Feeling 'Stuck'? And What Does That Have to Do With Record Players and Dusty Needles?

From ‘I’m Stuck’…

I had a fun session with a client this morning bouncing ideas around and getting creative with a sticky problem he was facing.

As well as whatever we do in the practical, it’s very important for me to know that my clients are growing their understanding of how the mind works.

Yes, there is magic in what we do, but I don’t just want someone to have the experience of magic, I want them to be able to do it for themselves, and for others.

Today’s conversation reminded me, for some reason, of what happens when a record gets played with a dusty needle and the sound comes out scratchy, or it has static, or it’s like a proverbial broken record, bouncing over and over again to the same place.

Sounds pretty icky, and yet it’s exactly parallel to what we do when our thinking gets a bit stuck.

A first time record listener might not realise the record isn’t supposed to sound like this. They might go down a very deep rabbit hole of potential solutions, only to emerge and see other people grappling with the same issue and concluding, this is just,

the way things are.

Until they realise it isn’t at all the way things can be.

…to ‘Let’s Dance!’

A dusty needle is an easy fix once you know that’s the cause.

No more stuckness, no scratchy, icky noises, just whatever is playing going through the speakers in high def.

It’s the exact same with what I do with another human. When we understand how the machinery works, we the icky sound isn’t music and we know exactly what to do to fix it.

That ‘dust’ that is causing the problem is typically made of assumptions or expectations, at least it was with my client this morning—carrying with him an image of,

how things are supposed to be, no matter it was such a bad fit for who he is.

Once we see that, we know what to do and we can go back to enjoying the music.

And maybe dancing a little if we want too ;-).

With love,

Cathy