The Gift of Insight

Insight cannot be taken back. You cannot return to the moment you were in before — Hilary Mantel

I had a lovely chat with Jamie Smart on my IC show this week. He told me how he had first across the Principles in the late 90s, when a friend of his, gave him a copy of Syd Banks’ book, The Missing Link. He read the book and was like, “Yeah, that’s a load of nonsense.”

The second time he came across them, was in the early 2000s when he was out for dinner with Michael Neill. Michael mentioned that he was working with something called the 3 Principles, and Jamie thought “Okay I’ve heard about this stuff before I’ll give it another look.” He re-read The Missing Link and very quickly concluded that Michael must have lost it!

The third and final time he came across the Understanding was in 2009, when he hired Michael Neill as his coach. He had entirely forgotten that Michael coached from the perspective of the 3 Principles. By that stage, he said, the check had already cleared, and he had a strong intuition that there was something here for him to see.

Jamie’s first significant Insight was that “Everything he’d been looking for from the outside world was already within him.” He had very successful NLP business selling products and doing trainings. He was traveling the world doing the work that he loved, but something felt off. He was miserable and couldn’t figure out why. He’d achieved all the goals he’d set for himself. Assuming that, once he reached those goals, he would be happy. But he wasn’t. It was only after coming across the 3 Principles, Jamie saw that the sense of peace, well-being, security, and happiness he’d been striving for all those years was already his. And with that one Insight, his experience of life changed forever.

How many of us can relate to this story? I know I can. One of my first profound Insights after coming across the Principles was that I didn’t have to take my thoughts so seriously. I had just started my mentorship program with the Pransky’s when Linda asked me, “Why are you listening to your Insecure thoughts” after I shared with her what was holding me back from doing what I wanted to do. I thought to myself, “What a strange question. Why wouldn’t I listen to them? They’re mine, and they’re telling me something about myself. They’re reminding me of who I am so that I don’t get delusional and start believing that I can do more than I am capable of.”

What a relief it was to me when I finally realized that this wasn’t true. My thoughts are not personal to me. Thoughts such as “You’re not good enough,” “Who do you think you are?” “You’re never going to amount to anything,” are part of the beautiful complexity of what it is to be human. They are simply part of the cacophony of random thoughts flowing through every one of us daily. Insecure and anxious thoughts are creatures of habit. They like to find a comfortable place and set up camp. Mine had camped out for so long in my head I had mistakenly assumed they were part of the landscape of who I was.

I feel a touch of sadness when I think back to how many years were innocently lost, believing this to be true. How many years spent listening to the negative voice in my head berating me and keeping me down? How many years of missed opportunities due to me believing my limiting beliefs about myself?

How exhilarating it has been to discover that I don’t have to change or control my thinking to feel differently. I see that it’s the relationship to my thinking that has changed, not the content of my thinking. I still get insecure thoughts visiting me from time to time, but I’ve learned not to judge them, resist them, or get all tangled up with them. Now, if those pesky insecure thoughts want to sneak back in, I simply ignore them and tune them out. It’s incredible to see that the less attention you give them, the less likely they are to keep showing up.

I am eternally grateful for having come across this Understanding and for all the ways it has positively impacted my life. Through the gift of Insight, I, too, experience greater levels of freedom, peace, love, and serenity.

With love and appreciation, Del 💕