The Science And Mystics Of Staying Open

Welcome to find you'd Clarity. I'm your coach and your show host, Megan Johnston. For over a decade, I've helped women move from burnout, pressure and overthinking to clarity, confidence and ease. If you've been stuck in a cycle of self doubt or fear, this is your space to come back to you. Each episode will blend real life coaching, grounded tools and intuitive insight to help you trust yourself more, lead with your energy and take your next aligned step Now. Now let's find your clarity and the life that's been waiting for you on the other side. Welcome to the show, my friend. I'm so glad you're here. Oh gosh. I feel like we all need a collective exhale. Do you feel like that? I've been doing a lot of breath work and energy sessions with my clients recently and if you've never experienced an energy session, first of all, we've done a live one on the show, so I'll link it up in the show notes. But it is your opportunity to lean back, give your mind a rest and active or access other places of wisdom in your body. And I've been doing a lot of those this week. And I think we all need a collective exhale. We all need to lean back. We've all processed a lot with our brains and, and we need a breath. So take a breath right here, my friend. Right now. We're talking about staying open today. I'm really excited for this conversation. So the idea around staying open is you're facing a desire or a needle and you're looking for a solution. And I don't know if you've ever been told to stay open. I coach a lot around staying open to the possibilities. Openness is such a catalyst to what I call real life magic happening, which is basically just those moments in life where something happens that you are just in awe of. And when we stay open, we create space for those moments to happen. And when we are closed, we have kind of that tunnel vision. There's only one way this is going to unfold, and so what keeps happening? That one way keeps unfolding. So before we dive into the juiciness and talking about both the science and the mystical side of it, I want to invite you to the free class that's happening this week. It's all about understanding your human design. And even if you have no idea what that word is, human design, you're like, what? I know nothing about that. This is the place for you to come to turn resistance into ease. This is all about uncovering how you're uniquely wired to find flow. If you've been curious about human design or you've just been curious about how you can navigate life without second guessing yourself and having more trust in yourself, this is the space for you. Maybe you're spinning over starting a project or putting yourself out there in a different way. This is the. The class for you to learn some keys to go from tight and tense to easeful, inflow and confident. So I'll put the link in the show notes and I'll be super excited to see you there. Okay. So with that, let us explore the science and the mystics of staying open. So I think I wanted to bring these two layers to this conversation because I think often when we hear like, you just gotta stay open, it feels very. I mean, just the. The saying in itself, you just gotta stay open. It feels very airy. Like, it feels like, okay, cool, yeah, I'll just stay open. Like there's like the little inner. I have. My inner voice has a lot of eye rolls and drama. Your inner voice might be a rebel or something else, but it just sounds very airy, very mystical. And there is a mystical side to this, but I think that's usually the spotlight it gets. And I think we can so easily go into like, no, but you don't understand, like, this is how it's going to happen. So I'll use an example of my own life that has resonated with a lot of you all. Thank you for sharing. I've talked on the podcast a few times about when I went back to get a job because I was feeling a lot of money pressure and my business wasn't creating the income that I needed to in order to survive. And surviving is important for thriving. My friends and I've shared on the show before. But just in case this is your first time hearing this, I don't think there's one path for everyone. I don't think there's one way to create success, even in this. Even if you're feeling pressure around your money and your business, I don't think the only answer is going to get a job. That's just what worked for me. When I went to do that. I had all these stories come up, like, oh my gosh, I'm going to have to go back to this horrible corporate space where it's toxic and they don't give me any freedom and they want me to be on all the time. All. All these horror stories that are just really ingrained in our society about how we work and if you're online, you've been fed that. If you run an online business that is, you've been fed that like tenfold. With all of the marketing that has been out there of like break free from the nine to five. And I mean that's like a tame version of the language and very real past experiences with not great corporate fields. And so all these stories came up and what did I find? I found myself a job in a corporate space that took a lot of time, a lot of energy and was kind of a toxic space. That was the solution. I thought that was going to come and it did. And I think often this is what