Inner Compass

What is an Inner Compass?

We are undergoing a beautiful transformation in human consciousness. Did you know that? We are designed to grow continuously from the inside out, rather than the outside in. But we can become confused and begin to rely entirely on external sources for our sense of ourselves. This creates an imbalance that's hard to overcome. But you can regain your ability to create an inner and outer life that is in perfect alignment. We do this by using our inner compass.

So what do I mean by an inner compass? Well, inside each of us exists a sense that is designed to point to our core truth. In many ways we have been taught to turn off our internal compass or to not trust it at all. We have been trained to listen to the outside world rather than our inside needs and the desires of our core self. In fact, we've been made to feel silly for saying that we "sense" something is off, or suggesting that something doesn't "feel" right. Keep up that kind of talk and you'll eventually be labeled as someone who makes waves or called a troublemaker.

But if you stop listening to this urging from within — if you stop listening to your gut — you will end up in places you never would have chosen. The most likely destination is your past wounds, you know, that sad, familiar territory that you want to avoid more than anything. Your inner compass can direct you toward healthy places.

It's rare that any good comes from misreading a compass. Misreading your inner compass is no exception. So, it takes practice and determination to not compromise or fall back on external feedback. It's not easy to stick to what your compass is telling you and what you've learned along the way. But your compass will become your trusted guide to help you know when you are running your life in or out of balance. To move forward, you need to have a close personal relationship with your inner compass and, even then, it must be continuously fine-tuned.

Learning to Listen to Your Body as a Guide

The body houses your inner compass. The way I know that I am out of balance almost always starts with messages from my body. These messages may arrive as sickness, emotional strain, the inability to focus, a lack of drive, a feeling of disconnect from others, lack of creativity, pain or exhaustion, just to name to few. Once I understood that my body, mind and spirit are all trying to help me, I learned to interpret these messages as opportunities for change. You can do the same!

So many of us forget to check in with our body for data and information. Something feels too constrictive and you know you need to change, but you can't see what that looks like.

That's terrifying! And most of us get stuck here. We want to see where we are going before we proceed forward. This can be a major roadblock, because if we are on a spiritual quest or we are growing beyond what we have been taught or have seen in our lifetime, we are going to be sailing blind.

The only way to navigate this situation is to listen to your body. This process is much like the method of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Sometimes you can't see out of the cocoon and you have to tune into the sensations of your body to find your way out. Your body's sensations are the feelings of being out of balance. The feelings are telling you that a change is necessary. This is your inner compass.

When monarch butterflies are migrating, they use the magnetic pull of the earth's poles as a secondary navigation system. They sense the magnetic fields of the earth to make sure they arrive home safe and sound. When butterflies are off course, they are able to sense that they are out of alignment with where they are meant to go and adjust their route accordingly; they "feel" their destiny and let nothing stop them from finding it.

We are similar in many ways. Just like the butterfly, we need and want to fulfill our destiny. And we have numerous messages that are directing us back to our place of balance. What a gift! If we would just start listening more clearly to our pain and discomfort — our feelings of being out of alignment — the world within would become illuminated and a state of peace and balance would re-emerge. That sounds yummy to the soul, doesn't it?

The funny thing is that most of us don't even ask what's wrong. Why do I feel this way? Is there something I am not giving myself? How do I get it? Learning to accurately read these messages quickly and effectively can literally be a lifesaver.

We know "dis-ease" in the body can manifest itself into real disease in your body, mind, and/or spirit. So knowing you're in trouble or out of balance is important and the sooner the better. Delaying access to that information would be like not having access to a life preserver until you've hit the bottom of the lake. That's RISKY!

I once had a client who had a serious heart condition, one that was not pre-existing, but manifested suddenly and changed her life drastically. Working with this client for a period of time prior, I knew that she had some unresolved emotional conditions centered on her inability to stand in her self-worth and own her spiritual gifts. Intuitively, I knew this client was a medium, but she was terrified to expose her gifts due to family of origin trauma.

As the health condition worsened, her despair deepened. Then she allowed me to dive deep into her heart and show her how to release the infection. The doorways of her heart opened in front of me. Just like boiling water, the hurts began to evaporate.

Layer by layer, we worked through the chapters of her life that she had sealed up, releasing the pain and freeing her spirit. Like clockwork, as the pain was released, so too were the physical symptoms of her heart condition. We found that when she ignored the hurt, the symptoms would increase and she would be in a medical crisis again.

I'm happy to say that this client is nearing full recovery. By listening to her body and its reminders to stay on course, she has healed both her spiritual and physical heart. This is just one of many cases that I've seen where releasing toxic pain in the emotional body produces a directly correlated result in the physical body.

Tuning Out Negative Self-Talk

So we start by turning on our inner compass. That makes sense. But to be effective we also must turn off the negative self-talk that sabotages our growth. We must stop telling ourselves we really aren't good enough to get our needs and wants met. We need to stop getting angry and believing the world won't...