Tapping Your Inner Wisdom
Tapping your inner wisdom is not something I was taught, but something I learned along the way. For a long time, when people talked about listening to that little voice inside, I thought they were nuts. I thought they were being silly to refer to such things. Now I totally get it, but it took me awhile to figure it out. The inner voice was the one being nice to me.
Those of us with loud inner critics are not missing our inner wisdom. We just can’t hear it over all the constant chatter of a mind that is unsupervised. When you allow your mind to wander, it invariably drives off into a ditch. That’s because the mind only knows one way to be. It can drive you as long as you only encounter the same things you have seen before. If you come upon a curve or a stretch of road you haven’t seen before, the mind struggles. It attempts to do the same thing that it did before, when what you might need is a totally new approach.
That’s where the inner voice is the one you want to hear. Not the one who tells you what’s wrong with you; you want to tap into the one who thinks you are awesome, exactly as you are. And if you can’t hear that voice, then know this: I didn’t either for a long time, but now I do. And you can too.
Inner wisdom feels like a really good idea, come just when you need it. It feels like a good massage, easing all the tension out of your muscles. It leaves you with a soft glow and a sense of peace. It helps you find your way. Most of us can’t hear this inner wisdom because we are caught up in what is happening outside our bodies, rather than inside our bodies. That’s normal. I did that for a lot of years, as I thought my best way to control my inner peace was to control everyone around me. Now that I see the impossibility of that task, I have settled on controlling me. And what I think.
Your inner wisdom is a reflection of your best ideas. It’s a certainty you reach when you are willing to sit, be quiet, and simply be. It’s also a comforting ease you find once you decide that you are going to listen to your true self.
The next logical question is to ask, how do I listen to my true self? And the answer varies by the person, but here are some tips, to help you get started.
Your inner wisdom never criticizes you. Never.
Your inner guidance is always looking out for your best interest. Always.
Your inner voice sounds like love. Always.
Your inner compass always points to what is best for you. Always.
Your inner being always looks out for you. Always.
If these ideas are new to you, grab a piece of paper and write them down. Better still, say them aloud. Or, tape them up near a place where you can read them every day. Get used to the fact that what you say becomes what you believe.
There are many ways to coax out your inner voice, if you have a habit of ignoring it. I will write in future posts about specific techniques to help you find that connection. For today, try out these new ideas of what the inner voice is, and is not. Get comfortable with these new ideas. Let them become part of your lexicon for how you talk about your true self.