People often ask me, how do you recognise inner guidance? I am sure this inquiry is as old as time, and that there are a great many answers to this rich and important question.
In my experience, the soul speaks to us pretty consistently and is always there as a background hum. The ‘voice’ is not audible in the usual sense, so much as it is an awareness of inner sentient presence. It arises from a deep well of understanding and is in tune with the emerging ‘is’ of a situation. Our higher soul is the shining presence that is always attempting to guide us. It is silky and pervasive.
The conscious mind is such an incredible tool in our lives, and it is necessary for our survival and for living our best life. However, like fire, it can be a great servant yet a terrible and cruel master. In fact, it can effectively create a veil over that which we most covet: connection with our higher soul’s wisdom.
When left in charge, the mind can dwell on old programs, fears and triggers. This can overwhelm us, creating noise in our heads, so that we miss the silkiness of the enlightened presence. Instead, we face a metaphorical tangle of inner barbed wire comprised of all of our thoughts, assumptions, limiting beliefs, other people’s opinions, all kinds of attachments, including some from the past and perhaps some from the present.
One of the ways we can ease ourselves into a more aware state is to consciously release any and all attachments to people, places, things, times and events to which we cling.
While the ego feels that those attachments are worth fighting for, and only when attained will there be peace, the reality is that those very attachments are the blockage to self-arising peace. What a conundrum! No wonder the spiritual path gets complex at times.
You can try this:
- Think of a situation that is not flowing for you
- Invoke the Divine presence, in the way that is right for you and take a few lovely breaths to settle your mind.
- Say: “I now release all attachments that are holding me back from inner peace and wellbeing. I set them free from my body, mind and spirit”
- Breathe in and release.
- Repeat a total of 3 times.
- Zoom out from the detail and focus on the big picture of your life and the essence you are seeking, beyond the narrow confine of the immediate objective. This larger perspective may have more to do with a state, like being in the flow, or to be in good health, to be at peace, to find contentment, meaning, joy and love and so on.
- Ask for that: “I ask to be guided as to how best to be in the flow, to experience good health, to be at peace, to find contentment, joy and love, and may I have the strength to follow that guidance. In full faith so be it”
- Then, enjoy your life. In a relaxed mode, you will find that ideas seem to drop into your mind out of nowhere. It is not from nowhere. It is from the soul dimension of your being, where endless wisdom abides.
