3 Simple Strategies to Listen to Your Inner Wisdom
A client of mine recently shared with me that the advice she received from her therapist significantly colored her thoughts about a guy that she had just started dating. After her therapist cautioned her to be careful with this guy because men in his profession typically were liars and cheaters, her thoughts about and her behavior towards this new relationship were colored by this filter… ultimately resulting in a premature end to this budding relationship.
While in all honesty the caution/advice she received was probably meant to help her, it also put certain thoughts about the situation into her head. It is actually at her request that I’m writing this post today.
This general tendency to not trust yourself and your own ability to truly know what you need, who you should associate with, and how you should live your life can be at the root of a lot of stress. We have much untapped wisdom within ourselves, we just live in a “noisy” society where we receive lots of external input and forget to listen to the inner wisdom.
How many times have we been told by someone in our lives to “Be careful with people who are X” or that “Y is a sure sign that a person/situation is no good”?
While often these cautions are meant from a place of caring and trying to protect the other person, they also create blinders and filters in our minds and to some degree make us less likely to trust our own knowledge, wisdom, and inner knowing, which I don’t see as truly empowering to us. While other people may have their own wisdom, knowledge, and experience, telling other people how to live their lives and make choices based on that is often not helpful.
So how can you work with trusting your own intuition and inner knowing instead? I’d like to share 3 simple strategies for cultivating your connection to your own inner wisdom.
1) Develop a regular mediation practice. It is through regular meditation and learning to sit with and observe all of the external “noise” and “chatter” that we come into contact with on a regular basis that we can gain clarity on our own inner wisdom.
I always love to begin my meditation practice by tapping Cortices, a BodyTalk tool that helps balance my right and left brain and connect me to my higher self. If you don’t know how, check out this short video I made for you!
Then take a few deep, slow breaths and begin your meditation. You can use guided meditations (You Tube can be a great source of these) or work with simply sitting and observing your thoughts or your physical sensations.
Remember, meditation (especially if you haven’t practiced regularly for many years) is rarely about getting your mind to go completely still and quiet so don’t have that expectation. Instead, use either guided meditations or just the practice of observing what is and don’t worry if you still have chatter going on.
2) After meditating, next spend some time listening to your higher self.
After sitting for awhile using whatever form of meditation you like, you can again tap Cortices, take some deep breaths, and place your hands on your heart. As you sit with your hands on your heart, ask your higher self what you might need to know about a particular person, situation, question, issue… whatever is “up” with you.
Don’t get caught up in whatever advice or “wisdom” others have shared. It might be true, it might not be true. Instead, ask your higher self for the guidance and insight you need.
Also, notice the sensations in your body. Feel tension around your heart or in your stomach? Ask it what it is trying to communicate with you. Getting into your body can be a great way to get out of your head!
It can be helpful to have a journal nearby to write down any insights and “ahas” that come up for you from this process.
3) Find a healing modality that works for you… one that can help you clear away layers of story, old belief systems, all the old “stuff” that you don’t need any more.
It is very easy to get caught up in old stories and beliefs and many times they just keep running like a loop tape in our head. Fortunately, there are many different types of healing modalities out there that can help you release these old stories so you can be clearer. This then supports more clarity in steps 1 and 2.
For me and many of my clients, BodyTalk is an amazing, powerful, and effective system for helping to identify old stuck stuff and to shift it out so you can “update your programming,” so to speak. For others, EFT, Access Consciousness, Reiki, and yogic practices are the key.
Find what works for you and then commit to giving yourself the gift of that healing support on a regular basis.
It is through the process of getting quiet and truly listening to ourselves, as well as receiving regular support from skilled healing practitioners that we can tap into the deep resource and wisdom that we have within! But remember… it is a process that requires regular practice to truly tap into the deep benefits.
Do you have other ways that work for you to get in touch with your own inner wisdom? Share them in the comments below!
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