We all have beliefs and stories that we’ve picked up from family, society, the specific culture of our profession, and our life experiences. Stories that shape how we live our lives; stories that limit our happiness and our potential. Stories that box us in.

In the face of frustration, disappointment, fear (and many other negative emotions), we’ve learnt to look for their most likely source in the outside world and make changes there so we can avoid the bad feelings. 

Most people who are successful academically and professionally have learned to be almost entirely reliant on intellect, analysis and problem-solving, diving into the details of the story. We may end relationships or change jobs. We might try to change our own, or others’ behaviours.

The prevailing ‘outside-in’ understanding of how we experience life and how change happens is inaccurate, so changing the circumstances of our lives can only take us so far. Our stories are not reality, however much they appear to be so. When we look beyond them, beyond what we believe is fixed about ourselves and the world, far more is possible than we can currently see.

Significant and lasting change comes about by looking at ourselves deeply and seeing our role as creators of our own experience. As we start to see how our thinking influences everything, we start to see that our experience is in fact created from the inside-out. Knowing this helps us to understand the world differently and see how much more power we have than we may ever have recognised. 

With one new thought it is possible to have a completely different experience of life.

The word ‘spiritual’ is loaded with meaning – unique to you depending on your own experience. When I use it, I don’t mean anything religious or dogmatic. I’m talking about the energy that animates the world and everything in it, including us. It’s lies beyond our intellectual understanding of life, and our ability to explain it. 

Many people find the conversations we have around this help to make sense of questions they have been pondering for much of their lives. It’s common to have a sense of being part of something greater than ourselves, but the constructs of religions or other interpretations of this often don’t reflect our own experience.

As I continue to explore a wide range of spiritual traditions, I see them all pointing back to the same surprisingly simple truths. 

All of this might sound alien to you if you’re used to operating in world or a profession that values facts, evidence, data and analysis highly. But I find everyone has had some experience of something beyond intellectual comprehension. It might be recognising the flow of finding intuition in the driving seat – perhaps at a time of crisis, or if you’ve finally given up on trying to find solutions. Within the medical professional it’s rare to find someone who doesn’t ultimately know that there is something powerful at work in the body and mind, beyond what their extensive education and experience has taught. 

So, what if you could trust this deeper power behind life? What if you learned to value your intuition more deeply, listen to its nudges and allow it to work in tandem with your practical expertise? Letting go of the belief that it’s ‘all on me’, is liberating, lifting a huge weight from our shoulders. 

When we take the pressure off ourselves, overthinking subsides and our minds can calm. Problems can become so much simpler, and resolutions often happen in unexpected ways.