Internal Guidance System

We often think that it would be very awesome if we had some kind of internal guidance system that would assist us with the many choices that we are faced with day in and day out with our lives.  There are no fully complete instruction manuals to describe our emotional/mental equipment and so we go through our lives in trial and error trying to figure things out as we go.  Or, we just go and take in all the experiences personally and painfully or if we feel like we've been lucky, joyfully and lovingly.  But get this, we do most definitely have an internal guidance system that if we but tuned into carefully and with much consideration, we could be appropriately guided every single step we take on this amazing dream and path that is our lives.  One of the keys to tune in takes a bit of effort but when you make that effort, you will immediately be rewarded with results.  Now, like with anything new you are learning, there will be both successes and failures until you get into the groove of it.  But you can strive for it with a bit of practice and even begin to measure your own success rate over time.

So, to put it very simply, often things are a  matter of surmising truth from seeming facts that we hold -- perceptions, perspectives, etc. primarily  set with the mind.  The problem is the mind alone does not comprise the totality of our guidance system.  There is a mental component of our guidance system that gives us an ability to analyze facts...but what if we treat perception or perspectives as fact when those perceptions and perspectives are farther from the truth than the sun is to the Earth?  There would only be improper guidance gleaned if you do not fully understand your own guidance system.  Here is a fact for you, we are more than mind - our ability to think, reason and rationalize.  We have a body that senses many things.  Our bodies produce anxiety when certain thoughts are held and loving blissful chemical reactions when other certain thoughts are held in what we call emotion.  There is a mental-physical correlation here that we must better understand if we should desire to begin to rely on our own internal guidance system.  Then, there is yet another piece to our existence that we are less able to definitively prove although some fields of science are beginning to study - like the presence of the soul.  Beyond the soul, there is the spirit.  I'll save that detail for another time but will incorporate some aspects of soul consciousness here.  So, our guidance system is actually comprised of mental consciousness, body consciousness and soul consciousness.  The mind part is easy to validate.  If you are reading this now - your mind is conscious. :)  The body consciousness that correlates to the mind's thoughts generates chemicals and emotion - take a look at fight or flight response and you will see how this correlates.  The mind holds a fearful thought, then the body withdraws blood and energy from the farthest extremities to give one a boost of energy for either fight or flight as is necessary.  Then, there is a soul consciousness.  When you are emotional at the physical/mental consciousness level, there is a separate part of you that observes this objectively and without judgement - the part of you that notices what the mental and physical aspects of you are feeling or producing.  Eckhart Tolle writes about this in the Power of Now - (Great eye-opening book if you've not yet read it).

So, these 3 main components of you establish a reliableinternal guidance system.  Now, a summary thought I submit for your consideration is this:  Everything we encounter is designed to help us establish what is truth from what is not truth.  Truth and not truth become our deciding factors for response or reaction to stimulus we encounter either physically or emotionally.  What is true - we react or respond to. What is not true - we react or respond to.  When contemplating how the soul-physical-mental consciousness work together to help us discern truth from non-truth, all of these act in concert and we can feel the truth in a loving, anxiety free flow to our actions - we feel good about what we are doing and experiencing.  When we think we feel truth in our thoughts, actions, reactions and responses but there is an untruth there, we will feel anxiety, adrenaline and conflict.  When we feel nothing but love and flow, we are perceiving the truth of what we see.  When we are feeling anxiety and conflict, something is not in alignment and that means we have a truth hidden we need to uncover.  A very simple example is a scenario like this:  Someone seems to attack you for X reason and you are feeling anxious, hurt or angry.  There is an untruth in the attack and that untruth is either that what is coming in is not yours or what is coming in is truth but your thoughts are rejecting or hiding the truth from you.  When someone issues an attack, often it is their own internal conflict they are projecting and your mind-body-soul knows this and reacts in conflict as a part of the mind tries on what is coming in.  When what is coming in is not true, you can relax in a flow of love and let it go knowing psychological projection or transference has just occurred.  However, if you are in denial of something and a truth comes in you are not ready to embrace, anger, frustration and pain will go so deep within you that psychology may take over and nothing but anxiety and distress will occur.  Psychology - the mind - helps us to see what is real and unreal but not all by itself.  Often we consider that if we think it, it must be true.  This is not true and if you get very quiet and still your guidance system will start affirming this truth.

