Topics Covered:

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06:05  –    The #1 secret to rising above the turmoil

09:08  –    The purpose and benefits of asking for the right question

14:00   –    A practical example of how to do it

16:00   –    How to know if you’re getting a quality answer

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Transcript

Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors.

So there’s a crazy amount of turmoil in the world these days, in case you hadn’t noticed, which many believe is a sign of big changes to come. Is it the end of the world? Or are we creeping into a dystopian future? Or is the old world dying, so a new utopian future can take its place, or maybe it’ll be same old, same old, or something altogether different? There’s lots of conjecture these days. But many agree that the turmoil and the strangeness of the world these days, is wearing them down.

But perhaps life is like one of those house of mirrors rides, you can wander through at a carnival or fair grounds, where there are all these pathways that seem like the right way, but inevitably lead you to a dead end. You have to keep using your wits, your logic, your intuition and all manner of skills to finally find your way out of the maze. Doesn’t it feel like that a lot lately? In fact, doesn’t all of life feel like that at times?

Staying embroiled in the turmoil of that journey, caught up in the drama of it all may seem like we’re dealing with life, but maybe it’s just keeping us stuck. What is the actual way out? Can you remember a time you went through a maze, literally or figuratively, and found your way out? How did you do it?

I remember going through an outdoor maze at Hampton Court in England when I was a kid. The Maze was made of bushes, and there were all these pathways. And I went with a big group of relatives and friends. And some of them wandered through talking, not paying attention or even trying to find a way out. Some kept going down the same dead ends and getting frustrated. So I decided to follow this boy, my cousin who was running as fast as he could, up and down every possible pathway until he found the way out. We were the first ones out and sat on the grass waiting for the others feeling pretty smug.

But then my mother’s friend approached who had actually been the first one out. Now she was known for being highly intuitive. So when we asked how she made it out, first, she said, I just imagined I was a bird for a few minutes, and easily saw the way out.

Looking back, it does seem like there’s a way to access an aspect of yourself that can rise above the maze and see the way out. Now rising above requires seeing beyond the duality, the polarity, the conflicts, both inner and outer. In doing that, you soon appreciate the value of both sides, and more importantly, the lessons in the interchange of opposites to create a third entity, something new and different.

So what’s the number one secret to rising above it? Like the quintessential phoenix bird? Well, that’s what this episode is about. Hi, I’m Carla Rieger. And this is the Golden Age timeline podcast.

So, people have started asking me about getting private coaching lately. Now I usually only have time for a few people, but I’m making room in my schedule for a few more because there seems to be a need for it. So, in case you didn’t know, I’ve coached thousands of people who are in The Expert’s space, also known as Authority entrepreneurs. By that I mean…Educators, Speakers, Information Marketers, Online Influencers, Authors, Bloggers, Coaches, Consultants, Practitioners…that kind of thing. And I’ll talk more about what it would look like to get customized help like this near the end. But what I wanted to say now was that every single time one of my coaching clients found themselves stuck, challenged by a huge obstacle, rejected, full of self-doubt, facing a massive setback, in other words, something negative…this secret broke them free of the issue faster than anything else I ever did with them.

So I believe that the number one secret is to listen to and act on what the universe is trying to tell you. Teach you show you, or how it’s trying to activate you to do something different, or be something different. And if the word universe doesn’t resonate, substitute whatever wording works best for you. God life, the higher self divine wisdom, or something else, I’ll use the universe for now. It’s the idea that the universe, the creator of this realm, created it for a reason. And you chose to come here for a reason, to grow as a soul to have an experience that you couldn’t get elsewhere. Maybe to be activated in a way you couldn’t be activated if you didn’t have the turmoil.

Now, I believe the universe is always talking to us, challenging us, prompting us. And strangely, it’s not doing so by giving wisdom, but rather getting us to ponder the deeper questions of life. So we do the heavy lifting ourselves, to build the muscles necessary to ascend to the next level of growth. It’s like a Socratic dialogue whereby if we explore the question, we more easily get what we’re supposed to be learning as we move through this life. And so this dialogue that we have with our inner wisdom with the universe is essential to rising above the turmoil and asking the right questions and pondering on the answers. And that’s what takes you on the adventure of life, the journey you came to have. So having some kind of practice which helps you listen For the right questions that life is asking of you, is very powerful.

I’ve had a practice of doing that for over a decade now. I ask my inner wisdom “what is a question I need to be asking myself right now?” Invariably, if I’m in the right state of mind, I get a brilliant question that I know came from a place far wiser place than my everyday self.

