How To Make Decisions That Nourish Your Wild Soul and Move You in the Direction of your Dreams
“You need to get in touch with your body and learn how to listen to its messages,” Torrie said. We were discussing life and love, and our dreams and mission to heal the world last night. This group of visionaries I am a part of are warrior souls who are learning how to navigate their own journey to better serve a bigger, badder picture. Then my friend Viviana types in the quote above, and everything in me is a “Yes!”
Chats with this group of soulpreneurs are deep, inspiring, thought-provoking and bad-ass. They challenge old beliefs, enlighten our paths, and move us to action. One of the most important things we talk about is intuition and how listening to our bodies is a way of navigating our day, from the moment we wake to the decisions we make and conversations we have, to the moment we crash back onto the pillow again.
Listening to your body is something you’ve heard me talk about before. Today I want to put it into another perspective in hopes that it might resonate even deeper for you.
Yes, it’s about body awareness but there’s more. It’s about learning to distinguish the difference between sensations…feelings and emotions, and then knowing what to do with each. It’s about knowing when those feelings and emotions are surfacing from an old trigger, and when they are surfacing to give you a message you should listen to. (They are always giving you a message and you should always listen).
The more I learn about this the more excited I become because when you get to the point of knowing what your body is telling you, you will feel you have developed a special super-power. You will feel you are beginning to know what intuition is at a higher level and use it, really use it to navigate your life.
Every single moment of your day is an opportunity to practice, so it’s not like you won’t get a ton of chances to get good at this. Begin to tune in to the feeling you get when a co-worker rubs you the wrong way. See what happens inside of you when you are faced with a big decision and can’t seem to find the answer. Notice what your body tells you when someone says something and you take it personally – what does that feel like in your body? What does it feel like when you are afraid?
Tune into when you feel joy. When things are going well and all is good in the world, see what that feels like. When someone supports you or shows you kindness you weren’t expecting. Let that in and see how it feels. When you really vibe with a new friend, what does that vibe feel like?
Feeling is the first, most important part of getting to know your internal GPS system and its language. Just get used to feeling, maybe even take some notes about certain situations and what happens inside you. You will begin to notice patterns and connections. There will also be differences. You’ll start to know what feelings are triggers and which are more intuitional messages. This awareness will help you slow down and respond, instead of react, in a situation.
The next step is knowing what each feeling or emotion means what in different situations and this takes some practice. It comes from developing awareness, and experience. It also comes from talking to others about your experiences and getting feedback. In that process of connecting to others and hearing their experiences, you begin to understand your own and recognize the ways your body tells you when something is good or not so good.
Don’t use the excuse that you don’t have the time or that this will take forever. I have seen awareness arrive in an instant. Whole new worlds in one enlightened moment.
Every emotion has a feeling in the body. See if you can begin to know what yours are. Anger, sadness, frustration, disappointment, shame, embarrassment…they all have a physical sensation you can notice. Joy, love, bliss, excitement, anticipation…they have them too. What are yours?
Begin to notice the stuff that shows up when you are pissed as Hell. Many times when this happens you are being triggered from an old, conditioned belief or situation. Fear can be like that too. I learned that in certain situations where fear was coming up, my whole self felt three years old. That powerless, worthless, shameful bad little girl comes up and it can ruin my present day aspirations.
This is how this looks in my day: Someone pisses me off by saying something that was hurtful or cruel. I feel the tightness in my chest, the lump in my throat and the pressure building. Instead of blurting out some over-loud defense, I think, “Wow, what they just said really made me mad. I wonder what that is all about.” I take a deep breath and depending on the person in front of me, choose to respond, react, or walk away. What you do with your awareness will depend highly on the situation and how much that person matters to you.
Now I can catch the feelings as soon as they arrive, recognize them for what they are (just old, ineffective, outdated beliefs coming up) and choose to believe or act differently in the present day scenario. Living inside this awareness had been a kick-ass game changer. My whole process of thinking about, making decisions about and acting for my life has transformed.
As you develop the ability to listen to your body and realize it is a guide, you will become more and more confident in that skill. It builds on itself in a good way. The process of feeling, recognizing and responding will become quicker, and soon this will be a natural more default way of doing life.
During the training time – and we all need training – don’t be harsh or critical on yourself. Realize you are learning and let the failures or mistakes be stepping stones to where you want to be. Rather than getting down on yourself for not doing it right, just be happy that your awareness is developing and that you are in training.
Every attempt, every try, every moment of awareness is a move in the direction of your kick-ass life. It’s all good. It’s all what you make it. You have the power inside of your awareness to do or be anything. Get good at listening to the inner wisdom that you were born with.
Show up for every moment with a warrior soul, and get that GPS system of yours cranking. It may not be easy, but it will be worth it.
by Atousa Raissyan
