Action vs Allowing
When do I act and when do I allow?
This is a question I’ve asked myself several times over the past few years.
We hear lots of people telling us to consistently “take action” in order to meet goals and for self-growth. Or “take action” to make a stand in the world and to make your voice heard.
But getting into intuition and flow (following the natural energy of life), there is also a sense of “allowing” the present moment to be what it is.
For a while, I actually started defining action as a bad thing. I threw out my goal-setting planners and morning/evening routines to allow more natural energy flow into my day-to-day.
It all was helpful for me to get back to the core of me. Without the layer of tasks that covered up my intuitive sparks, I could understand myself much better.
Instead of eating the foods that I had learned as a Health Coach that were the best for me, I allowed myself to eat what my body wanted. Sometimes that was eggs and chicken and sometimes it was veggies and fruits. I stopped labeling myself as vegan or meat eater. I just allowed myself to act in accordance with my intuition.
I also completely changed my morning and evening routines. I started to read more and take walks. It felt great to do what I wanted to do! I used to force myself to journal first thing in the morning. But, it didn’t always feel like the thing to do!
I could tell that mentally I still had a negative view of “action” even though I was taking action every day.
I was still acting, the only thing that changed was when I was taking the action. I acted when it felt joyful and exciting. And I allowed when it felt easeful to do so.
It was never about action or allowing, but the reason behind each.
There have also been many times where I “allowed” because I was actually just scared. Really this allowing was more so perfectionism, avoiding the present moment, and fearful beliefs coming out to play.
If you know that it is time to find a new job but tell yourself that you will wait until a prospective employer reaches directly out to you, ask yourself if it is because there are some fearful beliefs of not being able to find something better than your current job and the potential of something new scares you.
I have done my fair share of waiting and waiting for the “perfect” moment but that moment doesn’t really show up. I used “allowing” as a disguise to make it seem like I was going with the flow, but in reality I was just scared to take action on the intuitive spark that I received.
A great question (by Eckhart Tolle that I sort of paraphrased) you could ask yourself is: “Is there joy, ease, and lightness in what I’m doing? Or is life feeling like a burden and struggle?”
It could be helpful in understanding whether you’re forcing yourself to act or allow.
Right now, I’m in a season of eating fried eggs with sourdough. But the moment there isn’t a sense of joy with eating the egg, I will stop and choose something that feels better.
Love,
Nishi
