Listening Within

We are born with an inner knowing, an ability to sense, feel, and know what is right for us. Over time if not nurtured, the ability diminishes. We’ve not lost the ability, but rather our trusting of that inner knowing. We begin to doubt and turn outside of ourselves for answers and reassurance.

But life has a way of providing opportunities to re-awaken that ability within us. If we are aware and pay attention, we can learn to listen again to our inner voice.

• To listen, not only with our physical ears, but with our spiritual ears.
• To listen within, to sense, and know, even without knowing how we know.

Tuning into this forgotten sense of knowing is similar to learning another language. We begin by recognizing how we receive its messages.

As we practice and use this inner language of the spirit, it becomes stronger and more fluent.

The nudges are subtle and easily missed, if we’re not paying attention. But if we are alert and act, our ability to respond intuitively increases.

Maybe you’ve experienced something similar in your daily activities.

My usual routine as I began my daily walk the other morning was to listen to an audiobook or podcast. Listening while I walk is the perfect opportunity to feed my love of learning.

As I began putting the earbuds in, I felt slightly heavy and uncomfortable inside. That’s the best way for me to describe the nudge I was receiving, and I was hesitant to push play.

There was a time when I would have ignored that inner prod and carried on with my usual routine. But I instinctively knew that if I did that today, I would have a hard time concentrating and probably end up feeling frustrated at my inability to remember what I was learning.

So, I turned inward to listened and then followed the sense that what I needed that day was to listen to a very specific hymn.

That one hymn led to another and then to other uplifting music. (Gentri is a group I highly recommend for inspirational music http://gentrimusic.com/.)

Because of trusting my inner knowing and acting on what I was sensing, I was led to exactly what I needed to experience that day.

I realized that the greater need for me at that time was not to feed my intellect, but rather to nourish my spirit.

Because I listened and responded, I was able to meet the deeper need in a way that my thinking mind alone had not recognized and would not have been able to provide. The need for me that day had been a spiritual nourishing.

Have you experienced similar opportunities? Are you learning to listen to your spirit and follow its inner guidance?

The more we listen and act upon those subtle insights, the greater will be our ability to recognize the daily, if not hourly opportunities to receive and trust our own personal insights and inner knowing.

Much love,