Your Inner Voice

Words are thoughts expressed which carry the message of our intentions with them. Our external speech can be thought of as a reflection or external manifestation of our inner programming. The words we use can tell us a lot about how or what we think. Words can be either charged with the positive energy of love, that helps us expand, or they are charged with the energy of fear, that causes us to shrink away from who we truly are.

Our words have power, and our speech has the power to set the energy or the directions we choose in our lives. If we say good and positive things, good and positive things (experiences) happen to us. These words give us the opportunity to experience life from a positive or optimistic point of view. If, on the other hand, we come from negativity and say negative things, accordingly, negative things happen to us or we end up seeing life as one big problem or disappointment.

While we are all familiar with our external speech or voice, we also have another voice that we work with and interact with daily. This is our "inner voice". While at first glance you may think: "what inner voice"? But when you come right down to it, we are all familiar with our inner voice. Our inner voice is that small utterance that comes from deep within us, whose job it is to provide us with guidance. This is a different kind of communication than what comes from our normal waking conscious, which I call our analyzer. When our analyzer is talking, the communication we receive tends to seem more like a nonstop conversation that goes on inside of our heads all day and sometimes well into the night.

It is through the mechanism of our inner voice that "spirit" communicates with us. It can be likened to the images portrayed on television of a little white angel standing on one side of our heads telling us the "right" thing to do, while our brain or analyzer stands on the other side (the little devil character), telling us what we "should" do, regardless of integrity or merit. Our inner voice can be thought of as our conscious, poking and prodding us into action or inaction as the case may be.

How many times has your inner voice told you to do something, you in turn choosing to ignore its promptings, only to find out it was a big mistake? I'll bet, in that moment, you say to yourself, "I should have listened to myself". Case and point, you were not paying attention to the guidance provided to you by your inner voice.

Your inner voice is there to help guide you along the path called life. Sometimes the promptings of our inner voice are subtle, reminding us to pay a bill or call a friend. Other times our inner voice can be more insistent, where it may seem as if it is nagging us, reminding us over and over of some unfinished business for perhaps days, weeks or even years.

Many people confuse thoughts or passing emotions for the information they receive from their inner voice. In fact, many of us confuse information provided by our brains, or analyzers for the inner promptings of spirit. But if you quiet your mind, you can easily tap into this information. This can be accomplished through meditation, quiet contemplation, exercise, art, dance and even music. Each of these activities helps to turn off our analyzer, allowing us to commune with our higher self, our spirit or the universe.

If these techniques aren't working for you, here is a good rule of thumb to follow. If your inner voice, those inner promptings that urge each of us into action lasts more than a week, i.e., you find the same thoughts and feelings coming back to you over and over again, then know that this is your inner voice looking for expression. Trust the information you are receiving, and use it to guide you into action.

Our inner voice also works on another basic principal: if you ask yourself a question, you will always receive an answer. So if you ask, "What should I do now?" you will always be prompted as to your next step. At times you may receive a whole digression at to what you could or should be doing. Our inner self always provides us with information that is for our highest good, even if the tasks it requires of us are hard. It will always lead us on the right path, but it cannot compel us to follow. We were all provided with something called free will. It is our ability to choose what we want for ourselves. Bottom line, we can choose to follow spirit, or we can choose to take a different path.

When you listen to the prompting of spirit, life happens much smoother. Things that may have been a problem or issue, in the past, seem to be miraculously avoided and life is good. When you choose to not listen to spirit, it is as if you are taking your life into your own hands. Spirit will poke you and prod you, it will even nag at you with the things you should be doing.

The more you don't listen, or choose to not pay attention, the further and further you are moving from your center and your true path. Your inner self starts to become unbalanced. The more unbalanced you become, the stronger or louder the promptings become. Obstacles or tests are put in our path increase in intensity. Finally, the last straw is placed upon the camel's back. It is as if the universe smacks you up the side of the head with a 2 x 4, an index card pinned to the end of it, which reads "Are you ready to listen now?"

Listening to spirit, your higher self or the universe is all about trust…trusting that what you are being told or lead to do is what is best for you highest good. Trust is a challenge for many of us to master. Working with the promptings of our inner voice makes us acknowledge that we are not necessarily in control. I fact, it forces us to giving the steering wheel of our life over to someone else. It is hard for us to give up control of our lives. But once you choose to follow spirit by trusting and surrendering control, you will see miraculous changes happening in your life almost immediately.

Written By Dr. Rita Louise