And the powerful aspect of doing that is that it triggers the emotions of curiosity and wonder which pulls you out of the survival brain trigger cycle and into the Neo-Cortex where your wisdom, problem solving, inspiration and insight resides. It’s such an important quality to maintain throughout our lives so that we’re constantly engaging at the best level that we can be with our journey.

So high quality questions, lead to high quality answers. Some differences between a high quality question and a low quality question is this. High quality questions are more open ended. They’re questions that look beyond kind of the superficial answers. Like “How do I need to change so I better navigate the chaos in the world right now?” That would be an open question. A closed question would be “Should I hire a virtual assistant?” It’s a yes or no or maybe answer. So, open questions opens up a door for a greater insight to happen. Also quality questions give the opportunity to be reflective and to be expansive in your answer.

There’s a great book called, “Spark Change” by Jenny Lee, where she offers a number of Questions for Spiritual Evolution. She says that people tend to really enjoy interactions with people where they ask those big, open questions, questions that really stop you in your tracks and makes you go, Hmm, and I don’t immediately have the answer. As opposed to interactions where someone just wants you to buy into their agenda. They ask a closed type of question or if it’s open, it’s to trap you into teaching you a lesson. They aren’t really open to hearing your point of view. It’s the same with how you interact with yourself. Do you try to talk yourself into something that isn’t quite right just to be liked, stay comfortable, or quell fears? Or beat yourself up over a mistake or interaction that went wrong? Or, do you really want to know what’s going on deep inside? The deeper self loves the process of being reflective and thinking beyond what might be your current awareness.

So, the purpose of these introspective questions are to evolve spiritually, especially in times of great challenge in your personal life or in our global lives as a collective, evolution comes from discovering the gift in challenges. But that only happens when we are truly willing to look for the gift, for what is there to help us grow. And once you’re willing, once you stop resisting, once you integrate the new learning, often the challenge goes away or morphs into something new.

That attitude takes you into a place of inner peace, even if part of you agitated, if you can find a place that is calm in the middle of the storm, at least for a few minutes a day…you know you’re evolving. Because of course human life is filled with dualities  – you’re happy one moment and unhappy the next. Things are going well, and then things not going well. And so we ride this roller coaster of duality. So, I’d say you know you’re evolving spiritually, when you’re becoming more and more even minded.  Because of course we will forever be on the roller coaster the rest of our human lives, so you might as well go hands free and enjoy the ride.

I’ll give you an example. I was having several sleepless nights especially when the pandemic hit and I was in the middle of a move, and it didn’t make sense to move, and it didn’t make sense to stay where I was. I was looping around and around trying to figure it out. So, I often do a journaling process where I open a blank Word document and attach my headset mic to the computer and launch voice recognition software. That’s where I ask questions of my inner self, higher self, whatever you want to call it. Then I relax and let the answer come and I speak it. It comes out on the Word doc. I do that because I have very messy handwriting, and so typing on computer is best. Also, sometimes I don’t understand the answer at first, so I can go back and read it later and finally get it. Also I can search all my journal pages to see if I’ve asked and answered the same question before, which often happens. And I see the same answer, or a more nuanced answer.

So, during this time, I asked “What’s the best question for me to ask right now?” So, then I hear myself saying, “How can I descend into the flow of life rather than try to thrash against the current?” Now, I know that comes from a higher self, because my everyday self never uses those kinds of words or images. So the computer types that question onto a page, then I close my eyes and get quiet, focusing on the question. I often get an image, a scene or a metaphor when I ask those kinds of open questions of myself. Here’s the answer that came.

You are fighting with reality a lot. Here’s visualization but also ensure you feel the experience kinesthetically. Imagine that you are in a rushing river, you’ve fallen overboard and are holding onto a rock and the current is pulling you. Let go of the rock and let the current pull you through the Whitewater and down a waterfall. Just breathe and let it take you. Trust the water, trust the flow, trust life. It’s all good. It’s all taking you to a brilliant destination if you let it. Yes there will be a destruction of the old, and there will be accompanying grief with that, but it’s all okay. You are okay. You are well and happy and it’s safe to let go, and go with the flow. Landing in this place of being inbetween worlds is all meant to be, this is all good, this is all being orchestrated by Life and will be a rich learning experience if you let it. It’s all on track, it’s all purpose. You are getting ready for a new era in your life, and new way of being, a new environment, and the newness is good. You will feel renewed, rejuvenated and fulfilled in an entirely new way.

