Shampoo Series – Life Without Excuses

This exercise is a trip.

Think about all the polite excuses we make to one another every day:

cough cough       “Excuse me.”

achoo!                 ”Excuse me.”

ring ring               “Excuse me.”

Or, you’re listening to a long-winded friend tell you all about the latest drama or dilemma with their job, their boyfriend, their mother . . . or whatever, and probably not for the first time. Same song, second verse, a little bit louder and a little bit worse.

Peace or stress?

And let’s say you’re just about to burst needing to go to the bathroom!

Peace or stress?

Go back through each of these and check your body. Does each of these scenarios bring you peace or stress?

If you tense up, tighten, feel a heavy feeling, want to separate, get away, that’s STRESS.

How you think you will live your life most effectively?

Peaceful or stressful?

That’s a no-brainer.

Peaceful, of course.

We have more access to more resources. We see more options & choices. We think more clearly. We are nicer to others.

I can’t imagine very many ways in which stress actually makes us better people. Stress limits us. Stressed people are usually not nice people. There are a couple of limited exceptions. For example, athletes must balance stress & adrenaline for better performance.

And yes, when we step out of the familiar and comfortable, to take a new Next Step, we will feel some stress. That’s normal. But on the whole, it is not useful to feel constant stress in everyday interactions with yourself or your fellow humans!

So here is the Shampoo Method: Stop making excuses.

Yep. Stop.

Try it.

Scary, isn’t it?

What will my mother think? Or even worse, my grandmother!  (Mine was a Southern lady.)

Feel that stress? What will people think?

That’s the normal stress of trying something new.

Are you wanting Safety? Control? Approval?

(Use the Search box on the right to search for the Sedona Method instructions if you want to go for peace noticing those ideas.)

So, start with one hour or one day if you are brave enough.

I was lucky enough to get my first taste of this at one of Steven Sashen’s Workshops for The Work of Byron Katie. We were invited to live the whole day without making excuses for ourselves.

I will never ever forget the moment I really got this, really experienced how peaceful it was.

My friend, Loretta, was telling me all about I-don’t-know-what. I was listening, but only with half my brain because I desperately needed to go pee. Then I remembered the exercise.

We were sitting on the floor facing each other.

I got up, looking her in the eye, and walked off without a word.

Behind me, she burst out laughing, and so did I.

HUGE release of tension! For BOTH of us!

No more hypocrisy! We were being real with each other.

Paradoxically, doing the thing we thought was so rude, was very healing. Very peaceful. Honest. Freeing.

And there we were – blissed again.

Try it. You’ll like it.

Yes, in the real world. You are not in a workshop where everyone knows what you are doing. That’s fine. Choose your practice.

Wouldn’t you rather be real? Honest? Or do you want to keep pretending?

If someone objects, gives you grief, notice how that feels in your body and release the contraction, the tight feeling it may bring up.

I can pretty much guarantee you’ll end up more relaxed and more peaceful if you practice this Life Without Excuses.

It is pretty much assured that with practice, you will become more and more attuned to your own Inner Guidance. You won’t be covering it up with excuses.

What a blessing that would be!

Thank you, Steven!

Love, Ann

“Success is a side-effect of clarity.”

     - Steven Sashen, the Anti-Guru, www.sashen.com/blog