✅You try to figure out the perfect marketing funnel ✅You wonder whether your message is clear enough.
✅Maybe you need a lead magnet ✅Maybe another video ✅Maybe another email ✅Maybe Social Media ✅Maybe ads... You keep showing up. And still… the clients aren't coming. So you do more. Not necessarily because you have another inspired idea, but because somewhere underneath all of the doing is the thought: “Something has to work.” And that's where this gets interesting... Because the activity itself isn't necessarily the problem. You may genuinely need to market your business. You may need to make offers. You may need to create content. You may need to reach out to people. There is nothing inherently wrong with taking action. This blog asks the question: What energy are you bringing to the "doing"? There is a difference between doing and needing the doing to produce a result. Consider these two statements: “I have something I love to share, and I'm curious who is ready for it.” And: “I need someone to buy this because I have bills to pay.” The outward action might look exactly the same. 💜You could be writing the same email. 💜Recording the same video. 💜Making the same offer. 💜Posting on the same social media platform. But internally, they are completely different experiences. One has room in it. The other has pressure. One comes from a willingness to participate in what is unfolding. The other is trying to make something happen. And when you're in the second place, it can become very difficult to relax. Because relaxing can begin to feel irresponsible and when it does, the mind starts sending invitations like: If I stop searching, who is going to find the clients? If I stop posting, what if nobody sees me? If I stop revising my offer, what if it's the thing that's keeping people from buying? If I stop trying, what happens to my income? Who is going to make something happen? When that last question is the one that keeps catching your attention (the belief that YOU have to make life happen For You) this is your opportunity to remember that life is an energy game. Because underneath the business concern can be a much bigger belief such as: “I am the one who has to make this happen.” I have to figure it out. I have to find the right strategy. I have to create the result. I have to get more visible. I have to make people understand the value of what I offer. I have to make my business work. And when the result doesn't come, the mind often interprets that as evidence that you haven't done enough. So you continue to do more until finally... there is a realization that our businesses can become places where beliefs we didn't even realize we were carrying suddenly become visible... The belief that you are responsible for controlling what happens. The belief that uncertainty is dangerous. The belief that if you don't keep moving, everything might fall apart. The belief that your value is somehow connected to the response you're receiving (or not receiving). The belief that you must create the outcome in order to be okay. The business didn't necessarily create these beliefs - It simply gave them somewhere to show themselves. Eventually, the "doing" can change when you change the energy behind the doing. It starts with inspiration. You had an idea. You felt excited. You wanted to create something. You wanted to share something that mattered to you. But when the income doesn't come, fear can quietly enter the room. And fear has a particular energy. It contracts. It grasps. It watches. It measures. It compares. It asks: “Is it working yet?” You may find yourself checking your email more often. Looking at your website traffic. Watching the number of views. Checking whether someone opened the message. Wondering why someone didn't respond. Thinking about what you should do next before you've even finished what you're doing now. And suddenly, the activity that once felt creative begins to feel like a constant attempt to get life to give you the answer you need. “Please work.” “Please bring someone.” “Please let this be the thing that finally changes everything.” The action may still look productive from the outside. But inside, there is a very different movement. The answer isn't to stop marketing. The answer isn't to sit back and wait for clients to magically appear. Nor is the answer “just relax and trust the universe.” That can become its own form of avoidance. There are things we are called to do. There are emails to write. Offers to make. Conversations to have. Videos to create. People to reach. Businesses require participation. But what if it's not about stopping the doing? What if it's about noticing the energy from which the doing is arising by asking... 💜What is noticed when taking action happens from a feeling of inspiration vs fear? 💜Can I notice when I'm taking action because I'm afraid of what might happen if I don't? Can I notice the difference without immediately trying to change it and stop believing, "I don't need to get my energy “right.” I don't need to become the perfectly aligned entrepreneur who never experiences fear." I can simply notice: Oh. I'm doing this because I'm afraid. And maybe that's enough for the moment. Inspired action feels different, there is something different about action that doesn't begin with the demand that it produce a particular outcome. It might sound like: “This feels like something I want to share.” Rather than: “I need this post to bring me clients.” “This is the offer I feel called to make.” Rather than: “I have to sell something today.” “It's fun to think about who this might reach.” Rather than: “Why isn't anyone responding?” The distinction isn't necessarily in the action. It's in the relationship to the action. And perhaps that is what we so often miss. We think we are trying to figure out what to do. But sometimes the more revealing question is: “What am I believing while I'm doing it?” What if the business is showing you the belief? This is where your inner dialogue becomes much bigger than business. Because we can find this same pattern everywhere... I have to make my relationship work. I have to make my children understand. I have to make my body change. I have to make this situation turn out differently. I have to make life cooperate with the picture I have created of how it should be. And when life doesn't respond the way we want, we often