioning as a tool to step back from taking things personally. Next post....assumptions about context and projections.
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