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... and let go of the hard & pointless work of being the doer  Photo of a place setting on a table with yellow paper placemats from Getty Images on Unsplash Want a quicker read? You can simply learn or review the placemat process by starting below the first pic. Scroll down, baby … I was thinking about how hard it is for people to LET GO of trying to control all the parts and believing I’M THE ONE who makes it happen. Doership! We even stir up more confusion by accusing ourselves of being irresponsible or not properly showing up when we’re not doing our utmost (as we tense up & exhaust ourselves) to think of everything and manage all the parts. That’s a problem because
Those who use the G-word sometimes say, Let go and let God. Um, sure, that can be used to go complacent or excuse not stepping up. It can also be used to let go of what you can’t control, and let the greater intelligence do its thing. It will always include you in the doing (some of us think you are God and God is you), but won’t put you in charge of what you just don’t have the capacity to do, manage, or control (since you’re also in this limited ego-reality as an individual human being). When I first heard the term the organizing intelligence of the Universe, it just sang to me. I was already aware of the love force and fully down for that. I hadn’t thought about or even begun to take in (and that will be an ongoing process till I die) the unfathomable intricacies & crazy brilliance of what I now call the orchestration. So how do you come to know that, work with it better, FLOW with it, give yourself to that current? Play your part and put down what’s not yours? The PLACEMAT PROCESS from Abraham-Hicks is my favorite way to put stuff down and get crystal clear about what I’m doing and what I’m not doing. And bee-tee-dubs, it’s called that because Esther (yeah, the nice white lady from Texas who channels Abraham, which or who is actually a group of entities, I know, I know, but stay with me, please, because it’s brilliant)—Esther got this process while she was at a restaurant and used a paper placemat to try it out. For those who like Byron Katie’s 3 kinds of business, note that this allow you to clearly and on paper (where you won’t get sidetracked by all the slippery seaweed in the mind) write down in one area what belongs to the Universe and even to other people, and separately note what’s yours.  Photo from Jaya of an exercise layout in a landscape oriented sketchbook. A column on the left is about 1/3 of the page and titled "You," and annotated "Just what you know you'll do today. The right 2/3 of the page is titled "Universal Manager," and annotated with "Put it all down."
The act of writing it down is also a literal and symbolic putting it down. Placing it in those larger hands, or into that great holding net where everything’s being gorgeously woven together in a way that works for the good of all concerned. So in your area on the paper, you write down only what you’ll do today. Abraham says, Mean it. Whatever you put there, you know for sure you’ll get to it. Cool if you get this wrong, folks. Use it to take in how confused you still are about how much you’re supposed to and can get into a day. We’re actually not meant to CRAM OUR DAYS full with productive activity. Ay, that’s the great cultural lie of doership and what it means to be good little worker bees. (I imagine real bees are relaxed & having a good time as they bop around collecting pretty powdered nectar & turning it into exquisite golden honey.) But it’s not just that I’m NOT DOING the things I put down in the Universal Manager area. The organizing intelligence, or what A-H calls the Universal Manager, is all over it. Bringing things together with that uncanny right-place right-time precision, flowing things your way, getting people queued up to enter stage left or bump into you as you round the corner, in short—orchestrating. Or … lining up cooperative components that will support you to get to where you’re going. Do watch if you choose to experiment with this. Notice how things moved forward that you didn’t touch because you gave them, for real, to the UM who knows how to effortlessly make it all happen & come together gorgeously. So ANYTHING you’re thinking about, worried about, wishing you could get to, thinking you should already have gotten to (but truth is, you won’t get to it or can’t do anything about it today), PUT IT DOWN. You’ll know as you write (and after) you really are putting it and did put it down when you feel some RELIEF. When you relax. When you feel light instead of heavy. When you feel you’re doing enough, it’s good enough, all is well. (Notice the trust in this?) Put down all that you don’t need to carry today because it’s really not what’s up for YOU to manage, hold, do, or orchestrate. Examples:
When you can look at your little (way littler) list and feel good about THAT being the stuff of your activity today, you’re on the right track. Maybe you’ll even remember that the ACTUAL stuff of your day is not just what you check off the to-do list but …
Hey, I’ve heard Abraham gently & playfully scold people for acting like they’re delegating things to the Universal Manager, and then they have the right to be upset if something didn’t move something forward the way they’d hoped. You’re getting the benefits of the process when you feel RELIEF. Intend relief. Note relief means less resistance. It means you’re entering or you’re in the flow. It means you’ll give yourself a much easier time of it. There’s more going on too but … that’s enough, isn’t it? Love & blessings, Jaya