respond by doing more. Trying harder. Thinking harder. Controlling more. Planning more. Fixing more. This is one of the ways the belief in separation reveals itself: There is a “me” over here, and life is over there, and I have to figure out how to make life give me what I need. That is a powerful belief. And when we believe it, everything can become a problem to solve. Even our business. Even our lack of clients. Even our own emotional response to not having enough income. But what happens when we simply notice the belief? Not argue with it. Not judge it. Not try to replace it with a more positive belief. Just notice. “I believe I have to make this happen.” What happens when that belief is seen? The question: “Where can I find clients?” isn't the deepest question. Maybe there is another question underneath it. “What am I afraid will happen if they don't come?” And underneath that: “What am I believing about myself if this doesn't work?” And perhaps even deeper: “Who is it that believes it has to make life happen?” These questions don't need immediate answers. In fact, answering them too quickly misses the point. They can simply become something we notice. Because this isn't about finding another strategy. It isn't another thing to put on the to-do list. It's an invitation to become curious about what is happening before the doing. Before the post. Before the email. Before the offer. Before the next strategy. Before the frantic search for the thing that will finally make everything okay. What is moving here? Is it inspiration? Is it curiosity? Is it love? Is it fear? Is it the belief that something has to happen? Or is it simply life moving - and the mind claiming ownership of the movement? The answers aren't found in figuring out how to "do more" effectively. Doing was never the problem. The question was always: What is your doing trying to make happen? This is knowledge we were all born with - your invitation is simply to remind yourself to remember! 💜💜 What Are You Noticing? 💜💜 Every Attic Journal entry is an invitation to pause, observe, and notice what is here before the story. I’d love to hear what you’re noticing. If this reflection stirred something in you, you’re invited to share your thoughts in the comments below. Your email address will never be displayed publicly. If you’d like to explore these conversations more deeply, join us for Tuesday’s Dojo. And if this work has made a meaningful difference in your life, I’d be deeply grateful if you’d leave a Google review.
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As I started reopening everything, the first tab to open was a Google page explaining that sometimes technology simply closes tabs for reasons that aren't always obvious.
That made me smile because isn't life a little like that? We wake up with plans. We organize our day. We picture how we hope things will unfold. And then, without warning, life closes a few tabs. A conversation changes everything. An opportunity disappears. A relationship ends. A door we were CERTAIN would open... doesn't. Our first instinct is usually to invest our energy trying to make life go according to our plan instead of noticing the path that's unfolding in front of us. We replay the conversation. We look for answers. We try to fix what changed. We work harder to get life back on the track we thought it should follow. But today I found myself wondering... Maybe the real question isn't, "Why did this tab close?" Maybe the more interesting question is, "Where do I want to invest my energy now?" Because every unexpected change invites us to make a choice. We can invest our energy trying to recreate what was... or we can invest it in becoming curious about what is unfolding now. I don't always understand why life closes certain tabs. But looking back, I can see that some of the tabs I fought hardest to reopen were the very ones keeping me from discovering something I couldn't yet imagine. Maybe life isn't working against us when it closes a tab. Maybe it's simply reminding us that our greatest freedom isn't found in controlling what happens... It's found in choosing where we invest our energy next. Has life ever looked completely off course, only to lead you somewhere you never expected - but now wouldn't change?
But because they quietly invite me to notice where I am.
💜 When I was younger, I thought life was about figuring everything out. 💜 Then I thought it was about healing. 💜 Then I thought it was about becoming the best version of myself. Looking back now, I smile a little. Not because those chapters were wrong. They were simply where I was at the time. What I've noticed over the years is something much simpler. Life has become less about finding answers... And more about noticing. 💜 Noticing when I'm holding on. 💜 Noticing when I'm making something harder than it needs to be. 💜 Noticing when an old story quietly asks for my attention. And sometimes... Simply noticing is enough. Three days from now, I'll turn 69. I don't feel older. I feel more willing to let life keep revealing itself. Maybe that's what a different way of growing older looks like. I don't know what 69 will bring. But after all these years... I plan to Party Like Purple and I'm looking forward to noticing. Nancy Mueller | Life Sensei
So you closed the lid, placed the box back where you found it and turned around and walked away from it.
If you've ever done that... you're not alone. Sometimes we're simply not ready. And that's okay. Many people believe growth happens in a straight line. You discover something. You work through it. You move on. But life rarely unfolds that way. Sometimes we open the same box... close it again... live another year... return to it... see something we couldn't see before... close it again. Then one day... we open the very same box... and something is different. Not because the box changed. Because we did. Life had quietly been doing its work. Every experience. Every conversation. Every disappointment. Every moment of joy. Every question. Without us even realizing it... life was preparing us to see something we couldn't see before. The box was never waiting for us to become stronger. It was simply waiting until we were ready. And there is no timetable for that. Every belief is just another box in the attic. Awareness is how we begin to set it down.
I couldn't have explained why.
