“You must train your intuition – you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide.”
(Ingrid Bergman)
I was driving along in some traffic recently, absently humming along with a tune on the radio, when I came across a series of pedestrian crossings with traffic lights. The thought occurred to me (as I cheerfully got to a particularly good bit of the song) that traffic lights are a hugely recognised form of communicating their desired message.
When I’m working with an individual or group, at a very basic level, the answer is often a mix of starting something new, continuing what they are already doing or stopping something.
This week I invite you to play with that concept and to make use of the traffic light signals to access your own inner judgement.
- Pick something that you are happy playing with to get more insight, more ideas and/or generally get unstuck.
- If you were going to start doing something in this area what could you do?
- If you were going to continue doing something that makes a positive difference in this area what would that be?
- If you were going to stop something connected with this area what would that be?
- Imagine that you are going to take 4 different road journeys, all with the same starting point but along different routes.
- The first one is one that represents what you could start doing. As you imagine travelling along this road and this route notice what that journey is like. The length of this route is as long as it is, and while travelling you may observe the scenery, the condition of the road, who’s driving, the weather and the state of where this route ends.
- Take as long as you need to fully experience that journey. When you get to the end, imagine returning to your starting point. You’ll find that at the start of that road route a set of traffic lights has appeared. Just notice if they are at red, amber or green.
- Now, we’re going to travel along the second route, this road journey represents what you can continue doing. Again pay attention to what this particular journey is like and where it finishes.
- Once you have reached your destination, as if by magic, you’ll find that you are back at the starting point and there is another set of traffic lights for the road just travelled. Are these ones on red, green or amber?
- Imagine taking the third option, the one that represents what you could stop doing and as you’ll probably have already have guessed you notice the journey and the destination as you travel along.
- When you have finished that route and you’re ready, you’ll find yourself back at that same starting point with another set of traffic lights that has appeared for the third route. Again notice if these ones are red, green or amber.
- The forth and final route represents an option you have not yet considered. As you travel along this route, there may or may not be clues about what this route actually represents. If there is not, it’s not important at this stage – just carry on noticing what there is to be aware of when taking this option.
- When you have completed that route, return to the start again and as another set of traffic lights have appeared – notice if these ones are on red, green or amber.
- At this stage become aware of your physical surroundings of the room that you are currently in and maybe even stretch and wiggle your fingers and toes.
You may want to read through the next instructions before carrying them out.
So what did you learn by playing with that?
If you found that any of the traffic lights were on red, it’s probably a pretty good inner signal that option isn’t one for you (at least at the moment)
If you found that any of the traffic lights were on amber then you may want to consider proceeding slowly with that route. Maybe you need a bit more information or other people involved more. It’s not to say that it won’t work, it just may need a bit of tinkering to make it stronger. You may find that the details of how you imagined that route or destination will give you more indications about how that could be altered.
If you found that a routes traffic light was on green, then that’s a great inner signal to go ahead with that option.
If you found that you got more than one green light then that’s great to, you may want to consider how that could be combined or maybe you want to choose to pick the most pleasant journey /destination.
Have a week full of inner knowledge
Love
Jen
This was originally posted on www.YourChangingDirection.com