Igniting Inner Wisdom – Recharge and Reconnect Within
It is important to take time for ourselves to recharge and reconnect within, otherwise it’s easy to get off kilter with world news and everything that’s happening with Covid, including the various lockdowns & restrictions we have gone through over several years of this pandemic.
Tapping into our inner wisdom will be our theme today as a tool to recharge, tune into yourself and reflect on where you are at right now.
When we take care of ourselves, give ourselves that time like this to recharge and reconnect with what is vital within us, we can also tune into what we need on all levels –and so we can begin to make space to have those needs met ….
We then start showing up in our relationships and our interactions with our best self, with more authenticity and kindness… and are then much less likely to take our stress out on the people around us.
This inner work also helps our planet and our society given all the unprecedented changes we are seeing globally and locally because everything that happens to each of us on the inside is reflected on outside…and when we take care of ourselves, we can more fully serve our workplaces, our families, our communities and our planet…
And BONUS, we also start to grow in wonderful new ways when we cultivate inner life and we are going to dive into that shortly….
The idea that we have an inner teacher or an inner guide that knows what to do in any situation is something we can draw upon and use to find not only guidance, but hope during these times.
It’s this idea of developing a conscious inner game.
Poetry can act as an ancient doorway, a comfort for our times: a friend through difficulty; a guide when looking for answers….
So I invite you to go inward as you read this poem…
Always we hope
Someone else has the answer
Some other place will be better,
Some other time it will all turn out.
This is it.
No one else has the answer
No other place will be better,
And it has already turned out.
At the center of your being
You have the answer,
You know who you are
And you know what you want.
There is no need
To run outside
For better seeing.
Nor to peer from a window.
Rather abide at the center of your being;
For the more you leave it, the less you learn.
Search your heart
And see
The way to do
Is to be.
by Lao Tzu
My story
This is so much wisdom in these ancient words.. when I think about the lines..
Someone else has the answer
Some other place will be better,
Some other time it will all turn out.
So often, we are taught that the answer lies outside of ourselves – in a book or in a doctor’s advice, but what if what I need to know from my life, for my direction is an answer is inside of me?! This is something of a revelation…
Or it is “some other place” (my kids think our lives will be perfect if we just move to Australia)!
Sure, its ok to get advice from a doctor, great to travel… but the art is also then taking info back from outer world and checking in with ourselves on how that information lands in our bodies and then still go through the process of discerning what you ultimately want to do with that info. We are then not as swayed by others and we are more grounded as a result.
I love the suggestion that it “has already turned out” and that our lives are exactly where they need to be.
At the center of your being
You have the answer,
You know who you are
And you know what you want.
LOVE IT!
An invisible intelligence
Its this idea that there is an invisible intelligence that is pervasive in this universe, but when we are in a state of suffering we feel separate, in a state of stress we feel disconnected from life…
Then we are disconnected from this universal intelligence and it is only when we let go of that sense of desperation, of wanting to control things, surrender our worries that we can then move into a place of connection with the universal intelligence and experience an immense power.
For me, learning meditation and doing retreats gave me a opening into that next stage… and also surrendering to the universe and trusting the process will lead me to where I ultimately wanted to go.
It takes time and patience, but then you see all sorts of wonderful things unfold in your life when you awaken to this universal intelligence – might be waves of new ideas, as well as the kind of coincidences and synchronicities… more wellbeing.
Yoga teacher Rod Stryker says when we reach this place we no longer feel alone, we realise we are guided… despite what we are going through. He goes on, “By finding that thread to an inner beauty, stability and joy that is beyond the suffering” …. we can access “untold beauty in this world beyond our senses”.
It is interesting we are quite weak in our capacity to conceive our outer world… lots of examples of it– for e.g., range of visible light observable to the human eye only makes up a tiny portion of the electromagnetic spectrum – about 0.0035 percent.)
Wolves, fish sense the magnetic pull of earth… birds and butterflies see ultraviolet light we usually can’t see. dogs hear more than us. They think its about 99% of reality that we don’t see w our normal senses and our view of reality is based on such little information as a result.
Thinking about inner wisdom, I also encourage you to entertain the possibility there is this indeed untold beauty beyond what we normally see. It is why yogis thought to gather their mind, breath and body… and had the discipline and the practices that then offer the possibility of seeing beyond these limitations and sense the great mystery…
Journaling exercise
Writing down your thoughts is such a wonderful way to really collect what you are hearing from within and help create a conversation around it and gain clarity or insight. Free flow writing, don’t edit, you don’t have to share – just let the words flow onto the page..
Here are some journal prompts if you wish, otherwise write whatever comes to you:
- In what ways have I questioned my inner wisdom in the past and thought ‘someone else has the answer’ or ‘some other place will be better’?
- In what ways can I nurture a deeper connection with the ‘center of my being’?
- When I search my heart and listen to my body what does this reveal about my inner wisdom today?
- How might I benefit from me being more attuned to my inner wisdom?
