It’s a truism in energy work, whether it be in intuitive readings or healings, that the best thing a practitioner can do is get out of her own way. As with all great lessons—and getting out of your own way is a great life lesson—learning comes in layers. When I was first learning how to work in the Akashic Records, the phrase “get out of my own way” pretty clearly translated to cletting go of fear and doubt. The very first time I tried to enter the Records, I was so wrapped up in the fear of messing up and the doubt that I could actually do this for myself, that all I could experience was my negative energy. I had to back out of the Records, take a deep breath, and start my opening process all over again.
As I started to progress in this work, trusting that I could access the Records stopped being a problem. But fear and doubt showed up in other ways. While I knew that I could connect to the Records, I found myself falling into anxiety around my ability to make sense of the guidance I was receiving. Because I started out getting a lot of images, I shouldered the responsibility of being able to make immediate sense of everything I was getting. And if the connection between the question asked and the image received did not seem to have a logical connection, I would automatically seize up in fear and fall into the habit of blaming myself for getting some part of the process wrong. (I missed the obvious fact that this work, like dream work, is highly irrational and symbolic.)
Again, with time, I learned to develop further trust in the process, which in this case meant doing the opposite of my natural tendency to shut down when presented with the unknown. When the Records sent me something I did not automatically understand, I learned how to open up further. What I discovered is that I have so many options in the face of uncertainty: I could wait a moment or two for the image to unfold naturally; I could just start describing the image while trusting that the energy would continue to open up as I spoke; I could ask the Records what this image meant in relation to the question and/or in the context of the seeker’s life; or I could turn to the seeker herself and ask her how the image resonated with her. Knowing which road to take is a matter of intuition, and most times I seem to choose well. But I have also come far enough along in my practice that even if I “get it wrong” the first time (i.e., I ask the seeker if an image means something to her and it turns out that she is as clueless as I am), then I simply choose another avenue without beating myself up for having to try again.
Getting out of my own way also entailed releasing the pressure of “right interpretation” and “full understanding.” To put it another way, I finally woke up to the realization that I didn’t have to comprehend every single bit of knowing that came through, because I started to see that my own intellectual understanding was not necessarily vital to the seeker’s own recognition and acceptance of the guidance. It is not uncommon for me to begin describing something with the disclaimer that “I have no idea how this answers your question, but the image I’m getting is…” I would say that about half the time I have to keep talking for the connection to become clear to both of us, but the other half of the time my clients immediately grasp the meaning behind the image.
I’ve also had moments in readings where an image makes no sense to either me or my client, and in those cases trusting the process involves counseling them to stay open in the days following our session. Clients have sent follow up emails letting me know that certain symbols finally clicked for them some weeks after a reading.
For a reader to be able to move through moments in a reading where question marks abound or something simply doesn’t resonate with the seeker requires the ability to remove ego from the equation, because it is the ego that believes getting things right is a matter of life or death. Without the nervous chattering of the ego, offering a reading is simply a process of discovery, and discovery does not always progress smoothly, in linear fashion. Once we can accept that fully, we are able to unlock the joy of offering a reading. This is true, profound joy that is not dependent on performance or perfection. It is joy that comes from being entirely present in sacred connection and participating in recognition, discovery, healing, and expansion.
The other advantage of getting ego out of the way is that the Records seem to open up even further. Once I stopped being so afraid of misinterpreting images, I was able to open my awareness to different methods of receiving knowing. While images continue to play a large part in my practice, I also receive guidance via words/phrases, memories/association, emotions/feelings, instant knowing of an entire situation, and even a blending of my inner and outer senses). It seems I had to learn to bypass my intellectual mind before the Records started to send me words and phrases (which I tended to understand and trust more), and then instant knowing, which really threw me for a loop the first time that happened, because I was so used to meaning opening up over a linear sense of time.
Just in the last couple months I discovered that I am able to “get out of the way” at deeper levels still. I’ve long noticed that if I get really into answering a question, I lose track of the what the original question was, and I often ask my client to repeat it if I’ve exhausted a “thread” of energy and try to pick up another one. This clued me into the fact that as a reader, I don’t actually have to process the question intellectually at all in order to get an answer. But this summer I started getting clients who would get really wrapped up detailing their problems, and because I started feeling slammed by their strong emotions, I energetically started “stepping aside” and letting all that fear, anxiety, anger, etc. flow right into their Records. Then I would bring my awareness to their Records and look / feel into how their energy interacted with the energy of their Records. I found I could get a sense of how their Masters, Teachers, and Loved Ones received all that energy (or whether they “bounced” it back firmly as a way of saying “no”). Then I could simply start channeling that sense of a response from the Records without ever directly understanding the question at the most rudimentary intellectual level. I could definitely sense the feeling of the question, but sometimes I couldn’t even tell you what area of life my client was addressing.
Another skill I’ve discovered in the Records is the ability to place the client in direct conversation with the Records. This also happened when a client was very emotionally wrapped up in a problem and I needed to step out of the way so I can stay centered. But what seemed to trigger this process in the reading was the fact that my client seemed particularly disconnected from her own truth, doubting herself at every turn. As I flowed her energy into her Records, I sensed that her Masters, Teachers, and Loved Ones themselves wished to step aside. It became clear that neither I nor they themselves were to interfere with my client claiming her truth. The way they accomplished this was to send an image that we both initially thought was unrelated to anything she had been talking about. In fact, it had been awhile since she had asked a question. Sometimes when I receive a random image it’s in anticipation of my client’s next question, but she said she didn’t have a question on her mind. I relayed the image anyway, and after a moment’s confusion, it triggered a memory in her that got her talking for about fifteen minutes straight, over which time she was able to come to her own truth about all the questions she had previously asked the Records (and which they kept pushing back at her).
At the end of this reading I marveled at how my client had done most of the heavy lifting. In the old days, my ego would have had something to say about that (and not anything nice, either!). I would have definitely felt that I hadn’t pulled my own weight, that I wasn’t able to give her easy answers, and that I made her “do all the work.” But if an Akashic Record reading is more about empowerment rather than prophecy, then what could be more empowering than placing someone in a position to speak their own truth?
I don’t mean to present myself as some sort of impeccable reader, because I’m not. I may have certain unusual talents, but I still struggle with offering readings around areas that I am intimately familiar with. In such moments I have to actively work at gauging how much of my intellect it feels right to engage and how much my own experience are to play into a reading. Sometimes it feels like they nudge me to share my own experiences. Sometimes it feels like my experiences, no matter how relevant they seem, are not at all pertinent to my client, but sometimes it seems like I am the exact right reader for a certain client for very obvious reasons. And there is obviously the component of healing what I need to heal so that other people’s issues don’t trigger me emotionally, no matter how close to home they hit.
“Getting out of your own way” is one of those self-helpy phrases that get thrown around a lot, so I hope that this post helps flesh out what that actually looks like in concrete terms. As with any conscious practice, any work you do on yourself in your Akashic Record practice will transform other areas of your life. We truly are our worst enemies, but the flip side of that coin is that it is always within our power to open ourselves up to receiving whatever it is we’re seeking, within the Records and beyond.
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