The lighter way to uncover wisdom

Oh the irony! Two days before the launch of my first Inner Work Summer School and I find myself caught up in the messy and murky world of the ego, having lost sight of the shore and finding myself flailing around trying to stay afloat and regain some sort of balance.

There is no coincidence in the timing of this uncomfortable yet deeply insightful experience and it offers the perfect reminder that wisdom can often show itself with a sense of humour! 

It started as a simple conversation with people I know very well and ended up with me in the bathroom sobbing and wishing I could magic myself away from the situation. The conversation started innocently enough but gradually moved into a realm of contrasting perspectives in which we might as well have been speaking different languages.  I can’t say what it was like for the other people in the conversation but for me, I felt as though I wasn’t being heard, that I was being patronised and that my perspective was being dismissed as having no substance. I am entirely sure that was not their intention but when we get hijacked by our ego, we lose the ability to see things clearly.

What I can see now is that that is a theme which I have come to know over the years. Not feeling heard (or even the perception that I am not being heard) is something which has the power to trigger me and take me to a place of a self-protection and defensiveness in which I become dogmatic and overly principled. Far from helping me find connection and coherence, it leaves me feeling vulnerable, exposed and unworthy.

Irony – a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often wryly amusing as a result.

The ironic part of it all is that the Inner Work Summer School, which was launching just two days later, is all about helping people navigate life with more grace and ease and recognise that the outer world does not create our experience, that it is entirely an inside job.  And yet here I was doing the very opposite of practicing what I preach! 

And this is the reality of life.

We forget and fall into the predictable traps of the ego and its susceptibility to the outside world.

Seeing how life really works and knowing you have the power and capacity to create your own reality, doesn’t make you immune from having your buttons pushed or falling off the wagon of calmness and inner peace every so often!  But it does help you find your way back there more swiftly and with less pain and suffering.

The fact that I could see this situation as ironic is testament to the many years I have been practicing the inner work. It means I am able to see this experience for what it is and find some humour in it. But it hasn’t always been like that and it doesn’t feel any less unpleasant when I find myself in the middle of it. 

The key difference is that rather than making myself wrong for how I felt or my reaction in the moment, I have been able to step back and see, with kindness and humour, my beautiful demonstration of the imperfection of being human!  

So, the Inner Work Summer School has launched and I am sensing that it is as much a journey of discovery and remembering for me to keep reconnecting with my inner wisdom as it is for the participants who signed up to join me. We are on a never-ending quest to create more ease, enjoyment and freedom in our lives and it’s helpful to remember that it is not a destination that we reach but that it’s something we need to keep practicing every day. And every day we uncover a little bit more of our innate wisdom which makes the next stage of the quest that little bit easier.



Where are you missing out on uncovering your own wisdom because you are taking life (and yourself) too seriously? 

What could it be like for you if you were able to see whatever is going on for you from a different perspective?

How would it feel to bring more humour and lightness to your experience?