Have A Decision To Make? Here’s A Way To Check With Your Gut

I’m thinking of moving to Northern Virginia, the DC beltway area.

It’s 4 hours south of where I am, where I’ve lived most of my life.

It’s where my younger son, daughter-in-law and only grandchild live.

from the amazing Women and the Hourglass series : http://www.mfalstreau.com

Who “Should” I Listen To?

I want to be closer to family, but friends tell me I’m nuts.

Women at knitting tell me I’ll regret it.

I listen to the horror story of one woman who sold her home in Cincinnati, and moved in with her son, daughter-in-law and new grandchild. She’s miserable. She feels like a prisoner and her daughter-in-law is one of the guards. She misses her friends. My throat constricts. I do not want to be her.

Nor will I be.

I wouldn’t move in with my son and family.

I would live in a town close by but not the same as theirs.

I can set boundaries. And if those get screwed up, I’ll confront the issue. My son’s familiar with that process, we’ve been doing throughout his life. My daughter-in-law is learning to feel safe with me and talk out tough issues.

I wouldn’t sell my house.

I’d go to classes and groups to meet people, make new friends. I’d call the wonderful women I’ve talked to on line that live in that area and meet for lunch, for dinner. I’d learn new streets, new coffee shops, new restaurants.

Depending on my perspective those changes could be fun or scary. Sometimes they’re both. I have a choice about how I “see” things and I gotta make the healthy one. Just have to. Just want to.

An exercise that helped my decision

I interview Amy Oscar today for my Confidence Chronicle series that starts in the fall on my blog so I took another look at her site and blog posts this morning. Here’s what I just happened (?) to find:

“This is a page from Sea of Miracles (Amy’s new book) explaining a simple intuition exercise that will help you make decisions. It will also help tune up  your own inborn ability to receive guidance.”

So I did the exercise. I put staying in Pennsylvania in my right hand and moving to Virginia in my left hand. Then I closed my eyes. My left hand steadily went down until it landed on the desk. My right hand stayed where it was.

I could interpret that in many different ways. But the question in the exercise is: “Which feels better?”. That was a straightforward answer.

Clear and powerful. My gut speaking to me in another way.

Have a yes/no decision you need to make?

Try Amy’s exercise and see what happens.

After you do it (only took a minute) let me know what happened. I’d love to know.