Opinions, opinions, opinions!
I have always found it relatively easy to make decisions and act quickly and decisively. That continues to be the case unless I pay more attention to the ‘noise’ around me than I do to myself. Let’s face it, there is a lot of noise in the external environment. It’s everywhere you turn. That’s bad enough, what’s worse is you will also find it in the “well meaning” opinions of those around you. Everyone has an opinion and if you are not careful it is easy to find yourself drowning under the weight of them. It can be both tiring and downright confusing. Fortunately, there is another way. You, like every other human being on this planet were born with an inner guidance system. Call it in-sight call or call it intuition. It’s essentially the same thing.
You are up against it when it comes to trusting yourself
Like it or not, your world is set up to undermine your judgement, assessment and the degree to which you trust yourself and your decision making process. This begins early in life. I’m talking about the process of ‘domestication’ as described by Don Miguel Ruiz in “The Four Agreements”. From when we are young we are taught to seek validation from outside ourselves and to always check-in with an adult. We are not encouraged to ask questions at school and develop our critical thinking. We learn not to question authority which is largely imposed from above. This combination of toeing the line and seek validation and approval from outside has the net effect of eroding self-trust. All of this forms part of the noise that makes it challenging to tune in to what you want and what the best path for you to take is and for your intuition to do its’ job.
Allow your intuition to guide you
The next message you need is always right where you are.
Ram Dass
As hard as it might be to believe you already have everything you need to guide you. You were born with it and like anything, in order to work optimally your intuition needs to be exercised and utilised.
So what is intuition?
Simply put it is “the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning”; it is to be taught from within! It’s the “gut feeling” we have, that gnawing thought that just won’t leave us alone or it is the thing that stands out for whatever reason that is all to easy to dismiss. Here is a simple rule of thumb, NEVER violate a hunch! Honour it and follow it instead. By doing so, you validate and strengthen your insight. Insight then develops into foresight.
None of this happens in the noise.
As stated earlier, the external environment is full of noise. The last thing you need is more of it. Everything is pulling at our attention creating the net effect of dumbing us down, taxing our resources and eroding our will power. I know this goes against the grain of modern living AND the only way to tune into YOU is to take some quiet time and to limit the ability of others to influence you; for influence you they will! It is human nature to be one of the herd and look for agreement but at what cost? The harder road is to go it alone and trust yourself without seeking agreement from others. Do your research, consider the facts on their merits and then put it all aside. Don’t actively think about it at all. See what rises to to the top. Your brain is an amazing computer. If you give it all the relevant information and then leave it alone to do it’s job, it will strengthened with the power of your intuition. That simply cannot occur with constant outside noise and the seeking of validation from without.
What if you are already off track?
If you find yourself off track and suffering from analysis paralysis then a brain dump is in order. You need to clear the cache as it were and get rid of any temporary or junk files that are taking up space in your hard drive aka head. It is a simple process. Take some note paper and a pen (preferably not your computer, there is something magical about doing this process by hand) and literally dump all your thoughts on the paper. Do so in an uncensored manner and without judgement. This will clear your head and make the process of “tuning in” to your intuition possible. It is also a great idea to consider ways in which you can limit junk files showing up in the first place. Perhaps there are some things you need to do differently or some relationships you need to sever. Do whatever it takes to put yourself back in the drivers seat of your life and your decision making process.
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