To fully feel the urgings of your internal guidance system, you must tune into more than your thoughts and your emotions.  You must be able to feel how your body is feeling.  You must understand how your body feels to you when you are in a loving and flowing state and how your body feels when you are not in a loving and flowing state.  When you begin to notice this difference, you become much better equipped to discern definitive from provisional truth and thus, develop the ability to rely fully on your own internal guidance system.  So, how to do this...well, I have a simple exercise for you below that is a combination of things I've read, learned and used myself to get there.  Try it out from time to time when you are in different states - good moods or bad moods just so you can become familiar with the differences.

Exercise:

1.  Sit either in a chair with a back in it or even against a wall.  Sit up very straight so that your spine and your neck are in complete alignment and then try to consciously relax.
2.  Next, close your eyes and take in a very deep inward breath, hold it for as long as it is comfortable to do so and then slowly breathe out through your mouth.  Repeat this for a total of 5 times.  As you breathe in, imagine you are taking in beautiful white opalescent light from the Heavens or the Sun itself and as it enters the crown of your head and moves down your spine, into your shoulders, your torso, your arms, hands, legs and feet, imagine this light is pushing negative energy from you and transferring it into the Earth where it can be transformed into clean energy.  So, simply put, breathe in the light, breath out the stress and strain and allow your body to relax.
3.  As you continue focusing on your breathing, allow your consciousness to become aware of any sensations in your body.  Are you in pain anywhere in your body, is there any tightness in your muscles, does anything tingle, twitch, feel hot or cold?  If yes, focus on those points in your body and just feel them in a complete absence of judgment.  Imagine with your next in-breath that you are breathing into the heart or center of these sensations.  If you are tense or are in pain ask your body to show you the origins of this pain.  Wait to see what you migt see with closed eyes.  You may see a picture of a person, a place, a color...you may notice a stressful thought or a loving interaction from the past or present that rises to your consciousness.  What does that thought feel like to you - not just mentally but in your body?  If it is a loving thought - notice how your body feels - notice whether you see any colors in your minds eye, notice if you are feeling happy emotions.  If it is a stressful thought, an anxious thought, just notice without judgment how your body feels.

Now, as you sit and feel how your body feels and you connect the state of your thoughts to how your body feels, you begin to learn the subtle voice of your body.  When you can begin to understand the inner language of your body and how it correlates to the thoughts that are your mind's perceptions and perspectives, you can discern if there is truth in a matter or if there is a truth hidning that needs some uncovering.  That obscured truth could be in part based on what is coming in or it could be what you are telling yourself.  Perceptions and perspectives are not fact unless you have source validated your thoughts as fact.  A quick example in the extreme:   My friend (insert name) has not called me in 3 months, he must not love me, respect me or value my friendship as is obviously evidenced by his lack of outreach.  This is only a perception or perspective you have surmised based on provisional truths and conclusions your own mind has created.  In this example, what is presented cannot be fact because you have not source validated it as true.  Only a phone call to your friend and a direct question asked and answered will tell you if what they say is true.  Now, if you should make such a call - notice how your body feels when they speak.  Did they convey that there is nothing wrong and they were just busy?  Has this person always been truthful with you?  If yes and you are still feeling conflict and wanting to go with your original assumption, I would suggest that it is you creating the truth obscuring thoughts for your own reasons and your internal guidance system is going off in warning for you to take a closer look.  Are there any thoughts within you that do not believe you are worthy of attention and phone calls from friends?  If yes, such a thought from your own mind that you cannot validate as truth with someone else is actually a message from your own guidance system that you have a wound in need of healing.  The idea is to deal with empirical evidence as fact and not deduced or derived perceptions and perspectives from other than the source (regardless of prior experiences and filters that make you think your perceptions and perspectives are empirical evidence - they are not).

