The piles on my desk are still there. They’ve been there awhile, and seem to grow every day.
My inner voice called my attention to it again a few days ago, with language similar to what I’ve heard many times before. “Gosh, I really need to get this cleaned up. What a mess. Where’s that intake form? Geez, I can’t find anything. I really need to get this all organized.”
But I didn’t. I went on with other tasks.
I’d had a similar conversation with myself last week, and the week before, and the week before. That recurring prompt is what spiritual teacher Carolyn Myss would call an “intuitive irritant”–one of those annoying messages that keep repeating in your awareness, but you don’t do anything about.
You probably hear them, too. “You really should stop eating so much sugar.” “You need to find a different job.” “This just isn’t the right relationship for you.” We hear the message, we may acknowledge it, maybe we even think we’re going to do something differently, but we don’t. Life goes on, and before too long, the message pops up again.
The situation with my desk had been poking at me enough that I spoke about it with my mentor just a few days previous.
“I don’t know why I can’t get all this cleaned up,” I said, as I described to her the mass of papers in one corner, the overflowing sorting tray, the pile of folders that need updating and filing, and the three stacks of books. There was also a couple of used cups, a pile of notes with blog post ideas, and a bunch of post-it-note to-do lists and memos that still needed attention.
Discussing the situation, we explored some reasons why keeping my space organized and clutter free may be difficult for me. I gained a clearer understanding of how this minor situation may actually represent some deeper issues. My mentor suggested that I start with two hours of clean up over the weekend and continue with 15-30 minutes every day until the piles were gone.
“That sounds good”, I thought, as I agreed. “I can do that.” But the weekend came, and with it plenty of reasons why going to the office just wasn’t going to work. And Monday I was busy and just didn’t have the time as I finished with clients and rushed off to my evening meeting. “Tomorrow,” I said to myself. “I’ll start tomorrow.”
Sometimes, we just wait too long.
Arriving at the office today, just ahead of my first client, I thought, “I have a few moments! I can start on my desk.” I picked up the convenience store coffee cup to go wash it, the lid came off, the cup dropped, and coffee splattered all across the desk.
It was a mini version of the Universal 2×4 that hits us hard when we don’t respond to the prompts we are given.
Myss says that these repeating thoughts, these intuitive irritants, are messages from our soul. They are letting us know what steps we need to take, what tasks we need to accomplish, what barriers we must overcome to take the next big leap in our own personal evolution.
Our ego will push back to this message from our soul, giving us lots of ideas and reasons why now isn’t the time or it isn’t that important.
In reality, the situation is an outward manifestation of an inner block. It’s not so much about the clutter, as it is about what the clutter represents, and how that block keeps us from our potential. And it’s as much about the habits and beliefs we’re willing to let go of, as it is about what we’re moving toward.
Our soul wants us to live the life we were born for. It wants us to grow and evolve and step into our purpose. We have support and guidance to do so, if we just listen. If we don’t respond to the prompt, the Universe will keep trying to get our attention. It will become irritating and annoying. Things will break down, we’ll become ill, we’ll spill coffee all over our desk–we keep ourselves stuck and make life more difficult that it needs to be.
If we can listen to the prompt of our intuition and follow the guidance, we will move forward in a much easier way.
