August 3, 2012 --That Voice
I don't have much to say today because I am busy resisting the urge to walk up to perfect strangers and ask them if they are listening to their still, small voice.
I can't help it. This just feels so huge to me-- I want to tell everyone about it!
Yesterday, I realized that I've had this still, small voice inside of me for most of my life, only I'd never really recognized it before. I've listened to it, or not listened to it, but it's always been there. I'm not on very friendly terms with organized religion these days, but I consider myself a seeker of the spiritual and I definitely believe in a higher power. It's my belief that the voice inside of us is divine in origin, and the truer we are to our authentic selves, the clearer it is.
I was talking to Coop about this earlier and he said, "How do you distinguish that good voice from the negative voice--the voice that tells you all the things you CAN'T do, all the things you're bad at, why you'll never succeed...?"
I didn't really have a concrete answer for him. But in thinking about this more, I realized that the self-doubting, hating voice? Goes away when I am hearing the Divine Voice. The Divine Voice is quiet and absolutely non-judgmental. When I eat crackers for lunch against its wishes, it just waits patiently for me. There is NO JUDGMENT. There is no NEGATIVITY. There is only kindness and patience. I think maybe that's why it's so easy to ignore that voice, you know? Because there is no immediate negative reinforcement for doing so.
But when I DO listen to it, my life is better. For example, the little voice will whisper to me that I should get gas and I won't pay attention and later, when filling my tank is critical and I can't put it off, it will also be storming outside. Almost everyone I know has a similar story about this still, small voice --and almost everyone I know has an example of a time when they didn't listen and were sorry later.
I wonder what the world would look like if we all took ten minutes every morning and tried to just listen to that voice within us? I'm trying to work toward an unbroken awareness of that voice--although I'm pretty sure that's impossible, except in enlightened beings. Imagine what that would look like, though, --a completely peaceful, harmonious existence. It boggles me. It inspires me. It motivates me.
(Okay, okay, I know this is heavy stuff. Tomorrow I'll be back to talking about other things again. There will be recipes. But I've just been...walking around in wonder all day and it bubbled over.)
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In other news, guess what I did today, not once, but twice?
I still can't do it every time. But here's something very surprising (WARNING: BIG METAPHOR AHEAD): when I got up into the forearm stand and everything was in proper alignment, it was almost effortless to stay there.
I can't help it. This just feels so huge to me-- I want to tell everyone about it!
Yesterday, I realized that I've had this still, small voice inside of me for most of my life, only I'd never really recognized it before. I've listened to it, or not listened to it, but it's always been there. I'm not on very friendly terms with organized religion these days, but I consider myself a seeker of the spiritual and I definitely believe in a higher power. It's my belief that the voice inside of us is divine in origin, and the truer we are to our authentic selves, the clearer it is.
I was talking to Coop about this earlier and he said, "How do you distinguish that good voice from the negative voice--the voice that tells you all the things you CAN'T do, all the things you're bad at, why you'll never succeed...?"
I didn't really have a concrete answer for him. But in thinking about this more, I realized that the self-doubting, hating voice? Goes away when I am hearing the Divine Voice. The Divine Voice is quiet and absolutely non-judgmental. When I eat crackers for lunch against its wishes, it just waits patiently for me. There is NO JUDGMENT. There is no NEGATIVITY. There is only kindness and patience. I think maybe that's why it's so easy to ignore that voice, you know? Because there is no immediate negative reinforcement for doing so.
But when I DO listen to it, my life is better. For example, the little voice will whisper to me that I should get gas and I won't pay attention and later, when filling my tank is critical and I can't put it off, it will also be storming outside. Almost everyone I know has a similar story about this still, small voice --and almost everyone I know has an example of a time when they didn't listen and were sorry later.
I wonder what the world would look like if we all took ten minutes every morning and tried to just listen to that voice within us? I'm trying to work toward an unbroken awareness of that voice--although I'm pretty sure that's impossible, except in enlightened beings. Imagine what that would look like, though, --a completely peaceful, harmonious existence. It boggles me. It inspires me. It motivates me.
(Okay, okay, I know this is heavy stuff. Tomorrow I'll be back to talking about other things again. There will be recipes. But I've just been...walking around in wonder all day and it bubbled over.)
*****************************************************************
In other news, guess what I did today, not once, but twice?
I still can't do it every time. But here's something very surprising (WARNING: BIG METAPHOR AHEAD): when I got up into the forearm stand and everything was in proper alignment, it was almost effortless to stay there.
Comments
Still love the forearm stand, still getting puppy kisses. We're working on it. (It seems that my world balance involves a puppy. I'm o.k. with that.)
YES. That.
And yet, results for not listening are all around me. Hmmm.
Jennie