Listen to Patrick’s Client Story:
Patrick, a trekker, traveler, and teacher, originally hired me to help him find clarity about a specific romantic relationship, but ended up uncovering a game-changing insight about the true nature of clarity that he is now able to apply to everything in life.
In our recorded dialogue, Patrick explains his discovery about the nature of clarity, and the two of us discuss the surprising revelation that clarity is more of a “feeling’” thing than a “thinking” thing. Hear how these new embodied perspectives helped Patrick undo long-standing patterns of self doubt and overthinking, and propelled him into the next level of self-trust, and on to a new stage of clearer, easier decision making.
“It was really helpful to learn about this distinction between clarity and understanding, and that when I’m really clear on something, it’s at the intuitive level or body knowing or sensing level, or even the emotional level. Then my need to frame things or label things or categorize things with words, and understand exactly what was happening with a particular relationship… that was different than my real lightning bolt knowing about something.”
Patrick hired me for a short series of sessions, and he was able to get exactly what he came for, albeit not quite in the way he expected, which is not unusual.
Interestingly, when he first described his predicament and confusion, within minutes of our first session, I could immediately feel his clarity about the topic, but I noticed that he didn’t entirely trust the feeling of clarity. Instead, he wanted to justify or rationalize what he already knew in his heart and in his gut. I encounter this often in my sessions with clients.
As an experienced meditator and meditation teacher, Patrick is skillful in his self-observation and is flexible in his thinking, able to try out different perspectives. When I pointed out that he actually seemed to be quite clear about what he wanted, but that he was having a hard time justifying what he wanted, he quickly recognized this to be true.
When I encouraged Patrick to let his emotional clarity be enough, and to stop burdening himself with the need to justify himself, he responded quickly and favorably. Many of my clients respond similarly; when I offer them a better-feeling, easier, and faster way of getting what they want, they take it.
I really enjoyed the way I was able to develop quick rapport with Patrick, and how he gave me such a powerful example of the difference between visceral, embodied clarity (knowing what you want), and the mental gymnastics that we sometimes put ourselves through as we attempt to justify, understand, or explain why.
Most people who seek professional help to find clarity about something in particular expect to hunker down and dig into it. But as I explain in our dialogue: “The problem and the solution don’t lie in the same place. That’s why I try to move people into a state of clarity more generally, so that from a state of more general clarity, when they look back at the problem, they’re looking at it from a perspective of embodied clarity, and it looks different.” From that embodied place of clarity, you can cleanly and easily choose the action that is Self-aligned. Patrick concludes, “Clarity is my friend when it comes to doing what’s right for me.”
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