Those are the kinds of answers I often get, but only if I asked the right question. In this case, the answer brought be back to a state of peace, letting go and relaxation. The metaphor of letting go of the rock and flowing with the river was good, because I’ve done a lot of river rafting and know that feeling of not resisting the whitewater. That shift in state of mind, of course, changed my mindset so that I could see a solution I hadn’t thought of before, and new opportunities just magically appeared as well.

Now you don’t need to do it like that, you could just use a journal. But the process of getting it out of your head and onto paper can help you better integrate the wisdom.

Now the trick is acting on the wisdom you get. If you listen, and then go back to the old way, I find the answers don’t come as readily. It’s like building a relationship with a trusted advisor or a mentor or coach. You take the time and energy and resources to work with them, ask them for advice and then don’t follow it, after a while that person will fire you. It’s not enjoyable for them to work with you. Do you have to follow all the guidance? Of course not. It has to feel right for you. But if it does feel right, then take action, that completes the loop and invites deeper and wiser feedback.

As a warning, asking questions like this put us often in a place of humility because the ego self, or the everyday self would prefer to cast the blame outwardly towards another person, a situation or just the world in general. That part of us wants to feel victimized by it, because then we don’t have to change internally. You will never get your victimization reinforced doing this process, and if you do, you’re not talking to a wise inner self, or higher self. So be careful with that, as your conversations with Life can get hijacked.

Usually answers are about holding you accountable to change the way you’re seeing the world, the way you’re being. That can feel very hard at time, but I believe that’s the game we signed up for. So use your intuition when you get an answer. There’s this feeling that you know its right, even if it’s something difficult.  Like I had to give difficult feedback to someone that I really cared about this week. It was about setting a personal boundary, and I knew that I had to, I thought about not doing it all. That would have been more comfortable.

I sensed that needed to explain calmly and clearly my position, with as much kindness as I can, without any blame. And I knew that wasn’t going to be easy, and I knew there was a chance it would not be received as intended, but the sense of peacefulness that I felt within after getting that answer was how I knew it was right. So if I, on the other hand, hear something internally as an answer, that’s not necessarily soul guidance. It might be a little staticky, you know what I mean? It might be one thing one moment, but then something else, the next. It’s not consistent, it’s not peaceful. It doesn’t have that rightness feeling about it.

Now, one of the best questions I’ve asked myself is ‘what am I meant to be learning here?’ The Universe definitely likes when you ask that question and will give you an answer if you are sincerely seeking it. Like I asked that question once about this travel glitch, where the airline lost a bag of mine that had my laptop in it, on which were my slides for a presentation I was going to give as soon as I landed. It was one of those situations where I was the last to board and there was no more room in the overhead compartment for my roller bag, so this flight attendant took the bag and told me it would be up front. I assumed that meant with the cabin crew’s luggage. But what he did was gave it to the luggage handlers for putting under the plane, but never gave me a checked baggage receipt, so there was no way of locating it. So, I was fuming when we landed, and freaking out about how to give my presentation without my slides, given that was what prompted me about what to say next.

So to calm myself down, I asked ‘what am I meant to be learning here?’ The answer came quickly. It was to trust myself to give the presentation without the slides. So, I made some cursory notes and got on stage. It wandered a bit, but in many ways I was more present with the audience rather than being so tied to the AV. I remembered more than I thought, and actually ad libbed in very brilliant ways that made a big difference to the effectiveness of the listeners. Because I had to really think about them, and what they needed instead of being so concerned about following my linear slide show. After that, I was more spontaneous, used less slides, and more confident as a speaker. And P.S., my bag showed up at my hotel right after the presentation.

And, another very powerful question is ‘what’s a new meaning I could give to this situation?’ It’s like ‘how am I holding this situation in a way that disempowers me?’ Like maybe you’re making assumptions about what a downturn in finances means about you, or about the world. Or making an assumption that someone doesn’t respect you when they’re really just so caught up in their own drama, they can’t see how they’re behaviour is affecting others. So, then you can perhaps take their behavior less personally, and help them rise above that rather than create conflict.

So, those two question can really unblock things. And they were – ‘what am I meant to be learning here?’ And ‘what’s a new meaning I could give to this situation?’ So, try those out yourself.

So a bit more about my private coaching…if you’d like customized help to shift inner blocks, and if you are you an “Expert” in a certain niche, a business owner, or you want to be one, then you might be very interested in this.  For the first time, in a long time, I’m opening up my schedule for more private coaching clients to help them reinvent their lives and businesses. It could be an existing business you’ve had or a new one you’re trying to get off the ground or take to the next level of excellence. It’s a coaching series designed for people who are already successful, but they are at a crossroads and want to jump up to the next level of brilliance. Like they want to reinvent what they offer and how they offer it and who they offer it to. Or, they lost their momentum, motivation or direction during the last 2 years of lockdowns, and need it back. Or they are in a career reinvention mode and want to monetize their extensive knowledge, skills and experience as an Authority Entrepreneur.