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... and an example of using it on the lie of NOT ENOUGH TIME  Photo of multicolored marbles from Nick Fewings on Unsplash Want a quicker read? Scroll down for a numbered list of 12 ways to think about time that feel better. If there’s any detrimental belief that A LOT of people from all walks of life share, at least in American culture (and I daresay in plenty of other places around the globe), it’s that there’s not enough time. We have more to do that we have time to do it in. Does that even sound right? Is that even possible? It's certainly disempowering and engenders all manner of stress and feelings of inadequacy and dissatisfaction. When your thoughts and beliefs are making you feel bad (in other words--when you feel bad, and take note of what you're believing in that moment), Abraham-Hicks has a clarifying and focusing process to call forth and drop in with what you want to believe instead. They call the marble game. It’s really simple and it’s really worth trying. (I do it often, sometimes daily, usually to clarify my focus early in the day. Much as I approach the focus wheel and other amazing Abraham processes.) Think of marbles as a metaphor for your thoughts and beliefs. All the thoughts and beliefs you’ve ever had. Since you've got a lot of those (accrued & revisited over time, and constantly added to), the point is that it will always be a mixed bag. You'll always have some beliefs that serve you (because they're aligned with what you want) and some beliefs that do you no good at all. Those beliefs run counter to what you say you want, so they churn up resistance. Besides the fact that resistance feels bad, it also makes you NOT A MATCH to what you're dreaming up, asking for, working toward. So in the marble game, you determine--and establish--which beliefs you want ACTIVE in this situation. Which beliefs do you want to have in view? Which ones do you want to run the show? For example, you may have three time-related marbles in your bag that make you feel bad about yourself & your daily accomplishments:
You may have three other marbles that support you to feel good about yourself & your work:
Which marbles would you like to have active as you start your work day? Notice you’re likely to feel bad about yourself and ill-equipped for your day if you have the first set of marbles active. If you have all six marbles, or both sets, active, you’ll feel torn and you'll vacillate between the two mindsets. With the second set of marbles activated, you’ll feel more relaxed and at ease and ready for the day ahead. You'll be likely to build momentum in what you do and feel good whether you get as much done as you might have imagined or not. So anytime in life that you notice you’re leading with a bad set of marbles or you have a seriously active marble that neither matches where you want to stand nor promotes or enhances how you want to feel—like, There’s not enough time for all I need to get done--then play the marble game to consciously choose 12 marbles you want to activate and bring to the fore. I did that on that very topic one morning recently. (See my activated, chosen marbles #1-12 below the illustration.)  Here are the components of the process as I do it. It's a simplified version of what Abraham explains (with no component left out). 1. Briefly (BRIEFLY) write down what got you thrown off or where you notice your wobble is. Simply lay out the problem. (I woke up with a light sense of dread and pressure, already feeling like I don't have enough time for all the tasks I think I have to do or want to get done today.) 2. Write down the feeling state that goes with that for you. How do you feel with this story or set of thoughts active? (Discouraged, overwhelmed, lacking in confidence.) 3. In the margin, draw one marble and, next to it, write down a belief you have that would actually support you in this situation. I like to color in or make a design on the marble as I watch the thoughts form. (See below.) 4. Repeat that until you have 12 marbles and 12 statements of more positive, empowering, helpful beliefs you already have (or ones you don’t have to reach too far to get to), the ones you do want to have activated. (Examples for this are just below.) 5. When you've got your 12 shiny chosen marbles out that support you, write down how you feel now. (Confident, equipped, looking forward to my workday.) Since I actually played the marble game on this very topic, here are the 12 marbles (things I actually believe, or that aren’t too far out of reach, and that I want to have as my ACTIVE beliefs) that got me from "Not enough time for all tasks" to "Tasks & time coexist perfectly."
 Hand drawing in a sketchbook from Jaya showing marbles lined up along the left side of the page If you don't get through all 12 marbles because life intervenes, just get some chosen marbles in view! You'll head toward the way you want to feel and can keep cultivating that in other ways. If you're on a roll and you want to hang out with this game for more than twelve marbles, go go go, and enjoy how solidly established you get in the mindset and feeling state you're actually consciously choosing. I personally find this so empowering and satisfying.
I invite you to play with Abraham’s marble game to consciously activate the beliefs you want to live out of in general—and to very specifically carry into your day or the one situation coming up. Love & blessings, Jaya |
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