Your inner voice can truly guide you to making your best life decisions. But what happens when you are moving forward and suddenly hit an obstacle, such as opposition? Alice McCall helps us understand how to trust our instincts and our inner voice in ways that fit us best. Your inner voice is a part of your identity – use it to your advantage and trust it.
By Alice McCall
In ‘Harnessing Your Inner Voice’ I shared how to go to your heart for wisdom and guidance. I hope that those ideas and exercises are helping you cultivate your inner voice — your unique brand of wisdom. Now that you are receiving personal guidance from your inner voice, what do you do with it? I hope this follow-up article helps you recognize the importance of trusting and listening to any inner wisdom that you glean.
It can be difficult to act on the information that is received from your inner voice. Why does it seem so hard to follow your heart, your authentic perspective?
One reason: The whole world lives primarily from their mind – focusing on constant over analysis, or always needing to assess which choice is good or bad. When we courageously step out to follow our inner voice against ‘rational reasoning,’ opposition from friends and family is common, because they are viewing our choices from a place of logical assessment. The decisions that our inner voice may guide us to make are not always the most logical ones.
When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007, I received guidance from my inner voice to step outside of a traditional medical path and to use my own practice of cellular level healing to heal myself. Following this guidance, I successfully overcame my challenging diagnosis. During my self-healing many of my friends and family felt it was necessary to continually tell me how I was wrong, going as far as planning an intervention. Although well intentioned, they were pumping fear into me on a regular basis.
It is hard to move ahead with your inspired plans when such strong opposition comes from loved ones. Just as it takes practice to listen to our inner voice, it also takes practice to trust that our received inner wisdom is true. Choices we make using our innermost guidance always seem to work out, even when it may seem unlikely or unconventional. My self-healing path with breast cancer is no exception. My healing was successful and remains solid after more than four years! If you decide to follow your inner voice’s guidance, be prepared for well-meaning opposition from those around you.
When stepping to the beat of your inner drummer, opposition will also present itself from your habitual way-of-being. This inner opposition originates from your ego, manifesting as a fear, worry, or doubt. It is best to courageously acknowledge that those fears exist and then move forward in spite of them. With practice this becomes easier to accomplish, especially as you experience the positive results from trusting and following your inner guidance. Not only will it always work out, but the results are usually better than what you could have envisioned!
Try this process for non-critical decisions a few times, to experience the ease and perfection of trusting of your inner guidance. As you become accustomed to the process and the gifts it yields, it is easier to apply it to big life decisions without fear.
Why is it still challenging to follow your inner voice? You are courageously listening to and following your inner guidance. You are even connecting with your inner compass regularly, believing in the benefits of this new way of life. What could be hindering the process?
When you make a decision based on inner wisdom, it is paramount to trust the process as it unfolds. This means embracing and trusting the process and the unknowns that it symbolizes in your life. Once you become comfortable allowing the process to unfold, comfortable with the unknown, the process has room to rapidly expand without fear intervening.
When fear is present, it is impossible to fully trust and surrender to the unknown. It is common to be comfortable operating from a place of fear; the fear of not being good enough, the fear of looking foolish, the fear of not being successful, the fear of making the wrong choice, or the fear of trying something new. Those fears have to be challenged before authentic trust can exist within you.
We each have our personal triggers to recognize and overcome as we challenge the fear in our lives. For me, it can still creep in when I am guided to step out and follow my inner voice when it goes against all logic. My challenge is to get out of my own way and not allow any fears, doubts, or worries that were created by my logical mind to interfere with the course set by my innermost guidance.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain.
What keeps us from throwing off the bowlines? Usually it is the fear of the unknown. We think that the unknown isn’t safe, so we stick with what we know, even when we don’t feel fulfilled in life.
If your life appears to be a safe harbor even if you are unhappy or not fulfilled, throw off the fears and worries that are keeping you tied down. Experience the freedom and joy that comes with trusting the guidance from your inner voice. Following that guidance will lead you to the best choice possible for you, at this time in your life.
Alice McCall is a Cellular Level Healing Consultant who helps clients remove unwanted patterns, transform health issues, and connect with their heart and soul via phone sessions. McCall’s book Wellness Wisdom and meditation CDs are available at www.HealingPath.info and Amazon.com.
