One of my favorite things to do is pray.
It’s not a religious thing, it’s more of a meditation for me.
I pray about everything. It is the way I have learned to move through life. Often times I receive specific messages from spirit, “go to Vancouver” “call your friend Susan now.” Often times I don’t know why. But often times I experience synchronicity. And like the White Queen said, “it’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,” you don’t know what you’ll get until you come out the other end of it. So you just have to trust.
People often ask, “how do you know, when it’s your inner guidance?’ What I usually say is, “when you hear it, you probably won’t want to do it.” Often times when I receive guidance, my initial response is something like “nooooo….. way!!” It may take me a few red-faced puffs before I follow through. Guidance often takes you out of your comfort zone, it seems, to help you evolve. So if it scares you, chances are, it’s guidance.
When you pray for something, or intend to do something, you create from the inside out. You set the intention within you. Since you and the Creative Source are one, the clearer you are – through diet, spiritual practice, and energy, the clearer the messages can come through. Like a signal that comes through a radio transmission, guidance speaks to you through your intuition. It can be an experience, a feeling, a vision.. that will inspire to move you in one direction over another. The more you listen and exercise your guidance, the more you develop it.
Guidance is also persistent. It’s usually an idea or thought that comes to you, over and over again. Do you what you may, you can try to avoid your inner messages, but I wouldn’t suggest squelching that inner voice of yours, because it may not come back. That small, persistent voice is on your side. It knows what you want. It is the voice of your spirit.
So many people are looking for confirmation, “is this really my guidance?” It’s as though they cannot believe it. But we all receive it. It can be very subtle, so it’s important to trust what you feel. Guidance can be nonsensical and inconvenient, taking you off the path you had planned. But with it comes a feeling of “rightness” and inner expansion. It frightens you and inspires you at the same time.. leading you to places undiscovered.
Following guidance is like a spiritual kriya, a purification practice that brings you to your true essence. Your ego-mind has to step aside in a big way to allow guidance to come through. It takes you beyond what you know. That’s why it can be so scary. It challenges that part of us who “thinks it’s in charge.” Listening to guidance slowly works away at that anxious, insecure part of our being, revealing the nature of God. It shows us what we are made of and how connected we are to source.
Allow yourself to be guided..
Here’s a few ways you can cultivate your guidance:
1) Relax. When you’re relaxed, your energy is flowing. So is your intuition.
2) Pay attention. God speaks to us in innumerable ways. Be present. Follow the signs. Notice who & what shows up in your life. What are the messages?
3) Let go. When you’re not trying, guidance and inspiration can come to you. Why? Because you’re open. You’re receptive. Nothing blocks guidance like a mind that wants to figure everything out.
4) Trust. When I teach intuition, I say, you have to be willing to trust yourself no matter what. No matter what other people say, or reason. Can you trust the perceptions and messages you are receiving? Are you willing to trust yourself?
5) Feel. Pay close attention to your inner feelings. They are intimately connected to your intuition and guidance system. Trust what feels expansive, free and peaceful.
6) Ask. The sky is the limit. What is your true heart’s desire? Ask in a way that is mindful and clear. It is less about entitlement, “I want this, God. Make it happen.” More like, “God, what is keeping me from experiencing abundance? Please show me…”
7) Be grateful. Spend time with God and cultivate a strong relationship with Source. Giving thanks raises your vibration. It opens your energy to the flow of giving and receiving life’s gifts
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“I was not sure where I was going, and I could not see what I would do when I got [there]. But you saw further and clearer than I, and you opened the seas before my ship, whose track led me across the waters to a place I had never dreamed of, and which you were even then preparing to be my rescue and my shelter and my home.”
Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain .
