If “you can’t see the wood for the trees” or are “going around in circles,” those phrases may offer a clue to where you’ll find the solution.

This advice is for you if you resonate with one of the following sayings and want a different perspective on a problem you’re facing NOW. I obtained the advice by imagining myself in the future when I was no longer setback in the way described by each of the sayings. I then asked myself what advice I would give that younger and stuck me. For example:

If I was stuck in a rut, I imagined what advice an older wiser me, who was no longer stuck, would give to that younger self to get back on track. If I couldn’t see the wood/forest for the trees, I considered what that future self would say to help me turn the corner to enable me to get a different perspective.

What you’ll need to do first is to decide which of the following sayings best describes the current situation you’d benefit from a different perspective on:

• Stuck in a rut

• Can’t see the wood for the trees

• Up a creek without a paddle

• Going around in circles

From the antidotes below, simply pick the one that is needed to solve the current challenge, and read the advice given. You may find one of the pieces of advice provides the necessary perspective, or perhaps you need to read them all to get that, or whilst reading them your mind may go off on a different tangent, and it’s that tangent that provides the solution. You may even find an antidote from a different saying also helps.

The key is allowing your subconscious to help you experience a different perspective, and to therefore obtain insight about what action to take next.

Here’s the advice I gave myself …

Out of the Rut

(for when you’re stuck in a rut)

The rut has become too familiar, and you’ve simply forgotten what it’s like to be on track. Being back on track can also become a familiar feeling, and one that is accompanied by health, wellbeing and laughter too. Remember something you are on track about, and allow that sense of direction and purpose to expand into the current situation. More ease, and less tension and trying.

Before taking any further action do something to release the tension - that may involve running; or having a relaxing bath; doing a crossword or puzzle; or perhaps (using my new pastime) going for a very refreshing open water swim in the sea! Anything that enables you to access a more relaxed state of mind and body. The first step is simple. Trust you have walked this way before, and can do so again. Take the first step with confidence, and don’t look back.

Seeing The Wood/Forest For The Trees

(for when you can’t see the wood/forest for the trees)

You just need to stand back, and not be so intense. Don’t try to do it all at once. The wood is such a small part of the grand journey. Don’t make it the journey. In fact, any direction you take would be a good one because it gets you moving - any direction with conviction will get you there – you can make course corrections as you go. There’s 360 degrees of choice, and they’re all preferable to the static stuck choice you’re making at the moment.

Paddle In Hand And No Longer Up A Creek

(for when you’re up a creek without a paddle)

You’re going nowhere, indecision is keeping you stuck. Just decide what to do, and do it. Any movement will be in the right direction, it’s inaction that’s keeping you stuck. Don’t allow the saying to constrain the solution - finding a paddle isn’t necessarily the only solution – the water isn’t that deep. Can you wade out, swim out, float out?

No Longer Going Around In Circles

(for when you’re dizzy going around and around in circles)

If you keep doing what you’ve always done you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got. Change direction; go around in squares; slow down your circling; or make it a bigger or smaller circle. Do something different, and notice how that allows a different outcome.

So much wasted time for fear of making a wrong decision. Just follow your gut, and trust that all that you fear losing will either be given to you again, or will be replaced with something even greater. Your gut doesn’t choose a direction because it thinks it will give you less of what you have now, it makes a choice for more and greater. Dishonoring your intuition stops the muscle from working, and makes it harder to hear - honor and listen so that you may be stronger in the end.

Ask Your Own Future Self For Some Advice

Remember these insights came from my own future self, advising me on what to do when I had been using the saying to describe a situation. The advice may have resonated for you too. The advice may also not have resonated. You may therefore want to ask your own future self for some advice; that future you who has already resolved the problem you’re trying to sort out – give it a try!

ONE SUGGESTION: I’ve found it’s best to either say the advice out loud (perhaps recording it as you do) or writing it as if your future self is writing a letter to your current self.

Good luck - you don’t really need it though, as the solution is already known to a part of you. You just need to listen to that part, that inner you that is wise beyond all logical understanding.

©2018 by Alison Smith. All Rights Reserved.
Publisher: Findhorn Press, an imprint of
Inner Traditions Intl. www.innertraditions.com

Article Source

Can’t See the Wood for the Trees? Landscaping Your Life to Get Back on Track
by Alison Smith

A guide to using the metaphorical language of a “stuck” situation to discover the solution • Shares an easy, fun process of exploring well-known sayings as a means to identify new solutions and get unstuck in life and work • Explains how to bring clarity to a problem, highlight alternative perspectives, bypass any conscious resistance to finding a solution, and allow solutions to emerge organically, from within ourselves • Details the author’s “Landscaping Your Life” method, which has been used successfully in business strategy development, team development, project problem resolution, and in one-to-one coaching.

Click here for more info and/or to order this paperback book and/or download the Kindle edition.

About the Author

Alison Smith is a coach, facilitator, and trainer who has developed the “Landscaping Your Life” method to help people get unstuck and back into their flow. She works with teams as well as individuals in both business and personal contexts. Since her own personal transformation 18 years ago, Alison has increasingly found the more unconventional tools to be more effective and powerful at bypassing the blocks and resistance we have to moving forward in our lives.

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