happens when we're closed, when we're in tunnel vision, but when we open, we create a new reality. And so I ultimately left that job after four months because it wasn't putting me in a good space. It was not fueling me in the right direction. I didn't feel joy. Joy is one of my strongest values and one of my markers of alignment, one of my markers of success. And I didn't feel it present. I felt like I was in a environment that wasn't good for me. I don't think it was a bad environment. It just wasn't good for me. I was finding myself falling into patterns that didn't feel like myself. And so I left after four months and I fell back on my, my business. That's a story for another time. But ultimately I went back to get another job, but this time with an openness. And that changed everything for me. And I found the most perfect place that I didn't know existed. With so much freedom, I could. It was all remote. I could choose exactly when I wanted to get it done. It wasn't about the time that we did something. It was about getting it done in the. And using our own energy. I didn't know this existed. In a, in a job space, I was seen, I was recognized. It was like they were using like self help and personal development talk without actually being in that field. It was incredibly, incredibly mind opening for me in so many ways. And so that's what the magic of openness can do for us. It takes us from. This is the one way that it's going to play out to actually there's infinite ways it's going to play out. And why is that? Let's get into the why. I'm going to start with the science and then I'm going to go into the mystics, the kind of part that we can't explain. But there's also A lot we can explain. So let's talk about the science of staying open. I think the primary reason that staying open works is because of our reticular activating system. And I think this is particularly at play when we are, in times of stress, if we're in tunnel vision. So if we're in tunnel vision in times of stress, our literally the job of our reticular activating system is to kick in and make it easy, to make it super simple. So basically, it's a network within our brain that regulates us. It acts as a filter for sensory information. So it allows you to focus and ignore distractions. And so if you're in stress, it's designed to take you out of fight or flight mode as fast as possible. So here's how it works. For the next 10 seconds, I want you to look around your space, or if you're driving, kind of use your peripherals, and I want you to find as many blue items as you can. So you're looking around, you're finding as many blue items as you can, looking for the blue in your room, finding all of the blue items maybe you forgot you even had. You didn't even realize you had. Taking them all in, as if I'm going to make you list as many as possible. And then coming back to this moment with me, your timer is up, you've found all the blue. And now I'm going to ask you, how many brown items did you see? How many brown items did you see? And maybe you can name a couple. But your brain was so focused on finding the blue, maybe you didn't find any. Maybe you're like, there's actually no brown that exists in this room. That is how this system works. And it is at play on grander scales than that. Another example of that is if you've ever. I know I've done this one. If you've ever gone car shopping and you've started looking at a certain car, and then all of a sudden, it's the only car that you see, that is the system at work. And it plays on these levels. It plays on all levels because its job is literally to help us make things simple. And so think about that. If you are set on, okay, this is the thing, and this is the only way it's going to play out. You are going to unconsciously and consciously look for opportunities that fit that narrative because it's an easy path for your brain. It cuts off all of your body wisdom. It cuts off your gut feeling. It cuts off your intuitive knowing. It Cuts off your emotional response and it finds the fastest track to what you know. And so when we open, we open that system to more like, okay, that could be the reality. That can still be true. You don't have to get rid of the thing you think could still be true. When I stayed open to a job that didn't feel like that, I still knew we can't, we can only trick ourselves so much. I still knew that that could be a possibility. I could land somewhere again that I didn't like. But I was open to something better. And so I found better opportunities. When you allow yourself to stay open, you are literally rewiring your brain. You're rewiring your brain and you're also rewiring your body. Because we do have a whole body underneath our head. And when we're in that tight, closed off tension state, we either shut it down completely and don't hear anything else that's going on in our inner world, or we also store memories in our body. And so our body speaking to us towards the solution that we might not actually want. We're finding the answer of what we don't actually want, but we're seeing it play out again and again because there's a memory stored in our body and in. And part of that feels safe. And so when we open up, we rewire all of the connection points. Staying curious. And that's, I think curious is another