(11 months ago, I broke my leg in three places. The recovery has been long and difficult. I was away from my Cottage and my Paints for 7 months. And I’M BACK … not 100% … but enough to write!)
Journal Prompt: How do you experience and recognize spiritual guidance in your everyday life?
Guidance has been a difficult thing to discern. My “human nature” (i.e., ego) is strong, my emotions are turbulent, and I am often afraid. All those things make a lot of noise and take up a lot of space in my mind.
In order to perceive the Voice of Spirit, I must step outside the usual cacophony and “get quiet.” Meditation helps. Being in nature, contemplating, even painting all encourage the “small, still voice” to emerge.
So, I experience Spirit’s guidance as a kind of alignment of my body, mind, and spirit. An idea will occur to me (i.e., “the guidance”), and there is an instant reaction. It feels like my body is being magnetically pulled into action around the idea. At the same time, my emotions light up with excitement; there is a feeling of delighted anticipation.
My mind is fascinated; my body is geared up; and my emotions are fueled with crackling energy. THAT is what happens when I receive spiritual guidance. I FEEL it in the whole of my being. I recognize it as something “in me” but not “of me.”
It all happens in a couple seconds, and so if I’m not paying attention, it can vanish just as quickly as it arrived. Inspiration happens in the time it takes to inspire—literally, to take a breath. Sometimes I get an electrical tingling all through my body, even goose bumps. I suppose the point of writing all this detail is that I do know how I know when I am hearing the voice of my inner wisdom, higher self, the Divine, Spirit (it has many names).
The problem, however, remains: What do I do with the guidance? Do I follow it? One would think, “Of course! Follow it!” But remember the aforementioned ego? That part of me isn’t so quick to comply. Often, like a small child being sent off to bed, it crosses its arms, stomps its feet and grumbles: I don’t want to!
That part can be very stubborn. It likes comfort and safety. It likes to play games on its phone, watch movies on TV, read trash mystery novels, and browse Facebook until it finds something to criticize (which takes no time at all to find but hours to indulge in).
The challenge is to recognize and experience the guidance as it occurs and then focus on it for a bit, allowing the alignment experience to lift my soul to a level of high vibration. With every breath, I can feel the effects of the high frequency of spiritual alignment. It feels like calm, like peace, like love, like I don’t want to ever leave the moment.
And if I can stay in that state for just a few minutes, without the need to think about it, analyze it, create a plan of action—if I can simply be, to just experience it, then I will get the fuel I need to eventually follow through.
Later, when my ego tries to persuade me out of acting on the guidance: We’re too tired … that’s a lot of work … what if no one comes? … I don’t feel like it … can we do this later? … I’m so tired! … when I hear the whining, I can close my eyes, take a deep breath and REMEMBER the state of alignment. I can feel it again. I can connect with its truth and its wisdom.
That’s when Trust and Obey come into play. And that’s a whole ‘nother ball game, for a whole ‘nother blog.
Coach Barbie Dallmann 