It’s easy to get lost when you’re not listening to your inner voice

You know that feeling when you have no idea where you are going and what you are doing? It feels a little panicky, like a sinking feeling in your tightening belly. You feel lost and unsure of how to move forward.

As 2016 came to a close, that is where I was at. I was looking back over my year and thinking about the year ahead, realizing that I had not accomplished any of the goals I’d put out there and it felt bad. Where had I gotten so off track? I had accomplished a few things, worked on some really interesting projects, and painted a bit, but I hadn’t even come close to starting in on some of my big dream goals (a writing project and painting large yoga art pieces to name a few), the exciting ones that keep me up at night.

Stop giving away your power

Instead, I’d spent a good deal of my year clinging to other people’s ideas and ways of doing things. I attempted to follow the paths of people who seemed to be getting it “right.” I signed up for classes I couldn’t really afford and scoured the internet to try and figure out how to get the ball rolling on my big goals. I looked everywhere, in an effort to find my way forward, everywhere but within.

When you expend time and money to learn someone else’s secrets, you give away the power you have to unlock the secrets within your own soul.

With that, I discovered I was not pouring light into my own gifts.

Tune into the wisdom within

After that realization, I spent the last few months, nose deep in my journal, trying to unearth the guidance that lives in my heart. What I discovered was that all my questions get answered the moment I start to listen for and believe in my own inner wisdom. Tune into the wisdom within, it’s all you’ll ever need.

So how do you identify this inner voice, this wisdom within?

Intuition comes in differently for everyone and you have to attune to the unique way your intuition speaks to you and through you.

1. Ask

To discover what your intuition might be trying telling you right now, ask. No for real, right now, just simply ask your intuition “what are you trying to tell me right now.”

2. Get Quiet

Getting rid of all the noise that blocks your deepest knowing from arising can be the trickiest part. Try utilizing this breathing exercise to drop into stillness:

Find someplace quiet and comfortable. Close your eyes and begin to bring your awareness to your breath. Inhale deeply through your nose to the count of 8. At the top of your breath, hold the inhalation for a count of 4. Exhale for the count of 8. At the bottom of your breath, hold out the exhalation for a count of 4. Continue this rhythm for 3-5 minutes. Then release it and sit in the stillness for a few moments. Keep your judging, analytical mind soft as you take note of everything that arises. The message from your intuition could arrive as an image, a sound, a voice or a memory or something else.

3. Trust what arises

Trust whatever comes up, even if it doesn’t make any sense to you at all right in this moment. Write it down, file it away and as you move through your day, notice if you find the message repeating itself, perhaps in different ways. Or perhaps you will find references to it. Begin to become curious about anything and everything that catches your eye.

Recently, I received the message to keep moving inward, to really deeply and truly listen to the voice of my intuition. This message, appeared to me first in a Tarot card of the High Priestess, who is all about opening up and accessing your intuitive powers. The symbol on this card that stuck out to me was a nautilus, a spiral that continued to move in and in. I drew the nautilus on my whiteboard. I found one to put on my altar, I watched Tinkerbell with my daughter and noticed it in the design of the foliage in the movie, I saw it on a neon sign at a local store. I was seeing this nautilus shape everywhere. Thank you intuition for letting me know I need to listen to you, message received.

Is it fear or intuition?

As I began to pay closer attention to these messages, I started to wonder how to tell if it was really my intuition speaking or if it was fear/worry/doubt creeping in. That is when I noticed something about my inner voice that was different from the everyday, familiar voice that makes up most of my thoughts.

Intuition isn’t driven by emotion

The inner voice drops in without emotions attached to it. I might have an emotional reaction to the intuitive thought, but the message itself is not driven by feelings. For example, when I'm painting, my intuition might tell me to use a blob of a particular color green over in the left corner. I might react with an emotion, like "ugh, but I hate green," (I actually really love green) but the thought itself appears without any emotion attached to it. It drops in and is there for me to listen to or not to listen to.