Come into the silence of solitude, and the vibration there will talk to you through the voice of God. –Paramahansa Yogananda
Congratulations. You have arrived. You are on your path exploring your life purpose. If you are like me, you have a spiritual practice and aim to be in balance. Maybe you do yoga, meditate, limit your caffeine intake, give to charity, and manage to count to ten before you lose it in a stressful situation.
So here you are, on your “path,” wondering what to do next in this metaphor. Walking forward seems obvious. But you are just not feeling it. What’s around that corner past the trees? you wonder. What if a giant boulder has broken free or even worse, it ends in a cliff causing you plummet to your untimely death? You could just stay put for now. And maybe there’s a Starbucks that serves decaf close by if you just step off the path. Then you could take a break, check in on FB, and catch a much needed nap.
But a thought pops into your head. Have courage and move forward. At first it’s tentative but it pings one more time with insistence. Have courage and move forward. You look around. Did anyone hear that? But you are alone. So you dismiss it. Then doubt rolls in like murky grey clouds. Now you need advice. Maybe you should call someone. But you don’t have your cell. Is there a phone out here in the woods? A telephone booth concealed in a tree?
In real life, you recently took a risk and started a new company. Things are progressing slowly. You are considering your next step. You think, take a course with a good instructor, a marketing course. But what course? There are so many. Then you trip over a newspaper on your front porch. The next day. The delivery boy plops the newspaper on your porch and it flies all over in a gust of wind. As you are silently cursing under your breath and gathering soggy paper remnants from your lawn, you notice an add for a course marketing small businesses just like yours. But you are late and so annoyed, that you miss the point.
And my point is. If you are reading this, you are most likely on your path. So it’s time for courage and action. Guided action and lots of courage. Not sure about that? I have two questions I fall back on when I’m feeling the glass is half empty and I am the glass. “If not you, then who?” Chased by another, “If not now, then when?” And if you come up with answers other than Me and Now, you can stop reading.
We are so often looking for external answers, that we miss our own internal wisdom sending up flares. We put so much value on people, friends, strangers, telling us what we should do. And they have their place, but if you are always looking outwards, you are missing your own insight and giving your own sweet power away.
It all starts with intuition. Intuition. It sounds so mysterious. So elusive. But we all have it. It’s the repeated thought telling you to do something. It may be subtle at first, until it pops into your head and lingers like sticky rice on a plate. No, not the thought telling you shouldn’t have drunk two glasses of water before going to bed when you wake up with a full bladder. While hydrating is good, it’s true your timing may not have been stellar. But it’s not the voice of criticism and reproach. Put that voice away. It’s not the voice telling you what you should have done differently. But instead it’s voice that asks: “Why not try this?” Then says: “Try this now.”
How to Tune into Your Intuition:
- Begin by asking your Higher Power for guidance on a particular subject. I ask the Angels for guidance. They are a big part of my belief system. But whatever your view, putting your question out to the universe makes it crystal clear you want answers.
- Be open to receiving. Guidance most often comes to you first. You just have to be listening. You may have a thought or a repeated urge to do something. You may feel like journaling or writing.
- After you receive inner guidance, “something that sticks” then look for confirmation. And, in fact, your friend may call talking about a great marketing course she just heard about. You know, the one in the newspaper you tripped over? It will give you a “green light” moment where your idea clicks.
- This is the big one. Trust what you receive and have the courage to take action.
And remember those things that put you on your path in the first place? The meditation, the yoga, and the spiritual development? They not only align you on your path, but also put you in the mental space to receive guidance to stay on course.
You always have the free will to opt out at any point. In which case, you will find yourself twiddling your thumbs and wondering if it wasn’t cozier back by the copse of trees you just passed. But I ‘m not casting stones. In fact, I still find myself in a glass house on occasion.
For example, I recently participated in an exercise in a self-development course. The object was to win the most points. The instructor gave us all kinds of rules. Complicated rules. And as I listened I had the thought, “Ask your teacher why not just vote for yourself.” And I dismissed it, and then I had it again, more insistent. “Ask your teacher why not just vote for yourself.” It made sense to me. More, it felt right. It was simple. It cut through the crap and was in line with the way I like to do things. But it didn’t seem to “fit” into the parameters of the game. I second guessed my intuition. Well, after playing according to the complicated rules, it was made obvious, that voting for yourself was the right way to go. It had been a test. And I had missed the boat, the plane, and the train that had been rushing through my brain.
The lesson I took from the experience is to listen to those insistent thoughts. They can be pesky. You know the ones telling you to stretch yourself, to have courage and sometimes open your mouth and say something that goes against the grain? So, when you get a thought that repeats. Check it and see how it feels. Does it feel like it takes you closer to where you want to go? And is it hard to ignore? Does it just feel right even if it is slightly terrifying? If so, you have a sign from your intuition.
And once you get the intuitive go ahead, the universe will send you signs to confirm. My confirmation sign from the above experience came when I leaned over to a friend, just before we began the exercise, and she said, “We should just vote for ourselves.” And I still ignored it.
When you act on your intuition, it takes you further along the path that is your highest good. And the beauty of you and your intuition acting together creates limitless possibilities. An unlimited you. That has such a nice ring.
And the next thing you know, you are standing in your power, right where you should be.
Your intuition is calling!
Namaste,
Kasey