A few things about guidance.
The simplest is to ask myself and wait for an answer. It may come right away or some while later. And it’s usually clear, simple and kind. What a wise person would tell me.
Another is the guidance that comes for me in the turnarounds. Life should help me –> I should help me. By making a list of how I want life to help me, in which areas and with very specific and practical examples, I can turn this around to myself and see how I can help me. This is a guidance for how to live my life.
When I don’t follow these types of guidance, it’s often because I believe certain thoughts that stop me from living it. What am I afraid would happen if I follow my guidance? What do I find when I look into these beliefs?
A related exploration here is what happens, how is it, when I follow this guidance? What happens, and how is it, when I don’t? In my experience, following the guidance gives a sense of ease, of being held by God, of being on track, and it feels kind. When I don’t follow the guidance, there is a sense of stress, discomfort, and of being (temporarily, in a limited sense) off track.
I lived for about ten years with a clear inner guidance in smaller and larger things. I followed it, and opportunities opened up in amazing ways, I felt on track, there was a sense of ease and the inner guidance got more and more clear. Then, I got into a situation where my clear inner guidance was in conflict with some strong beliefs and fears in me, and since it was a lasting and quite important (all encompassing) situation, the dissonance became very strong. This was the beginning of the dark night, and a relatively long period of feeling off track, discomfort, and even inner turmoil. Since God/life is kind, the volume of my inner guidance was gradually turned down, although not entirely to zero, to reduce the dissonance and discomfort. And there is still more for me to see and work on here.
Note: I decided to remove this from the section above to make it simpler, so I’ll include it here.
Guidance may also take the form of the inner voice (the heart, intuition). A quiet, gentle, sweet pull towards a certain option. As I follow this in small things in everyday life, it becomes clearer. If I ask myself what would I do if I knew nothing could go wrong? then that may also help me notice where the inner voice guides me.
How do I differentiate this guidance from fears and beliefs? The inner voice has a quiet certainty to it. It doesn’t argue, it’s just there, and it’s aligned with wisdom and kindness. In contrast, beliefs come with fear, a should, a heavy handedness, and it may not always seem so kind.
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– types of guidance (a) inner voice, (b) TAs, (c) what comes naturally when there is more clarity
– what stops me
– what happens if stop on a larger scale
– inner voice, heart
– follow it in small everyday things, grows more clear
– (and if don’t follow, especially in something big and longer lasting, may weaken – out of love b/c the dissonance is strong too)
– inner voice, heart – what to do here now, gentle pull, sweetness
– TAs – how to live my life
– (fears, beliefs, reactive emotions – more dramatic, fear based etc.)