It’s called inward listening and it requires developing the most important relationship you will have in your life: the one you have with YOURSELF!
As you’ve heard me say before, I’ve learned that you cannot achieve the ultimate in your mind-body health and fitness goals until you understand and honor your own unique needs and life’s path.
This can be foreign and tricky territory for many, (it sure was for me!). So to help you get started, I’ve broken down this concept into three simple parts. 😊
There’s a good chance that you never learned how to listen to yourself – particularly if your a Reformed People-Pleaser like me! Now let’s be clear: When I refer to “listening to yourself”, I do not mean the constant chatter that’s in the overactive, often paranoid and fear-based mind. I mean your true, Higher Self: your Spirit, your Soul, your true essence and your intuition…whatever you want to call it, it comes down to the same source. Like most, I’m sure you’ve listened plenty, as have I, and all too often to that smaller self, your outside-programed, fear-based self, and tragically have mistaken that chatter in your head for the real You. But it is NOT.
So how can you listen to your True Self more effectively?
Here are some tips that I’ve recently discovered that might help:
1. Get clear on your personal beliefs and values…then set up your life to LIVE by them
Your values are what deeply matter to you. If you don’t know your true values, and are living out ones that aren’t really a fit, you most likely feel constantly stressed, restless and discontent.
Dig in to dig out your core beliefs.
Then set up your life to abide by them.
Your core values and beliefs are viewpoints you have about life, others, and yourself that you have taken to be fact and what you deem as important. But really, they are simply beliefs you have chosen to take on board. Oftentimes these beliefs stem from childhood, and are passed on to you by your family or friends – in other words, you got them from the OUTSIDE not from within your own knowing, feeling self, or your heart and soul which are the home of your Spirit and the true you.
Only until we differentiate what is inherently “ours” and from us, verses what we believe or think that has come from outside us, will we ever feel connected to our power, our true self and then be able to feel like we are living authentically and free.
2. Tap in daily and get off Cruise Control!
Another incredibly effective way to burst through mind clutter and listen to your true self, is to practice something you’ve probably heard reference to and that’s to be more “mindful”, or “aware” in general of your thoughts, beliefs and behaviors in everyday life. This simply means to catch yourself if you find your on automatic pilot – which happens like 80% of our daily lives! It’s often called “mindfulness” and it’s worth trying out because it can really make you aware of programed behavior and start the process of highlighting your “Why” and differentiating between what is from you or from outside you/others.
An example of NOT being mindful (and being on auto-pilot) is to consider how often have you driven somewhere and don’t remember “driving” there? Or said something that you don’t even know why you said it or where it came from? Or maybe why you keep repeating behaviors that you don’t want to do or feel like you “can’t help it”?
These are all examples of being on automatic pilot/Cruise Control and are a red-flag to get present and tap IN to yourself as to what’s going on, what you’re feeling and Who is running the show?!
3. Learn to communicate with yourself more effectively and reach your inner-self by listening to your soul!
On previous posts and my social media, I’ve shared a lot about how I’ve learned over the years to follow my intuition better and what’s worked for me. Lord knows there’s been plenty of times I’ve ignored my inner compass/Bullshit meter it and then spent a lot of wasted time, energy and heartache regretting it and berating myself after, so you’d think I’d be an expert by now! 😉
Bottom line to remember: Listening to your intuition is about developing better communication with your Soul.
How do we do that?
Most people get the first part right: They ask but it’s the second part they screw up.
What is it?
ANSWER: Well it’s simply “LISTENING”!
But wait, before you get upset with me (!), understand what I mean by this and what it actually entails.
When we are looking for answers and particularly when trying to connect with our Higher Self, one of the reasons why it’s so tricky is because we are not turning off our Minds and our thinking, busyness, distractions and constant “doing” are actually preventing us from doing the one thing we need to do to get what we want which is actively listening.
For example, think of when you are attentively listening to a child or a lecture or a movie you are engrossed in or a song you love…you are ACTIVELY open and in a receptive, receiving mode, with your focus outward on the sender. You are NOT in a sending/doing mode. You have emptied yourself in order to fully receive the message and take it in.
Communicating with our Souls is the same way.
Newsflash: Sorry to say it won’t happen if you we yell louder, throw a tantrum or even try harder (three of my personal favorite failures, haha!)
Instead, it requires a softening, shifting to and tapping in to a more subtle way of “being” and embodying our feminine nature – yes, regardless of your identification – we all have masculine and feminine energy in us, just in differing degrees. I’ll be posting more on this as we learn and grow together so be sure to be on my newsletter list so we can share.
There you go friend: My 3 Top Tips for Living a More Authentic and Free Life! I hope this helps you and you’ve come to realize how critically important this is because our ability to communicate with our true nature and our Higher Self/Soul is the basis for ALL love, happiness, health, fulfillment and joy and don’t we all what that?