way to think about staying open. If you're like, I don't know if I can do this whole, like, open thing, like, I'm open to anything, I'm open to all possibilities, then use curiosity. I'm curious with it. If that wasn't true, what might be. I'm curious with it. If I wanted to change this, what might I change it into? So use curiosity instead of openness. If that feels a little bit further of a stretch and that starts to make your brain and your body adaptable, you start to get out of fear. When you let curiosity in, doesn't mean fear goes away. Fear's here to stay, but it allows you to activate other centers. And I think if we bring human design into this conversation, there's so much more nuance at play here and like so many other layers between. You know, if we're just talking about the brain and the mind, you know, the person who has an open mind center is going to experience that tension maybe differently than someone who has a defined mind. And so if you know that part of your chart, something to consider is like, if you have a open Head center, which is the very top triangle on your human design chart. If you have an open one so there's no color in it, then the strength, the gift is being in such inspiration and your mind really being like this playground for possibilities. But the shadow, or I should say and the shadow, because it's not necessarily about always being in the wisdom. The shadow helps you learn. The shadow of it is feeling super scattered. And what fixes that scatteredness? Tunnel vision. Let me find the quick fix, let me get out of this pain quickly. And instead, what if your mind was the playground? If you have a defined head, so top triangle colored in, that means you might find that you have a really fixed way of thinking and so your stubbornness can kick in. No, this is the way it's going to happen. You might be thinking. And so how can the strengths of your mind actually support you to be curious when we. The more safety we feel, the more easeful it is to stay open. When we're stressed, we're going to close off because we're going to look for that fast answer. And so the more safety you can cultivate. So practices that create safety in your body. I can't define your safety, only you can define your safety. But finding practices, grounding practices, breath practices, journal practices, practices that connect you back to you, these can really help you create and cultivate a safety. This is something I see and celebrate constantly in my beautiful members in the back to you space. They're creating journaling routines, they're creating energy routines, and all of the sudden they feel like they can actually look at things through an open lens because there's a new variation of safety in their system. So that's the science behind it. Let's talk about the mystical, the part that doesn't really have an explanation. And this is true too. Both of these things can be true at once. And sometimes we want the science so bad, it's just like, tell me the how, especially my one lines in human design. Love the science. What, like how is this actually working? The certainty can feel really safe. That's a form of safety. And uncertainty, not knowing will also always be a part of life. And so even if you have your foundation, how safe can you feel? And just not knowing some of it. And so sometimes when we practice that openness, things just kind of fall into place. It's the synchronicities, it's the signs, it's the things that we cannot explain. It's the thing that happens when we let go and we say, okay, you know what? I'VE been gripping the reins too hard. It's not working. I'm going to let go. And then all of a sudden, synchronicity starts coming into play. So, for example, when you decide you're going to stay open, you simply make the decision, like, okay, I'm letting go. I'm going to stay open. All of a sudden, the quote, right book, or right person or right message suddenly lands as if out of nowhere. That is the mystical side of staying open. It's because you're showing up in a different way. You're changing the science that this magical stuff kind of happens. And sometimes, sometimes it has an explanation, but sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it just lands and you're just like, how did that happen? Like, the email I got for the job opening that changed every story I have about how we work. I barely knew this company that came into my inbox, but it landed the minute I was like, I'm not doing that anymore. But I still need some foundation so that my business can continue to grow because I can't operate out of this place of pressure. And all of a sudden, this email lands. No one sent it to me. No one forward it to me. It landed. That's the magic. Sometimes it does have an explanation, because all of a sudden you open up and you. You share it vulnerably with a group that you know, and they send you a job, they send you a blind date or whatever it is you're looking for, or you go to a different place because all of a sudden you're open and you change your routine, you shake up your comfort zone. One of my favorite ways to shake up your comfort zone is to change your routine, because our comfort zone thrives in repetition. You change your routine because you've decided, okay, I'm going to stay open, so I'm going to go