By Patrick Bridgeman
Real wisdom comes from within
When I was born, I relied on the wisdom of my parents and guardians to keep me alive. As I grew older, I learned from my own experience, but society placed more importance on my learning from teachers and textbooks. My role models were my family and friends, and characters on TV and in comic books. It was the norm to accept the opinions of doctors, priests, Gardaí and politicians over our own thoughts and feelings. However, while this provides us with a wealth of information that our intellectual mind can then process into useable knowledge, real wisdom only comes from within.
This habit of looking outside of ourselves for the answers to our internal questions only works if we look with the understanding that our outer world is a reflection of our inner world. In that way, we can get an idea of what is going on in our mind and our energy field by looking at what we are attracting into our experience. This can be helpful when there is no obvious pattern of thought related to our recurring experiences. Otherwise, my advice is to cultivate the stillness and silence required to clearly hear your own inner guidance.
It goes by many names: intuition, inspiration, your higher self, your gut feeling. Whatever you would like to call it, it is in tune with all-that-is in the moment it makes itself heard. It is of the moment, for the moment; and once you have gotten used to it, tuning in becomes second nature, only takes a second, and won’t leave you second guessing.
The process is three-fold. Firstly, listen, with all of your senses, for what might be a fleeting glimpse of the most brilliant insight. Secondly, trust that guidance, even when your intellectual mind begs to differ. Thirdly, act upon the impulse in the moment it was meant for. If you procrastinate because your intellectual mind frightens you with logic, the alignment can move out of sync, and the inspired action might miss its target.
The trick is to recognise the difference between intuition, desire and fear. I’ve been practicing tuning in for years now, and it has become relatively easy to recognise that feeling of pure guidance from a clear source, but I do still have moments clouded by fear and desire. I also have moments when I’m not even trying to tune in, and some guidance comes through loud and clear.
The right time to act is also something that can be known intuitively, so check in before you act out. Sometimes, the best thing to do is wait. You may feel almost in alignment, but not quite. When I feel this way, I trust that some energy is in the process of shifting and I will know when the time is right for me to act. Like with any creative process, the gestation period is just as important as the expression.
I try to honour my cycles of rest and productivity as much as possible. When I ignore my intuition on the orders of my sense of obligation, my work doesn’t flow, I feel stressed, and I usually encounter problems such as my computer freezing. That’s why, when I’m facilitating a healing session, I put total trust in my intuition, even if I’m guided to pause for an indefinite amount of time.
As the You-niverse is ever-changing, the intuitive guidance you received earlier in the year may no longer be fitting. Your alignment could have changed dramatically within a short space of time, which is why it is important to check in on a regular basis. Let go of what was right for then, and tune in to what is right for now. When you go with the flow, you can live a fulfilling life of effortless ease.
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