Have you ever burnt soup before?... or have you ever burnt any kind of food, spaghetti, pasta, rice, chili or some other stew?

When I was in university and cooking for myself for the first time, I learned all about how to burn soups, pastas, rices, and a whole slew of other dishes. You could say I became a master at learning how to transform colorful foods black!:)

I learned so much from burning soup, that I named one of my courses, How to Become Spiritually Stirred, not Shaken!... which may be offered later this fall in Ontario.

What I am about to share with you is what burning soup taught me about living life... yes, you really can learn about life by cooking in the kitchen!

When you burn soup, you have one of three main options:

1. Pretend you never burnt it and throw in extra garlic to cover up the taste.

Or,

2. Throw it all out and start from scratch or order take-out.

Or,

3. Stir the soup/chili, and skim out the burnt flakes.

What I found to be interesting about the experience of burning soup is that it is much like life.

When you attract a crappy day, experience, challenge, or person into your life, you have three options:

1. Stay with it/him/her and pretend that it is not bothering you and add lots of activities to your life and day so that you distract yourself - In other words, suppress it.

Or,

2. Throw it/him/her away, let it go, eliminate it from your life - In other words cut it.

Or,

3. Shift your attention away from the crappy qualities to the ones that are endearing or attractive, in other words, just accept it for what it is including both good and not so good - in other words, clear it!

These are the words, I have begun to live by:

Suppress it, clear it, or cut it!

Sometimes it is best to just put your emotions aside. For example, if you are headed into a job interview, the last thing you would probably want to do is begin having a disagreement or cry in front of your potential employer. The best thing to do may be to give yourself permission to put the emotion aside until the end of the interview then take another step with it. Keep in mind though, suppressing is only useful for a very short time frame and eventually, sooner rather than later, it is best to follow through on one of the next two actions.

Sometimes it is best to clear it. If you are having a disagreement with your spouse, rather than just ending your relationship, the most effective action step to take may be to talk it through and come to clarity on how you can work together.

And sometimes it is best to just cut it! If you have dinner cooking for family and friends and when you sit down to eat it, you find that you really burnt it (and by-the-way I am not speaking from experience - I can now cook pretty well;), then perhaps it is better to just throw it out and order take-out than restart the whole thing.

This model can apply to any challenge you have, regardless of whether it is emotional, mental, physical, financial, energetic, spiritual, social, romantic, or familial.

If you are experiencing a challenge in some area of your life take some time right now to determine if it is best to suppress, clear or cutit, then follow through on that.

And let me know how it goes. Often, just spending the few moments on asking whether it is best to suppress, clear or cut the thing you are having a challenge with is enough for it to clear on its own.

With this in mind,

Have a great week and Be-Inspired!

Warmly,

Joshua