Aspire Magazine: Inspiration for a Woman's Soul.(TM) Oct/Nov 2014 - Featuring Louise Hay | Page 62
At first, it may be difficult to decipher the
voice of spirit because it often sounds like our
own thoughts. With practice we can discern
the whisper of our spirit through a sensation
in our body such as a tingling feeling, an
intuition, an image that pops up in our mind’s
eye, words we hear, a message arising from
out of the blue, or an emotion we feel. This
flow of information is sometimes activated
during activities when our brains are turned
off and nothing else seems to matter, such
as when we listen to music, write, exercise,
or make love. What matters most is that
we trust ourselves in receiving this spiritual
information to guide our lives.
When we listen to our hearts, we live with
passion and purpose and feel a sense of
alignment with our higher selves. We begin
to realize that full self-expression is not
equivalent to the job we do, the roles we
play, or how successful we are in the world.
Steve Jobs, the creative visionary and
founder of Apple, Inc., spoke about being
purposeful when he challenged students
to ask themselves: “If today were the last
day of my life, would I want to do what I’m
about to do today.”2 When our answer to this
question is yes, we know we are listening
to the guidance of our hearts and making
choices that align with it. If we answer no,
we must examine our choices to discover
where they come from.
Listening to the guidance of our hearts and
aligning with spiritual information to live
purposefully takes trust in ourselves and a
desire to be in sync with spirit. In Japan, they
call it ikigai, which translates into “the reason
we get up in the morning.” Although we have
many mindsets dictating what we should
do, discovering our reason to get up in the
morning involves detecting the information
coming through our hearts because finding
62
such a reason for living is critical to a long,
authentic, and healthy life.
We cannot afford to give our minds control
over our hearts as this impedes our ability
to act from our authentic selves. We fall
prey to the guidance of our mind’s critical
voice that judges us instead of the heart’s
compassionate voice that encourages and
supports us.
Listening to the guidance of our hearts to
access information from our spiritual source
allows us to have an intimate, and integrated
relationship with ourselves; to receive
assistance with daily problems; waste less
time and energy being anxious about life’s
difficulties; and respond rather than react
to situations. Most importantly, it leads to a
more spiritual way of life, giving us greater
peace of mind.
NOTES
1. Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection, 11.
2. Steve Jobs, “If Today Were the Last Day of My Life,”
Commencement Speech at Stanford University,
June 12, 2005. http://chuckbalsamo.com/2011/10/
steve-jobs-if-today-were-the-last-day-of-my-life/.
3. Pema Chödrön, The Places That Scare You: A
Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times (Boston:
Shambhala Publications, 2001).
Excerpted and adapted from the forthcoming book
Being Love by Debra L Reble, Ph.D.
Read
Online!
Debr a Reble – Debra L Reble, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist who
conducts a private practice and facilitates workshops and seminars
that focus on enhancing personal transformation and well eing,
b
is the founder of HeartPaths, a company dedicated to providing
materials that inspire full self xpression. For more information,
e
visit http://www.debrareble.com.
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014