Play It Out

This is a working newsletter…namely, a newsletter that is going to put you to work!!! Don’t worry, not too much work, and it will be very useful and informative work!

Last week, I attended a Live from Peace Guild deep dive meeting led by the awesome Christy Russon and the subject was an activity that Christy calls “Playing it Out.” The activity was so massively useful to me that I wanted to share it with you, with a bit of a Cherstin spin on it.

Do you ever have fears or concerns about potential problems in the future that come bubbling up when you think about moving forward, and they almost choke you? You squash them back down, but they lurk there in the recesses of your mind, waiting for you to start thinking about forward progression again. They’re just fears, but they are pretty effective at stopping forward movement. We’ll call them the Worst Case Scenario Gremlins, and we’ll talk about them more in a bit.

Alternatively, do you have any dreams, goals, or ambitions that are just so far out of your life experience that any time you think about them, there is a little voice in the back of your mind that says, “yeah right, as if that could ever happen!”? That voice also comes from the Gremlins, this time wearing the “if I can’t see it, I can’t do it” hat.

The reality is, the Gremlins in both situations live in your subconscious mind: that incredibly powerful 40 billion bit processor that keeps you safe, and alive, and runs all of your body’s incredibly complex functions. It is your system manager, and its job is to evaluate past experiences, cultural programming, etc., etc. and develop a plan that is pretty guaranteed to keep you safe and healthy. What it doesn’t handle well is new situations, new possibilities, and/or areas with risk.

New situations, new possibilities, and risk? Those are the areas where the conscious mind functions. The conscious mind is our strategist mind, our volitional mind, that, unfortunately, only has a 4,000 bit processor. When the conscious and unconscious minds are in alignment, it’s a potent combination: the volitional strategy and vision of the conscious mind combined with the massive power of the subconscious system manager mind can make incredible things happen. When they’re not in alignment, the gremlins appear, and forward progress comes to a screeching halt, or if it does happen, it’s agonizing!!! So the power of the “Play it Out” game is to allow the subconscious mind to safely expand its realm of possibilities. To the subconscious mind, imagination is real! So, when we visualize experiences, it just seems like brain work to our conscious mind, but not so for the conscious mind. What you do with the “Play it Out” game is you use your conscious mind to create situations that allow the subconscious mind to explore new territory.

We’ll try playing this game first with a worst case scenario that you worry about. Think through your life and find a worry that comes back pretty regularly. Got it? Okay, let’s play.

It will probably start out pretty intense, but as you sit with it, the intensity of the emotion will start to decrease and then you will feel the subconscious mind kick in and start producing solutions and possibilities. Curiosity will reappear, and the paralyzing fear will diminish.

Basically, what your subconscious will discover is that the anticipation of the event is always worse than the actual event. The actual event? Well, it’s manageable, maybe it’s even positive.

Now let’s try the game from the positive side. Think through your life and find a dream that you don’t think is practical or even possible. You’re looking for a best case scenario that your subconscious mind tells you can’t happen. This may even be the Best Case Scenario of the Worst Case Scenario you just worked through. Got it? Okay, let’s play.

You will probably have those gremlins interject quite a lot in the beginning. Just tell them, “let’s just play with this a bit,” and, guess what? They’ll humor you. As you keep playing, you’ll feel the gremlins quiet down, and you will feel your subconscious mind kick in as the possibility becomes more real. You’ll have ideas come to your mind about changes you could make to enable the dream to happen, you’ll see it more clearly, you’ll understand it better with the power of the subconscious behind you.

Basically, what your subconscious will discover is that there are actually tangible, real paths toward that big, audacious, best case scenario. It can be possible!

A big rule with this game: DO NOT LET YOUR CONSCIOUS MIND TRY TO BULLY YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND! If you do that, the subconscious will just go to battle with your conscious mind. It won’t grow, it won’t expand, it’ll just lock down into what it already knows, and say, “yep, I was justified in protecting you from yourself!!!” Keep this fun, keep it light. Play!

As you move forward on your Earth Stewardship journey, you’re going to run into the need for this game with increasing frequency. You’re dreaming big dreams, you're pushing into areas where you have very little experience, and, because you're pushing into the unknown and into areas of higher risk, it will be concerning to your very powerful system manager. Don’t ignore the gremlins! Don’t squash their voices! Listen, hear the message, play out the possibilities, both good and bad, and you will find that you have aligned with one of your most powerful allies for forward progress: your subconscious mind.

I would love to hear how this game goes for you!

​Keep up the good work, you are doing great things!!!