Its hard for us to deal with our wounds because they are sore and tender and we don't know how to heal them.  However, if we can pay attention to our guidance system in sync - mind, body and soul - we can determine where we need to either work on loving ourselves more and healing more or holding a space of understanding and in some cases - even setting boundaries with those that are acting inconsistently and psychologically projecting upon you due to their own unhealed wounds.  We are complex creatures - no doubt about it.  But we do have tools at our disposal within our own bodies.

I didn't talk much about the soul - I'll do that very quickly.  So, the soul consciousness is aware of what your ultimate goals are - the themes that run through your life and will actually, often push you into situations that will surface pain for you to become aware of and heal.  It will also observe and communicate with you if you listen.  When you think a random thought out of the blue and then a part of you thinks:  "Wow, where did that come from," that is the soul consciousness.  Any of those thoughts that are neutral and loving would be from your soul's consciousness.  Your mind's consciousness contains the ego and would think nothing of throwing an insulting and judgmental or comparative thought in there for you to manage.  That is how you can tell the difference between the ego thoughts and the soul thoughts.  The ego is judgmental and comparative by it's nature - not bad - it just is what it is. The soul is not judgmental but will neutrally guide you to look at some thoughts again until you resolve those not in sync.

I realize this is a tough topic to take in all at once but if you've read my other blog posts - you will begin to assemble a picture of what I'm getting to with this article.  You are not guide-less, instruction-less beings thrown into the Earth school on your own to just "figure it out."  You are guided every single step of the way by your own internal guidance systems, angels on Earth and even loved ones and family beyond (and the latter will no doubt be another blog exploration).  I hope that even if the concepts within this are difficult or far-fetched for you even, that it at least gives you food for thought or maybe even a little comfort that you are well-equipped to manage this life and if your internal guidance system isn't functioning properly - that too is a message from that guidance system that you may need some additional assistance.  Go get it - it matters (aka - see a counselor, clergy person or even a trusted friend to help you work through something that may be emotionally bigger than you to deal with).  Help is only ever a moment away. ~Blessings of love, light, truth and great healing beautiful dreamers.  You can do this!  You are doing fine and all is well and always will be.

(c) 2012 Jaie Hart (photo, random internet find).

Diving into the Fears Within You

If you want a life changing experience, dive into the core of fearful emotions.  I assure you this not for the faint hearted.  However, once you dive in, look around, take a good long swim in the sea of emotions that you created, you may come to understand quite a bit about the world and even more about you and the reasons you are here and living like you do. Sometimes, the things that make us fearful can become our greatest teachers in life.  We need only to be present in the moment and be ready and willing to see things from an alternate vantage point.  When we can see fearful or painful things from another perspective, it can change what we have come to know as fear-producing.  We make many assumptions about everything in our lives.  If this happens, it means this.  If that happens, it means that.  We judge and label everything around us in the negative according to one thing...what we fear most within us.  If we label someone as hurtful, they are a mirror of us...where have we been hurtful with self?  If we label someone as loving, we are in touch with the good and loving aspects that exist within us.

So often we think it is the people around us who make us feel.  What we fail to realize is that no other can create an emotion in us.  Our emotion can form only by our own thoughts...the ones that we have determined are the truth.  But our "truth" is shaped by the assumptions we make about our experience.  Take one simple example, you see another individual get promoted at work.  You feel you have worked long and hard to be promoted and yet it is this other soul promoted before you.  You may react angrily and feel hurt that this undeserving person was promoted and you were not. Your experience in life is not in the power of others to control.  It is you choosing to think you are unworthy that truly creates your pain.  It is you who thinks you are overlooked and unrecognized that makes you feel bad.  So, what other thoughts are you allowing to think that support this position?  What drama are you playing out in your mind over and over again to reinforce this feeling of "less than" everyone else?  Where in your life were you invalidated and looked over?  It could be someone important to you who originally planted these kinds of thoughts in your head or reinforced it either purposely or unwittingly when you were young.  Without realizing it, you have continued to play these tapes in your head over and over and your anger in this moment at not being promoted is actually the real you from way back when fighting to be seen for who you really are.  But you already are who you really are and you are not the labels others have placed on you and so, the success or failure of another does not have the power in and of itself to make you lesser or greater.  Only you have that power.  It's all you baby!

