THE INCH AND THE MILE
A woman lived a busy life.
A life full of the events
we presume to
be important.
A life a mile wide.
But a life just an inch deep.
And in a small house on
the other side of
the same town,
another woman of
a similar age lived
a simple life.
A life full of the routine
we presume we
must escape.
A life just an inch wide.
But a life a mile deep.
(this little poem is from Nic Askew’s blog)
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Take a little quiz: On a scale of 1-10 write down how wide your life is, and how deep your life is.
(No judgment allowed!)
We don’t want one or the other. We want both width and depth. Width is me writing this article to you. Depth is the inner dimension within me where the article comes from.
Width is service to the world. Depth is your awareness of your own Spiritual calling.
That place where width (in the world) and depth (not of this world) come together is the place of bliss, the place of knowing who you are, the place we long for.
“I’m in the world but not of the world.”
Wide is not bad. But our world has worshiped the wide at the expense of the deep. We have worshiped creating more and bigger at the expense of understanding our heart’s deepest longing.
When doing (width) arises from your Being (depth), there is never stress involved.
Here are 3 examples of situations where the width overtook depth and created stress and the need to ‘regroup’.
Example: A new coach keeps taking more training. She gets more stressed with the overload of information. (width) She starts to question her own business and her own ability. The solution is to go deep, to listen for her own wisdom, her own message and to stop filling up her perceived sense of ‘not knowing enough’ with others messages. Many times the fear of authentic visibility, especially for women, leads to taking more training. (Caveat: I’m not saying don’t get training!)
Example: A brilliant professor has a vision for a breakthrough book. She observes a student who is young and also brilliant. The voice in her head says, “You missed your chance. You’re too old now.” This is the ego voice of personality trying to stop her from going deep into her own wisdom and being visible in the world. (Ego is part of the width!) She quickly recognized this voice as a saboteur and wrote to me for some email support!
Example: A busy business woman gets lost in her to-do list. Exercise becomes another to-do. Even meditation becomes a to-do. Stress accumulates. She longs for a retreat. She longs for what has become a cultural meme: ‘Me Time”. She signed up for one of the discovery sessions to talk about this and we designed a special program for her to go deep.
In relationships, as well, it is the lack of connecting to your own deep Self that creates confusion and aloneness.
Two essentials for cultivating your depth:
* Understand that self-observation is necessary. Observe your thoughts, feelings, actions and desires. Self-observation brings you a deeper understanding of your human nature. Again, this must be done with no judgment!
* Meditation practice. Meditation brings you a deeper awareness of your spiritual nature. Meditation is not a goal but a practice that helps you to realize your spiritual identity. And please—don’t expect your mind to be quiet! It just doesn’t happen! That is not the goal of meditation.
Why do we need to cultivate the depth rather than the width? Because our world is a world of width. And we cannot move into monasteries! We live IN the world! We are meant, however, to bring our deepest Self TO the world. So we must create space and time to nurture this vertical plane of Being that we are.
I’d love to hear from you! Email me your questions about your own depth, width, and areas of concern that this metaphor has illuminated for you!
Note: I have space for a few Free Discovery Sessions. In this conversation we explore in depth a concern you have about where your life or business seems stuck. You come away with a breakthrough in your own understanding. You won’t be ‘sold’ something. Yet if you want to work more extensively, we can talk about that as well.
CICK HERE to book your free session now.