I couldn't have told you what they meant. But something quietly said, "Yes." For nearly three decades, those words stayed with me. During that time, I taught martial arts, self-defense, wrote books, experienced profound joy and heartbreaking loss, questioned nearly everything I thought I knew, and eventually found myself sharing conversations about awareness and non-duality. Yet through all those years, there was one belief I rarely questioned - I often felt that I didn't have the right to teach what I was sharing because I was still learning it myself. Looking back, I can see that belief was just another box in my attic but this week, something shifted... As I was preparing for our next Dojo, and reflecting on the question, "Is Life Happening To You… or Through You?" something unexpected happened. I realized I wasn't simply writing these conversations. It felt as though they were already here. Almost as though the experiences had been breathed into me... waiting to be shared. And in that moment, I finally understood what I had recognized back in 1998. Mr. Parker wasn't talking about teaching after mastery. He was pointing toward something much quieter. Sharing isn't the reward for arriving. Sometimes, sharing is part of the revelation itself. I now see that there is a difference between recognition and revelation. Recognition can happen in an instant. Revelation may unfold over a lifetime. Perhaps that's why some books, conversations, and moments seem to stay with us for years. They are recognized long before we fully understand them. As I look back over the path that brought me here, I no longer see someone trying to become qualified to share. I see life patiently revealing what had already been recognized. And maybe that's what it means for life to happen through us. Not because we have arrived. Not because we have all the answers. But because, every now and then, something quietly reveals itself... and all that's left to do is notice. What Are You Noticing? Have you ever had a knowing that took years to bring to life? I'd love to hear your story in the comments. Life is an energy game. Once you understand how it's played, you can Party Like Purple.
And then, something happened.
It wasn't really a thought. It was a knowing. I knew - throughout my entire body - that someday I wanted to stand in front of people and share a message that might inspire others to see life differently. Then, almost immediately, another voice spoke up... "But what would I ever talk about?" "I could never tell anyone what was really happening in my life." Like so many people, I'd already learned that some things were meant to stay hidden. Some stories were never supposed to be told. Looking back now, I find it fascinating that even then, something in me already knew the direction my life was heading. What I couldn't have known at fourteen was that it would take years before I was ready to live that knowing. I'd have to walk through my own attic first. What Are You Noticing? Have you ever had a knowing that took years to bring to life? I'd love to hear your story in the comments. Life is an energy game. Once you understand how it's played, you can Party Like Purple.
The moment you become aware of the symptoms, the mind quietly offers a familiar invitation.
"I'm sick." Most of us never question it - We simply accept it. Not because we're doing anything wrong, but because we've spent our lives believing ourselves to be the separate person the mind is describing. 💜The body has symptoms 💜The mind gives those symptoms a name 💜Then that name becomes an identity 💜 "I'm sick." Once that invitation is accepted, everything begins to organize itself around that identity. We think like someone who is sick. We worry like someone who is sick. We plan our day like someone who is sick. We wait to become someone who is no longer sick. The same thing happens with financial hardship - "I'm broke." Relationship struggles - "I'm alone." Stress - "I'm overwhelmed." Fear - "I'm anxious." Every one of these is an invitation; not an objective truth about what you are... An invitation. The fascinating part is that all invitations can be accepted or declined. Yet because these invitations arrive as thoughts, we rarely realize we have that choice. Instead, we unconsciously agree with them. This doesn't mean pretending the body isn't experiencing illness. It doesn't mean denying financial challenges or relationship difficulties. It simply means noticing that an experience is not an identity. ➡️The body may be experiencing sickness - Awareness itself is not sick. ➡️Money may be scarce - Awareness itself is not lacking. ➡️A relationship may be ending - Awareness itself has lost nothing. This is where many people try to use willpower. They try to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. They force themselves to think happy thoughts. They try to convince themselves everything is fine. But what if remembering requires no effort at all? What if it isn't about replacing one thought with another? What if it's simply recognizing that you were never the thought in the first place? Infinite awareness doesn't need to become healthy. It doesn't need to become abundant. It doesn't need to become worthy. Those are invitations offered to the separate self. The invitation today isn't to think differently. It's to notice the invitation before accepting it. The next time the mind says, "I'm sick." Pause for a moment. Notice what has actually happened. Has awareness become sick... or has the mind simply offered another box from the attic? Perhaps freedom begins the moment we realize we don't have to unpack every box we're handed. This Week's Attic Invitation - This week, notice every time the mind says "I am..." Before finishing the sentence, pause. Then ask yourself: Is this describing what I truly am... ...or is it simply another invitation waiting for my consent? 💜💜What Are You Noticing?💜💜 Every Attic Journal entry is an invitation to pause, observe, and notice what is here before the story. I'd love to hear what you're noticing. If this reflection stirred something in you, you're invited to share your thoughts in the comments below. Your email address will never be displayed publicly, so your reflections remain between you and me. If you'd like to explore these conversations more deeply, join us for Tuesday's Dojo. And if this work has made a meaningful difference in your life, I'd be deeply grateful if you'd leave a Google review.
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Nancy MuellerLife Sensei • Author • Founder of Mastering Your Beliefs 
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The sensei picked up the teapot and began to pour tea into one of the cups.
When the cup was full, she kept pouring and soon tea was running down the sides of the cup and into the tray. The student pointed to the cup and said, “Stop, can’t you see the cup is full and no more will go in?” The sensei smiled and said, “Like this cup, your mind is full of what you believe and don’t believe. Before you can learn more, you must empty your cup to make room. |