When people were faced with an important choice or decision, they were often depicted with an angel on one shoulder and a little devil on the other. The angel was urging the person to make a wise choice, whilst the little devil was pushing for pleasure and instant gratification. It was a simple contrast between conscience and baser human instincts.
Now take this idea and imagine a much broader range of channels we can tune into. Going beyond ego driven thoughts and the conditioning mind of society is a rich and satisfying experience. Knowing yourself or at least more of yourself is an interesting exercise in self-awareness. Knowing yourself in this way gives you more information about what is happening around and within you. It allows you to make better choices and it starts to open the door to understanding what is important for you in life (your purpose).
Knowing yourself more deeply also has an impact on your ability to be more authentic. Authenticity is really about acting in alignment with who you are – rather than who you believe you should be. Also, people are often driven by instincts and programming they are largely unaware of. They respond with what they have come to believe rather than what they might say and do if they really knew themselves.
What this means is that you can only be true to yourself to the extent that you know yourself.
Starting a journey of self-exploration is often rich and rewarding. It also comes with a small health warning. Once you know something about yourself – you can’t unknow it. The inner urge to act in-line with what you know can require both courage and commitment. In my experience, living authentically can give rise to awkward moments but I sleep so much better at night.
If you are with me so far then the next question probably is – what aspects of ‘Self’ can I tune into? Here are some that I listen to.
- Physical Body – I am very aware of what my body is capable of, when I can override aches and pains/tiredness. I am also sensitive to my food. I sense what my body wants to eat and how I feel when I’ve eaten it
- Emotional Body – I have developed an ability to step back and watch my emotions flow through my body. They give me feedback about my thoughts – because thoughts come before emotions, and I can choose how to respond.
- Mind or Mental Body – I don’t know where my thoughts come from. I do know that when I sit with them, they seem to mature like a fine wine. The act of being still and considering them seems to allow in more understanding which changes my perceptions
- Intuition – I define intuition as the flashes of inspiration or knowing that seem to arise from a deeper wiser place than my everyday awake mind. The more I practice listening to them, the more reliably I can use them to guide me. They invariably nudge me towards good decisions.
- Higher Self – I recognise that I am so much more than my body. My inner or higher self speaks with a quiet voice and provides wise counsel when I listen. It is like my intuition but provides a more consistent narrative than the glimpse provided by my intuition.
- My Guides – I firmly believe that we have many spiritual guides available to us if we choose to listen and ask for assistance when we need it. Their voices are similar to my higher self and have a different quality that I am starting to discern more accurately
- My Etheric Body – Lastly, I want to mention the more refined energy body that mirrors my physical body. I ascribe to this the feelings I pick up from my environment. They range from the shudder you get when you pass by a dark place through to the joyous connection when you meet someone on your wavelength. I am less certain about where these feelings come from, but I most definitely have them.
The last question is how can you start to listen to these different voices? Here are some thoughts:
First, I would encourage you to explore the world of empathy and practice listening deeply to others when you are with them. If you are willing to put your own thoughts to one side and simply listen with your whole body, then I suspect you will be surprised by what you ‘hear’. When I do this, I hear the music behind the words and become aware of what someone is telling me but not saying. If you can do this for someone else – then you can do it for yourself too.
Meditation is always a helpful way to start. There are many different practices, and all of them lead you into a still quiet space where time seems to stand still and you can step outside the confines of your daily life. This is a good way to start a dialogue with your higher self and your guides.
Developing an inner radar works for me. I notice how I feel in different situations. For example, my solar plexus contracts when I ponder a choice that doesn’t serve me and expands when I make a choice that does.
Dowsing with a pendulum or using the kinesiology of your body can be helpful too. I regularly ‘muscle test’ when faced with a choice that I can frame as a yes/no decision. It takes a little practice to ask a question from a neutral space – and when I do this, I can sense with remarkable accuracy.
There are many others approaches, and I would encourage you to use your intuition to choose the ones that are right for you. We offer a day workshop through Starfish Space called ‘Knowing Yourself’ which may suit you.
In essence, the better you know yourself, the easier it will be for you to navigate your way through life.