feel the RELIEF of the PLACEMAT PROCESS

​... 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

• you can’t see all the parts
• you can’t know all the possible ways this dream or vision or desire could look (by desire I mean things like: I want a fulfilling job, I want my finances in order, I want a healthy & beautiful relationship, I want a body I feel good in)
• you don’t know the fastest, most efficient way to get to where you’re going; there are fun shortcuts you haven’t yet dreamed of (but you might benefit from going back and finding where life got you somewhere much faster & more easily than you could have with all your wits)
• you don’t know all the amazing detours & pauses & strange happenings along the way that are going to give you exactly what you need, whether you knew you needed it or not (but you could go back and consider the wise workings of that in your past)
• when you think you have to orchestrate what you can’t possibly, then you try to via worry, rumination, tiresome repetition & reviews … and that creates all kinds of dissatisfaction & destabilization (familiar?)
• you have no clue of (here comes some Abraham-Hicks language) all the cooperative components lining up to bring all the parts together into some beautiful whole you get to live out & play in—that next unfolding where you get to grow yourself & create & dance with consciousness & just be in love with this amazing human journey & the wondrous settings & characters in it

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?

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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."

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​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:

• What’s happening with your kid who’s struggling
• Getting taxes in on time
• Working out your social issues
• Planning your vacation
• Moving that other project forward
• Getting back to So-and-So
• Helping more turtle hatchlings get to the water
• …

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 …

• love, peace, joy
• dancing with consciousness
• laughing
• being a body breathing, grounding, connecting to the senses
• living in presence
• playing with random acts of kindness
• letting the beauty and wonder of life make its impressions on you
• …

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