Working with energy and mindset over the past 25 years, I’ve had the great fortune of witnessing many moments of revelation, both in myself and others.
You’ve probably had or seen this experience yourself. Someone has a flash of deep insight about something they’ve been struggling with. Their face becomes radiant. They’re probably crying, laughing or both. And they have a new clarity and ease about them.
When you have that “aha” moment, you feel so excited! This is HUGE! A game changer.
Then you’re struck by the thought, “This sounds so stupid. Of course this is true. I already knew this.”
It feels both anticlimactic and life-changing. That’s why I call these moments Lightning Bolts of DUH. Or being gobsmacked by the obvious.
Here’s why this happens. We know truths on different levels.
We typically think of knowing as black and white. You know something, or you don’t. That was definitely true in school, right?
In reality, though, there are many levels of knowing.
How much do you know something?
You can divide the levels of knowing into two major categories – MIND and BODY. Body can also be described as heart, visceral or cellular knowing.
Mind knowing is when we understand something intellectually.
You know the Earth is round at a brain level. Someone told you that the Earth is round. You trusted them enough, or they had enough evidence, that you believed them. You’ve seen globes. You may have flown to the other side of the world without finding any edges, but you don’t have direct experience of its roundness. You haven’t held it, rolled it or spun it.
The astronauts have a different level of KNOWING about the roundness of the Earth. They’ve seen its roundness for themselves.
For astronauts, the roundness of the Earth has become a visceral knowing. They don’t BELIEVE the Earth is round, they KNOW from experience that it is.
I can picture the first astronauts looking out the window of the rocket and saying, “OMG! The Earth is round!!”
THIS is what a spiritual aha is – when something you mentally believe becomes something you viscerally KNOW.
This is a Lightning Bolt of Duh.
The big thing about having something becoming visceral knowing is that that’s when you consistently act on it, or act as if it’s true.
For instance, one of my clients, Maggy, came to a place recently of viscerally knowing that the setback she’s experiencing now – along with the fear and anxiety she’s feeling – are part of a bigger picture and are temporary. She now viscerally knows that this is all working out for her highest good.
If I had told her this at the beginning of our call, she would have nodded in agreement. Of course that’s true. Yet she was still worrying and struggling because that knowing was only brain-deep.
She now has this knowing in her body.
Here’s another example to help with this distinction.
Is ice cold?
Do you believe that ice is cold, or do you know it is?
Well, if you’re hot, do you reach for a glass of water with ice or without ice? Do you have to stop and think about it? Would you take a free webinar that promises to teach you that ice is cold?
You know in every part of you that ice is cold. You’ve experienced it over and over and over.
This knowing is so deep that if anyone tried to convince you that ice is hot, you’d just laugh. You wouldn’t even be upset because clearly that’s about them. There is absolutely no room for doubt about the coldness of ice.
This is what I call level 5 body knowing.
The broad categories of mind knowing and body knowing each contain different levels. Here’s the scale I use with clients:
I believe this in my mind. I KNOW this in my cells
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
0-I don’t agree 1-almost never 2-rarely 3-sometimes 4-often 5-almost always
Let’s take the statement, “I am worthy of abundance.” Do you know that? If so, how deeply do you know it?
When you know something at a visceral level, you ACT on it consistently. At a level 5 cellular depth, you act on it consistently and without hesitation. Remember how you reach for ice when you want to cool down, and that deep, unshakable confidence you have that it’ll help.
How about Maggy’s realization? How deeply do you know that what you’re experiencing now is part of a bigger process that is working out for your highest good? (Hint: If you’re struggling with the situation, worry or doubt, it’s not a body-level 5.)
Play with this during the week. When you think of something you “know”, check in. How deeply do you know it?
What do you wish you knew more deeply?
Want to know more? Check out this interview I did with Mystic Magazine.
