How wonderful to hear from you! You just have to love ruts, don’t you?

Okay, so what I hear you saying is that you see yourself as being in a realllllllllllllly wide rut with an imaginary electric fence of fear that runs along either side to keep you in. Hmmm, cool. So, let me ask you: How does that fear serve you? And why do you make its expanse so big around you? (i.e., Do you require that big a rut of it to keep you afraid? And what if you decided you didn’t want to be afraid any more . . would the rut get narrower . . or fainter . . or might you turn off the electricity that charges it altogether?

Then again, even though your big wide rut carries your fear, the rut and the fear are known quantities to you. Do you perhaps feel safer inside the rut you know, than you do in the wide open world of unknowns? The rut certainly doesn’t expect anything of you. You made it good and wide . . plenty of room to stretch out. . .

You know, not knowing a whole lot about electric fences, I did a quick check. And I learned something really neat: It seems the current in electric fences is typically set to pulse at 55 to 65 per minute, followed by about a one second stretch of no current. That tells me two things that might be worth your considering in your internal rut scenario.

First, if you’re pretty quick on your mental feet – which I know you are – you should have no difficulty skipping outside that fence any time you want to take a different look at the world. Your choice, of course.

And second, since you’re the creator of your particular electric fence, you get to decide the speed of that current. You even get to turn it off if it no longer serves your purpose. What is that purpose again?

Thanks for sharing my friend. It’s great hearing from you! – g

When I stopped to ponder this, my first thought was that I don’t have a rut – and maybe I could actually use one. At least a rut tends to travel in a straight line, moving forward towards something.

I see myself as bouncing around all over the place, never getting anywhere. Now I’m thinking that I *am* actually in a rut…a really wide one, bordered by fear. I sometimes see this fear as a “wall” – but now I’m thinking it’s more like an electric fence (where the electric part is actually imaginary, if you know what I mean…)

I believe awareness is the key (to just about everything). If I see myself in the rut, see the imaginary edges, see my habitual behaviour – I can make different choices. At least in theory.

Thanks for the thought provoking post!