"I feel a sense of restlessness inside, and I don't know where it's coming from. I don't understand it at all." Last week, I had a coaching session with Peter*, who works as an internal coach at a large organization. Right at the start of our conversation, he asked me to help him find out where this restlessness was coming from.

The underlying pattern is a tendency I see in many (if not all) of my coachees and one that I also recognize in myself. What do you do when you feel an emotion that you'd rather not feel? Where does your attention go? Usually, you start searching for the cause. You think hard to figure out what's behind an uncomfortable feeling, like restlessness in Peter's case. When I explore this with my coachees, we almost always discover the (unconscious) belief that once you know where something comes from, then you can finally do something about it. Perhaps you recognize this as well.

But what if that last belief doesn't have to be true? What could become possible then?

What if 'restlessness' isn't something you need to 'solve' right away, move away from, or even ignore, but something you can approach with curiosity? Instead of trying to control restlessness through your understanding (or, better put, your need to understand), you explore and investigate from a place of not knowing.

Stephen Levine offers a definition of 'healing' that I find both beautiful and powerful: entering with intention and awareness that which you have avoided and run away from. So what becomes possible if you view that feeling as something you open up to and see it as a message you can listen to?

This week, I invite you to notice when you have the urge to understand or find the cause of something. Then, adopt an open attitude and see it as a source of information for a previously hidden message. Embrace your curiosity and explore, listen, sense, and observe. What does it want you to know? And then be open to the answer. That answer might just surprise you.

Happy exploring!

*Name has been changed for privacy reasons.