Your instrument panel
Posted by jodietonita on January 9, 2007
“Trust your own instincts.
Your mistakes might as well be your own as somebody else’s.”
Billy Wilder, Film director; winner 7 Academy Awards
Let’s review one of the basic tools for inner knowing: recognizing polarities.
Your inner knowing is constantly sending you signals to draw you closer to that which is beneficial, and warning you to pull away from that which is harmful.
Think of something in your life around which you have a strong, clear unambivalent “Yes”.
What does “Yes” feel like…in your body… in your energy.
What are some of the characteristics of a “Yes?”
Think of something in your life around which you have a strong, clear unambivalent “No”.
What does “Yes” feel like…in your body… in your energy.
What are some of the characteristics of a “No?”
This is your INNER COMPASS.
Of course, often questions are more complex, more nuanced than a simple Yes or No:
* It might be Yes or No depending on how the question is phrased…
* Certain aspects may be Yes and others No
* The way we do or approach something may make it a Yes or a No, or it may be changing over time
We will often need to use other tools such as the 4-step process or journaling to fully understand our inner guidance.
But knowing how to read our Inner Compass is a foundation for using our intuition.
In addition to discerning “Yes” and No”, let’s explore a number of other inner polarities. These can serve as different dials on our intuitive instrument panel, helping us to take more accurate readings in exploring our own inner landscape.
What does “helpful” feel like? Think of something in your life which is unmistakably helpful.
And what about “harmful?” Think of something in your life that is unmistakably harmful.
Take a few minutes now, and work with discerning what each of the following polarities feels like. Think and feel into a strong, unmistakable example of each one:
nourishing vs. depleting
clear vs. entangled
developing vs. eroding
beneficial vs. hurtful
growing vs. shrinking
warm vs. cold
healthy vs. toxic
moving forward vs. going backward
birthing vs. dying
TODAY’S PRACTICE VARIATION
Throughout the day, keep taking quick readings on whatever you encounter: different environments, opportunities, relationships, different foods, choices.
Exercise your inner radar throughout the day.
Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass.
January 9, 2007 at 7:12 pm
(smile)
I’ve read a number of your thoughtful, loving posts now, and I’m definitely appreciative. I also wonder, tho, who gets to decide what’s positive and what’s negative in the polarities? I live a pretty mundane kind of life, compared to many, but that’s usually artful camouflage, adopted because *my compass* points somewhere different. Strategies that are definitely helpful for me do not conform to many norms, and so I have learned to hide my own inner compass away. People around me don’t want to see it, aren’t comfortable when I try to follow it or express it.
The message I get from people around me, even those I consider highly evolved, is “Be yourself. But don’t be too different. And don’t stand so close.”
Not whining about things. I’ve lived nearly 50 years under a blanket of respectability that conceals where my particular compass points. I’m used to it. Occasionally I’ll let the inner me out for a romp in the jungle, and then put me back into the respectable cage again. It’s the way things work.
xo
Russell
April 19, 2007 at 6:49 am
Marsh
I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read.