A Change of Plan

The Fire Horse

The plan was to keep making YouTube videos every week.

The plan was to increase my social media presence.

The plan was to make this year - which, incidentally, is my year, the year of the Fire Horse, the year I turn 60 - a sprint year, going all out to the finish line and finally stamping the seal of “success” on all my efforts of content creation over the last decade.

That was the plan.

But life always has a better one which, I'm happy to say, I've learned to trust much more than my ideas and preferences about how life should unfold.

The shift began during the last few weeks of 2025, when I took inspired action to create a series of Life Audit videos. The idea came from that place within which I have come to know so well - an unquestionable dear friend and guide: my intuition (a.k.a. wisdom, a.k.a. God).

Over a period of six weeks, I shared my personal reflections on how I spend my time, as well as my relationship with my body, money, people, home and belongings. The focus was on tuning into where I felt out of balance and realigning with life in these areas. I shared inspiring and helpful wisdom quotes for each topic, and encouraged those who were watching to join me on this much needed journey of realignment.

What I hadn't counted on was how this intuitive life audit would turn my plan upside down.

Week by week, as I shared my heart on each topic, and how I felt led to make changes, my familiar routine was shifting. A natural letting go was taking place... I found myself letting go of my plan to "make it all happen." I was letting go of my intention to springboard into the new year with renewed gusto and enthusiasm for entrepreneurial endeavours. I was letting go of all of it and just resting.

Ah, what a sweet rest it is when you let go of trying to be and do so much!

The result was that 2026 began with quite the anticlimax. Not that I had the intention of fulfilling a bunch of resolutions, or that the stroke of midnight would usher in a "new me," but that the year of the Fire Horse was gearing up to be more of a leisurely trot than the gallop I had anticipated.

What was even more surprising, was the book that became my companion on this unexpected journey of realignment.

The Surrender Experiment

During one of my quiet days of having time to do things I wouldn't normally do (because I had previously been too busy with content creation), I found myself sorting through a pile of papers I had written back in 2019. Over the years I've amassed a fair bit of paperwork because I like copying out sections of books rather than simply highlighting them. I find it helps me to learn and apply what I'm reading more effectively.

These particular pages were filled with notes I had copied out from a book called The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer. If you know me at all, you'll know that I often talk about one of Michael Singer's other books, The Untethered Soul, which had a profound effect on my relationship with inner resistance. But my recollections of reading The Surrender Experiment were hazy, so I reread my notes from six years ago and decided they were worth copying into my journal.

The more I wrote, the more I realised I needed to read this book again. Of course, as usually happens, I had given my copy away, so I quickly ordered a new one, and persuaded my wonderful husband to read through it with me. We decided to do it like we used to years ago, when I'd give him a reflexology session as he'd read aloud. In this way, we've been working our way through the chapters slowly and delightfully.

Now, I consider myself quite open to life, but The Surrender Experiment is on a whole different level when it comes to trusting the flow of life's unfolding. The more I hear Michael Singer's incredible story of surrender, the more layers of resistance are exposed within my being. This, in turn, is leading to more and more freedom in how I live each day, something I’ll share more about in future blog posts.

"I had seen time and again that letting go not only had amazing results, but it also left me in a state of profound inner peace. I was not in charge; life was in charge and there was an underlying sense of enthusiasm and excitement about getting to see what was going to happen next." ~Michael Singer

The Freedom Experiment

What's fascinating and comforting about living in this way of surrender and trust, is that you don't have to try and figure everything out. You don't even have to worry about whether it's your mind or your intuition that's speaking.

You simply respond to what life is presenting in each moment. And you do it with your whole heart.

Whoever you're with becomes the most important person in the world. Whatever you're given to do becomes your joyful service. When a door opens, you don't need to step through it with fear and trepidation, and when it closes you don't try to break it down because you wanted to go through it. You stop trying to control the uncontrollable. You make peace with life, and life makes peace with you.

"My formula for success was very simple: Do whatever is put in front of you with all your heart and soul without regard for personal results. Do the work as though it were given to you by the universe itself - because it was." ~Michael Singer

Doesn't it seem obvious? Yet it's revolutionary because we're so used to living in our conceptual minds, chasing what we want and avoiding what we don't, that we miss the simplicity and harmony of life.

How can we have the capacity to truly care about others when we're obsessed with thinking about me, myself and I? How can we meet what’s actually here when so much of our attention is lost in our own thinking?

We can't.

What we can do though, again and again, is come back to what's real. We can discern the difference between our thought-created world and reality. We can take our place in the seat of awareness and notice all the trappings of our human experience.

From this place of openness and curiosity, we can begin setting ourselves free - or rather, realising the freedom that's already here when we're not thinking our way out of it.

For me, this has become a Freedom Experiment - a way of following life’s flow, inspired by Michael Singer’s Surrender Experiment. I invite you to join me in seeing what happens when we give ourselves to the moment and learn to trust life deeply.

All you need is openness to life’s unfolding. That means being willing to stop interfering with what’s happening. Of course, that doesn’t mean staying in an unhealthy relationship or situation - fortunately, we have common sense to guide us. But it does mean setting aside our preferences and seeing what happens if we live just one day - today - as if it were divinely directed by the highest, most loving power.

Once you are ready to let go of yourself, life becomes your friend, your teacher, your secret lover. When life's way becomes your way, all the noise stops, and there is a great peace." ~Michael Singer

It takes a lot of courage to let life lead and a certain amount of awareness to start letting go of resistance. But don't believe the thought that it's too difficult. We're all fully capable of giving attention to what’s here, rather than the ramblings of the mind.

Notice your next breath going in and out. Notice any sounds you can hear. What can you see behind you, to your right and left? These are all quick and simple ways to instantly return to present awareness. And when you're here, the mind can take a break from running the show. This is freedom.

What if trusting life was the plan all along?