So, it’s by application only as I only have room in my schedule for a few more people and I want to make sure it’s a good fit for both of us.  And the only way you get to hear about this is if you’re on our list or listen to my podcasts. So if you’re interested, apply soon, see the link in the shownotes…as I’ve just put it out to my whole list. There is no obligation to apply. It’s on a first come first serve basis. It just takes a few minutes to fill out and helps me see if what I offer would be a good fit for what you need. If not, I will certainly suggest other resources for you, once I see what your goals and issues are.

Now, in case you don’t know, private coaching is by far the quickest and best way to fast track your success. All people who are successful with their reinventions do this, because it’s so easy to get lost in the trees with your own offerings, process, beliefs. It really does require another set of eyes on your business, someone who’s been in the Experts space successfully for over 20 years, like me. Someone who works at both the strategic and intuition levels like I do, someone to help you with both the external and internal obstacles to success, helping you see things you didn’t see before, connecting you to resources, insights, possibilities, people, opportunities you might never have known about otherwise. And giving you the kind of personalized attention and accountability that makes the world of difference when you’re going through a challenging transition. So, if you’ve been trying to transition, and feel stuck, it might be that now is the time to reach out for help, either from me, if it ends up feeling like the right fit, or someone else. They say it takes a village to raise a child, well it takes a village to raise a business, too.

For example, many people’s businesses got decimated over the past two years due to the lockdowns or they left a career because it was no longer right for them. Or the last two years brought them an opportunity that’s been great, but now they’re overwhelmed and need to restructure things so they work on their business instead of IN it. So, it’s not this huge burden, but instead this joyful endeavor because of how they’re now delegating, steamlining and focusing it. So, whatever category you fit into, there are an unprecedented number of people reinventing themselves right now. And quite frankly, it hard to do that alone, and so I’m here to help. I love doing this. It’s been my area of expertise for over 20 years.

As I said, this coaching is designed for people who are “Experts” or want to become an Expert, such as Educators Speakers Information Marketers or Online Influencers, even Commission Based Salespeople, Business owners, Authors or Bloggers, Coaches or Consultants, Practitioners…that kind of thing.

As I said, it’s by application only, as it’s a unique kind of program and I want to make sure it would be a good use of your time and money. Warning, it’s not cheap, but it’s certainly not extravagant either, rather it’s mid-range in terms of the marketplace for this kind of service. It’s for people who understand the value of investing in themselves and getting professional help to leap to the next level of success 10x faster than trying to do it alone, and making 10x more than they would on their own.

There’s no obligation to apply. You just fill in the quick. questionnaire and if we think it might be a good fit, we have a short zoom interview to take it to the next level. And you can ask questions, we get to know each other. So, if you know that you need that kind of personalized attention and accountability do apply. See the link in the shownotes.

Now, if you cannot afford coaching but still want help, do check out the 5-part AVARA Process that’s in our book MindStory Inner Coach. You just bring any issue, about anything and take yourself through the 5 part process, and it creates huge insights and major breakthroughs, by triggering your own inner wisdom. You can see how to get the book and two audios for free, for a limited time, using the link in the shownotes. Or, just go to MindStoryAcademy.com/book-free.

Along with the book, you also get two free guided audios that are examples of what we do at MindStory Coaching Academy, that are called neuro-blueprints. They are form of mental rehearsal that helps you access your inner wisdom.

One is called how to end self sabotage, in case you ever find yourself doing that, which we all do at some time or another. The other is called your hero’s journey, which is about reframing your past in terms of how it forged you in the fire of wisdom to become who you are today. All together, the audios and the book come to $94 but you can get them free right now.

Now, the theme of rising above the turmoil is also a major theme in the award-winning fantasy adventure entitled Helio Tropez, if you are looking for a good page-turner for the those lazy days of summer. See the link in the shownotes or go to GoldenAgeTimeline.com/book.

That’s it for today, I hope it was useful. Do hit like, share and subscribe and notify, if you’d like to know when the next episode is up. Also, if you want to get on our elist to hear about next episodes coming up, and our unique offers and opportunities…just go to GoldenAgeTimeline.com\podcast and you can subscribe in the right hand column. So… Until next time. Thank you for listening.