A few years back a very close friend of mine shared with me that her and her husband were having marital problems and a myriad of interpersonal issues. The wife, who was more emotionally evolved, had began to change and was becoming different. She had changed the dance steps in their marriage and the husband wanted her to dance the same waltz they had been performing for over 15 years. The husband struggled with change and eventually sought professional help with a counselor. Because this husband was highly intellectual and highly skilled as a renowned physician, he couldn’t ‘get out of his head/or away from his ‘book’ knowledge and receive the opportunity to change from within his heart. He had a slight awareness that HE could be the problem, but he lacked WILLINGNESS……he had a fear about the problem and thought long and heard about changing mentally, but couldn’t get up the energy of COURAGE to change emotionally. He didn’t want to listen to his spirit and recognize the possibilities that were surrounding him. He couldn’t tap into his heart. He was disconnected and unwilling to be vulnerable. Without the COURAGE, he never enlisted a DESIRE to bring about the ENERGY that would calm his fears and propel him into ACTION. He got stuck. He decided to keep on the cloak that he arrived in. And it was a heavy, woolen, dark hooded cloak that he chose to wear. He is not unique. We all do this………..and some of us choose to wear more than one!
To some extent or another, each of us chooses which cloak (coat) to wear each and every day. Only we can decide to become AWARE that something in our life no longer works for us. We have to take the time to become MENTALLY specific about the problem, think about it and ask ourselves, when did it start, and what was the nature of it’s origin? Has it happened before? The problem continues to affect our lives and we begin to have experiences that may not be so comfortable. Sometimes, when we don’t listen, God knocks louder!
The cloak is old, and it is oh, so heavy, it gets very ‘hot’, and we begin to feel stifled and weighted down. We start to notice that we have all kinds of behaviors that keep perpetuating the problem. The problem doesn’t go away. It can’t. It won’t. It usually gets worse, and soon, before you know it, we are victimized by our own inability to just hand the cloak over, give it up and hang it on a hook.
When you CHOOSE to finally take the cloak off, it doesn’t mean that you won’t see it hanging on the hook. It will be there in plain sight. But if you areAWARE that it’s there, WILLING to recognize WHAT it stood for, and have the COURAGE to make the decision to LEAVE IT ON THE HOOK, a shift will occur in your DESIRE to change and YOU WILL CHANGE both mentally and emotionally, and YOU WILL BE AMAZED at the opening of possibilities that await you. Peace, Freedom, Joy, wow!
With a WILLING heart you will find the COURAGE to take off the cloak!
So, I ask you~
Which cloak do you choose to wear?