You already truly are amazing.  When you can learn to untangle the webs weaved by those around you who are or maybe were unaware of what souls really need to grow and live a healthy and normal life, you can free yourself from their misguided words and thoughtless seeming actions.  You may then begin to allow into your conscious mind your own gentle and loving thoughts about who you truly are.  You are a beautiful soul who tries so hard and who is amazing and so very deserving of love.  So, love you and show that love by never allowing comparing thoughts to give you a sense of greater than or lesser than someone else.  You cannot compare yourself to another soul and have a truly long lasting and rewarding experience.  Sometimes the actions of others are not directly derogatory to us at all but we just perceive that for some reason.  Even that can plant the seed of a wound that may lead you into a life of comparing and contrasting yourself to others to judge your success or failure.  It's a no win framework.

The one example above of diving into a fear is an obvious one.  There are similar ones that exist in the realm of your experiences.  You can find these learning and transformational opportunities by diving into the core of those things that seemingly hurt you the most.  In those spaces are tomes of information that you, with time, love and patience, can unravel and begin to see the definitive truths of from the provisional ones you have held with the unwitting creation of your assumptions.  You can release the fear through love and understanding allowing yourself to receive the beauty and light in this world.  Its really all up to you to stand in your own light of pure love or to remain seated forever in the shadows created by misunderstanding in your own minds.  Rise, I say.  Rise and feel the light of love.  It is already within you.  You may just need to allow yourself to see and feel it. Blessings of love and light dear souls!

(c) 2012 Jaie Hart (photo is a random but beautiful internet find that just spoke to me)

Participation Agreements

Craving the sea and feeling quite goddess-like, I donned a long flowing skirt with a bright turquoise camisole and headed for the coast.  The morning was misty and gray but quite comfortable.  I could taste the brine the closer I got to Pacific Coast Highway and the gorgeous and powerful Pacific Ocean.  The beach was empty except for the local surfers communing with the sea.  It was easy to find parking on a Thursday before 8:00 am.  I pulled in and could feel a rush of excitement.  I always get excited at an opportunity to come to these shores. Every time I see the shore it takes me immediately to Elsewhere and another beach somewhere in this space-time dimension construct that I walk near every night in my meditative visions and dreams.  That shore is a bit different than the one here at the Pacific.  For one thing, the sky is almost always near pink and pale but so beautiful and there are two suns instead of one and the beach is short coming down from cliffs of varying heights.  My beach is empty always. A place I go to feel the peace and stillness of solitude.  It is there that I commune with Source, the Angels and a dear loved one.

As I sit here now on this beach, long white sands ending in deep green blue water, scattered with lifeguard towers and surfers and an occasional visitor walking a dog, I wish I was Elsewhere and I guess, well, maybe a part of me is always Elsewhere.  How can something exist so strongly in my mind and heart always were I not there always, at least in part?  It must be real and parts of my mind questions this.  Regardless, I'm here and there and enjoying the peace, the breeze, the gulls, the sand, the coolness, the sound and the power of the rush of the waves.  Here and Elsewhere coalesce within me in this indescribable way and it feels as if my spirit rises up and out of my body and expands into everything in sight.  I can feel this place and it speaks to me in ways I just cannot define.  To try would cheapen it in some way.

