I know that business can be full of uncertainty and stress, and it can be so tempting to lean into a paint-by-number approach, just so you can feel some confidence and certainty.
And that totally works, for some things in business.
However, there are key issues that will never by paint-by-number, and instead require the messy, alchemical approach to finding your way. Which also includes your heart.
I made this video to explain.
How do you do messy, alchemical processes? What’s your experience?
With love,
Mark Silver, M.Div.
Heart of Business, Inc.
Every act of business can be an act of love.
P.S. Virtual Retreats are made for alchemy!
Are you facing just this kind of messy, hard to grasp decision-making process? Why not bring it into our Virtual Spiritual Business Retreat?
A sacred container of depth and love, it may be just the thing that can help you plumb your heart, and infuse spirit into your strategy.
This Friday, August 28. Priced at pay-from-the-heart.
“I love these retreats. The focuses help me consider relevant issues that are deeper than what may occur to me. Their meanings are often very personal as if the focus was chosen with my own life path in mind. The realities shared by other participants help me tune in to my own experiences and limitations so that I can shift them. Gets me back to my inner self so I can show up better for the world.”
– Cynthia Bretheim, retreatant
Take a look: The Virtual Spiritual Business Retreat, Friday, August 28.
If you have any questions please ask!
7 Responses
I find that I tend to sway to alchemy, it’s so intriguing and I go down many a rabbit hole. Thinking about my website and an alchemical process, it makes sense in a weird way! It’s got me eager to know more.
I love this!!
I will do this on my retreat this week.
Becoming better oriented and able to hear detailed intuitive direction is so invaluable! And you’re right; it’s impossible without spending time visiting with each factor that affects.
Yes! I love that you are taking this on.
My method for decisions that seem more urgent than they are, has been to recognize that my felt sense of urgency comes from the desire to be done with the decision, but the urge to take more time comes from the idea that more time would make for a better decision.
Once I recognize that dichotomy, i set up a deal that both of those parts agree with, since it seems like an either/or, “A or B” decision (e.g. a breakup) but has so much more to it, of course:
“Let’s spend 3 days on this before making a decision.”
Day 1: I get a vacation from the stress of indecision by pretending I already decided option A. Throughout the day, different insights occur to me that wouldn’t otherwise. In the shower… While tidying the dishwasher… When my phone rings and I notice what/who I hope the call is for… Even my posture is a feedback loop. But fully pretending the decision is made, I don’t spend ANY energy in (in)decision.
Day 2:
Fully inhabiting option B, *as if the decision is over*, I go through another day of relief: free from the overwhelm of indecision, I pretend I’ve gone with option B. I pay attention to little things, which show me the details/facets/aspects of the issue, like you talked about, Mark.
Day 3: “anything else?” A third option will arise naturally. The benefits from 2 days’ vacation from indecision have remedied the stress-based thinking, my IQ is back up, my EQ is reinstated, I can be kind to other and myself… And a 3rd option comes to mind naturally. It forms over the course of the day. It shows me the effects it would have. It does not claim to be one decision. It is a day of gathering insights. A day of preparation for grief to follow, but mot nearly as much grief as previously thought.
After day 3, in which I still was on vacation from DECIDING, I have my intuition. After day 3, my whole self has weighed in.
That’s how I’ve allowed life to show me the factors, Mark. I like your process from this video as well. It’s the same in that we come to recognize a decision as a concensus of many parts, each with their own awareness of different interdependent factors.
Life is not paint-by-number, that’s for sure!
So wonderful, Briana- thank you for describing that in such detail. The spaciousness is so key, and I love the “vacation from deciding.” Woo-hoo!
Thanks Mark. This kind of reassurance and orientation to process instead of product is a fundamental part of the shift I have needed to make, am making and continue to make with my business. Your support in this regard has seen me through the past year, while my business was in the background into now, when it is picking up again without struggling against the shifts or thinking I was doing something wrong or not doing enough. I spent a few years taking your model in before this rebirthing process and now I’m starting to flow back in this direction and it is such a relief to have the structure and clarity of the modules to relax into re-engaging with as I come out of the free form alchemical and integrate into my business what has bubbled up while I was being stirred.
That’s so wonderful to hear, Cynthia. I really celebrate this with you! Woo-hoo!