April 6, 2008
Marinating
Making Our Best Decisions
Sometimes when we need to make a decision, we can become overwhelmed or
feel pressured into coming to a conclusion immediately. Often, a
decision isn’t required right away, and the sense of urgency we feel is
merely a limitation that we’ve placed upon ourselves. Once we’ve
determined that we do have the time to make a wise choice for
ourselves, we can release the pressure with a deep breath, like steam
from a pressure cooker, and proceed to make the best use of our time.
The best first step may be to gather all the facts we can find. Once we
have all the logical information we need, we can allow ourselves to sit
with it and soak it up. Like a good recipe, we can allow ourselves to
marinate in the juices of intellectual understanding while also adding
our own spices made up of our feelings, our intuition, and any other
considerations. We can taste the recipe for readiness as we go in order
to decide if more time or ingredients are needed. We might want to take
time to visualize ourselves playing out the various scenarios to see
which feels the best, remind ourselves of our goals, or merely sit
silently in meditation, listening for guidance. Any of these techniques
can add depth and flavor to the recipe of our decisions.
We can allow ourselves to sit with our choices for whatever length of
time is needed, whether it is a day, a week, a month or longer. Doing
so gives our hearts, minds and spirits the chance to align, allowing us
to make a decision that is right for us. Other times, we may need to
let the wisdom of the universe unfold for us at its own rate, allowing
our growth and realizations to sync up with the universe’s secret and
essential ingredients so that all of the flavors are ready at the same
time. When we allow ourselves the time to sit and allow understanding
to sink in, we can cocreate the best decision possible for ourselves
and for everyone involved.