I understand that we all have inner guidance and if we can look within ourselves and listen, we can connect with that guidance and it will help to keep us on the path we need to be on. I also understand how difficult it can be to connect with that guidance and to believe and follow that guidance once we are actually fully aware of it.
Our guidance comes in so many ways, through thoughts that reoccur in our brains, through small quiet voices drawing our attention to something, through pictures that pop into our heads showing us scenes, through people outside of us telling us something we needed to hear, through songs, TV, books and through animals. The variety of ways we receive guidance seem rather endless and sometimes difficult to determine. We tend to not pay attention to most of the messages we receive because they are so subtle or we are too busy to slow down and just look. Sometimes we get hit with the 2x4 guidance such as injuries that slow us down, then we usually start to pay attention. Nothing like a kick in the pants to wake us up when we aren't paying attention to our guidance.
Once we figure out that anything and everything can be a message for us and we start looking for them and paying attention to them we then have to decide if we are going to receive the message or if we are going to let our doubts keep us from accepting that we are indeed receiving guidance that will help us. This is not as easy as it sounds.
We might ask ourself why would someone NOT follow their guidance if they are aware of it? There are a variety of reasons that I can think of one being self doubt. We live in a society that isn't very accepting of intuition or inner guidance. Most of our society is not opened to following their inner guidance and listening to the quiet inner voice within themselves. It may even be considered crazy to admit that you hear your inner voice or that you receive signs through visions or from seeing animals. Many are totally unaware of animal totems and the native beliefs of what certain animals can symbolize for us. Many are afraid to look for signs around them because of religious beliefs. We seem to have lost our connection with nature and with our own self and what we are capable of giving and receiving. In a society such as this is it any wonder that we would be filled with doubts about our own inner guidance?
Along with doubt there is fear. What if what my guidance comes from the Devil? How will I know if my guidance is "good" or "evil"? Won't the Devil be sneaky and come to me in ways that appear safe because he is trying to trick me? How can I possibly trust my own guidance? How can I know what is "right" and what is "wrong" and keep myself safe? Who am I to receive guidance, don't only the holiest ones receive guidance?
Doubts and fear can fill us and keep us from connecting with and accepting our guidance. Doubts and fears cause blocks, they confuse and distract us and can even cause illness in our bodies and minds.
Letting go of doubts and fears is not always easy. We may have been filled with them for so long that being in a doubtful, fearful state feels natural or normal to us. We may even feel uncomfortable when we aren't filled with doubt and fear. We aren't brought into the world full of doubt and fear, that is something that we learn and we can work to unlearn it.
Unlearning this is not an easy process and it takes commitment, dedication and focus. We need to decide that we no longer desire to be filled with doubts and fear, then we need to start reprogramming our minds. When we feel ourselves fill with doubt and fear we can put a stop to it. It's OK and even healthy to let ourselves look at our doubts and fears and see what they are stemming from, but then we have to get them in control by refusing to allow them to swallow us up and consume us. We have the power to stop our thoughts and control them and if we want to get past being filled with doubt and fear, that is what we need to do. We must learn to control our thoughts rather than allowing them to control us.
When a doubt or fear enters our mind we can stop and think, where is this doubt/fear coming from? Is this doubt/fear based on something that is happening right now in the situation I am dealing with right here at this time or is it coming from some past experience? Is this doubt/fear based on something someone outside of me has told me? Is it based on beliefs that have been built on fear and condemnation that I have learned throughout my life time? Is it rational to give into this doubt and fear and let it control me?
After examining where our doubts and fears are coming from, we can set them aside and focus on what we've received as guidance. Without the doubt and fear clouding our thoughts, how does the guidance make us feel? How does it speak to our hearts or touch our souls? Does what we are receiving touch something deep within us? Does it speak to the center of us and feel "right"? Does it cause us to feel the need to look deeper and really connect with what is going on?
We shouldn't allow ourselves to stop and think what those outside of ourselves would think about it, but look deep within ourselves and see what we think and feel about it, that is what is really important. When we connect with what feels right deeply within us we will be better equipped to deal with our outside world, to see where our guidance lies and discern what feels "right" and what feels "wrong" for us as we work our way through this world. If the voices we are hearing are filled with fear and doubt, they are not the voices of our inner guidance, they are voices of the world outside of us. Our true inner guidance will not use doubt and fear to lead us, it will use love and understanding with firmness.
I'm not saying this will be easy, overcoming doubt and fear has been a huge challenge for me, one I work through on a daily basis. Doubt and fear seem to have been deeply ingrained in us and our society, it's no surprise that it will take awhile for us all to be able to overcome them and let them go. With persistence, commitment and the intention to move beyond doubt and fear I don't doubt we can do it!
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