Listening to your inner voice

Success Tips, Words of Wisdom / By

Weekly Success Tips

“Everything has been figured out except how to live.”
~ Jean-Paul Sartre

Each of us has an inner voice that guides, directs, prods and helps us as we travel the many highways and crossroads of our lives. I ask you – would an all loving God put enough sense in squirrels to gather nuts in the fall, birds to fly south in the winter and fish to swim upstream and not put something at least comparable in humans? The answer is yes He would.

Psychics, therapists, counselors, spiritual leaders and thousands of people in all walks of life are trying to coax us into believing that we have this inner voice and if we paid more attention to it we would be far better off in our lives.

I am none of the above, but I can tell you from years of sometimes listening and sometimes not, that when I do listen and heed the urgings of this inner voice, my life has tended to work out for the better and when I have not, well you guessed it, things got totally out of whack.

This inner voice takes many forms, but it is usually not flashes of light, life-changing spiritual experiences or the result of any number of rituals – spiritual or otherwise. It is usually just an inner gentle constant quiet urging to change something, do something or not do something.

There are only two things you need to do to discover the meaning behind the messages from your inner voice; keep asking yourself the right questions and be willing to listen to the answers whether you like them or not.

Here are a few that might help to get you started.

  1. What (or who) are you envious of?
  2. Where do you want to be right now? In the future?
  3. What is your body trying to tell you or show you?
  4. When are you the happiest? Unhappiest?
  5. What causes you the most stress?
  6. What is your typical reaction/response to this stress?
  7. Who are your heroes? Why?
  8. How do you feel about money? Work? Relationships?
  9. If you could change one thing about your life, only one, what would it be?
  10. If they wrote a book about your life to date: what is the title? What is the title of the current chapter? The last one? The next one?
  11. Who or what is in your life now that is giving you the opportunity to learn about yourself and are you listening and acting?
  12. If you could live your past life again, knowing what you know now, what would you change about your past – if anything? And why or how?

Thought-provoking questions? I hope so. Difficult to answer? It depends on your willingness to listen and be honest with yourself.

The beginning of all growth comes from an awareness that something needs to change. Trust me – your inner voice can help you if you will only take the time and have the patience to listen.