somewhere new. And all of this, and you run into a person that changes your life. Maybe it's not that dramatic, but maybe it changes your day. So there is this magic that happens when we open up, and sometimes we don't need to know the why. Sometimes that is just part of the uncertainty of life. I think there's also this invisible veil. Don't. Don't leave me. Science friends who are listening to the episode. But I do think there's this invisible veil between fear and love. That. And I was just talking about this today with a client, except I was naming it Fear and Faith. And I was talking about when we. When we drive down the road every day, or if you don't drive. You ride in a car. There are two painted lines on the road. And we have complete faith that those two painted lines will keep the multiple ton cars. I don't know how much a car weighs will keep them on their side. That's faith. And you can think of that as the invisible veil between fear and love. And there's something that happens when we decide to go to be open. There's something that changes in our energy, meaning there's something that changes in the way we show up when we decide to stay open. When the wall is down, when the barrier is lifted, or I should say the veil is lifted, when you break down the barrier, your energy shifts. And I always say your energy speaks before you do. Right. So if you particularly someone you love in your life, if they walk in the room and they're in a bad mood, you know how you can instantly tell and they just don't even say anything. They don't even have the facial feature or anything. You can just tell that's energy. And I send people we, we love. But I think that that happens with complete strangers too. You know when you just get a vibe and you're like, oo, something's going on there. That's not my person. Interesting. You have the, that's your energy speaking. That is your energy speaking before you do. And when you shift from fear to love, when you cross that invisible veil, your energy changes and that changes the way you interact with people. That changes the way you look for opportunity. Openness is a frequency, not just a mindset. Let me say that again. Openness is a frequency, not just a mindset. The way you show up in the opportunities and the pathways that you're creating matter. So how do we bridge these two worlds together? Maybe you already have. Maybe you already have noticed how you can bridge these two and how the two can support each other. So how your brain, the science, your filtering that you do, and the synchronicity, the mystic, the magic. Maybe you're already noticing how it's the same thing just in different languages, saying the same thing with different words. And notice what supports you. I have a little experiment for you this week. Let's practice priming your inner system. So prime your inner system with an intention to stay open. This could be something like, I want to see as many yellow cars as possible. Sounds like a kind of a hard one, right? I can't think of the last time I saw a yellow car. It could be, I want to see as many oranges as possible. This week, set an Intention to look for and then notice those moments that you catch it. Maybe you call that a little moment of synchronicity. So that's your little experiment for the week. I hope that this episode has served you today in some way. Whether you are in a space of feeling really closed off and questioning if anything's ever going to smooth it all out, or if you're feeling open, but maybe you're starting to edge on the is this even working kind of thing. Because I do want to say we're often fed the story. Even I shared a story today. We're often fed the story of like, and then, you know, this happened and then this happened. And it can feel very instant, even my story about the jobs, I want to say that there was quite the timeline in between that it wasn't, okay, I'm gonna get a job. Okay, I got the job. Okay, quit the job. Okay, got new job. No, it was tension, tension, tension. Got job. That's not working. I quit. Tension, tension, tension, tension, tension. Some good. Tension, tension, tension, tension, tension. Several months, new job. And so the practice of staying open, it can. I mean, I won't say it's always going to take a long time because I think things can happen in rapid speed a hundred percent. And it's an ongoing practice. And it's not about never closing off. Like I just said, the window between job one and job two. There's certainly times that I was like, this isn't gonna work. I'm just gonna end up in a bad spot. Again, the story. Why do I keep doing this? Why can't I just figure this out? So it's not about never closing off. It's about remembering we can soften and then opening back up and maybe just playing with that practice of like, look how open I can be and set an intention and look for it. So I thank you for listening as always. I'd love to hear from you. If this episode landed today, you can send me a little note to the email inbox world or you can share the episode that always lets me know that you enjoyed this topic and also shares it with a friend, spreads the love who might need this message today as well. I can't wait to see you in class this week if you're joining us. Have a beautiful, magical open week, my friend. I'll see you soon.