I let my thoughts carry me off with the waves and the mist as they fall, spray and swirl in the Earth's gravity and motion.  I feel so solid in my skin and it feels so amazing.  Have you ever taken just a moment to stop your thoughts and feel what it feels like to be in your body beyond the aches and pains of Earthly life?  Have you ever felt or heard your own soul's energy as it exists in your body?  It's a beautiful sound and the most loving and gentle feeling ever.  When you put your focus there in such moments...on the sensations from within rather than without, there is this warm and pulsing energy, this finely vibrating source that provides an uplifting sensation from within the core.  Its more than amazing to experience and the really beautiful part is that it is those feelings that are there all the time no matter where you are or what you think or do.  If you only but still your mind and thoughts just one moment, you can feel what it feels like to truly be alive and it is so very alive that I feel just now.  I have no worries or cares that will not take care of themselves in time and I, well, I do have all of the patience in the world now knowing and understanding that I do not command this Earth nor its happenings on my time.  I relinquished those thoughts a long time ago and I no longer yearn to make things happen in a controlling or manipulative way in this world.  This world is rich with experiences and its our own thoughts that create our discomfort.  I cannot wish my life away and to do so would be such a waste.  I would rather sit and be still with my thoughts, create my dreams and patiently trust they will unfold exactly as they are meant to and until they do I have this amazing process of creation to thoroughly experience and enjoy.

I feel myself letting go a little more and a little more all of those things I once thought were important and begin reaching deeper within to embrace, as they unfold, those things that have much greater and long-lasting value to my soul.  These intangible things are hard to understand and even harder to properly define with the limited words so full of multi-level meanings that its pointless to define.  You have to feel it to know it and it's worth it to try.  To fade from the "I-ness" in this world from an egotistical perspective and embrace the "I Am-ness" that is broader, more connected to everything approach and then just, well, fade into that and become apart of it is an amazing process.  The truth is, we are never apart from that we just think we are and refuse to see the connections and strings we create to attach to people, places and things.  Those strings mean nothing but pain and anguish.  Letting go and fading into the all of everything brings peace, serenity and this sense of infinite possibilities in terms of creation.  But, you cannot take my word for this.  My words so inadequately define the meaning I'm trying to convey.  Just getting real quiet and opening up to something bigger than yourselves is what I'm trying to articulate a bit ineptly.  There is beauty in this world beyond what the physical eyes can see, beyond what the hands can touch and beyond what the ears can hear.   There is a silent reality that exists beyond, above, below, within and outside of these mere physical senses that you can only get to by opening this sacred place within you - this sacred place of pure receptivity and love.  If we could tap into this more often our lives would be so much more peaceful.

I realize as I write this that not everyone's path is designed to find and maintain peace.  The path of some are intended purely to disrupt and destroy it and thereby learning how to create within their realities.  If this doesn't resonate with you it may be time to update your participation agreement.  We can choose to participate in what we wish and choose not to participate in those things we do not wish.  It is a thought, a directive of focus that makes this so and an inoculation against the hooks of ego-gratification that pulls you seemingly unwittingly into the full force and effect of your participation agreements.  Disengaging any personal accountability for other's thoughts and feelings is an immunization against emotional tyranny, manipulation and control.  We are all accountable for our own experiences here and when we learn this, we will modify our participation accordingly.  And so it is this that has been a very long lesson learned with much struggle, resistance and ignorance on my part.  But now the truth has been revealed in the silence and stillness of my own core.  I don't have to participate any more in anything other than that I most wish to create in this world.  For me, it's peace, serenity, pleasure and love...promote healing and set out a lamp on the path for others who may be so inclined to follow the light into the depths of their own hearts.  It's a beautiful world and it's a beautiful life.  Thanks be to the Gods for my beach Elsewhere and here for on those sparkling tides within and without I have come to find truth - the truth I sought far beyond those termed universal, relative or provisional.  ~sigh~  May you find a measure of peace and truth as you make your way along the paths of your lives.  There are many lights to guide you...focus on those that resonate deepest within your soul and you will not be disappointed in your progress.

(c) 2012 Jaie Hart (photo is not mine but a random internet find).