Who is your 'go to' for advice?

Image Ramon FVelasquez - used under a creative commons license

A few weeks ago, I wrote about meditation and how if I could only have one thing to take into 2014, that would be it.

You might say: 'Claire, what do you mean? Don’t you want to take what you’d learnt from this year, the changes you’ve made, the lessons you don’t want to repeat?' Well, yes. And mediation is something I can use to put me in touch with all those things.

How?

My body knows what I really want.

I’ll run that past you again.

In working out how I’m moving forward and how I make decisions, my body is guiding me.

Sounds a bit strange doesn’t it? Relying on your body for decisions? Surely you should be relying on your mind?

Surely, when we feel things, we are 'woo woo' and emotional, and "we all know we can’t trust people who are emotional."

Surely your body is the LAST thing you want to rely to give you a good indication of what you want to do?

Well, I don’t agree.

We know what we want

I’ve learnt that we DO know what we really want. We know, deep down inside ourselves. And when we open up to meditation, allowing ourselves to really FEEL our emotions, we can learn so much from them.

When we meditate, we allow our thoughts to be released and we practice ‘being’, focusing on keeping ourselves very present in the moment, not thinking about the past or the future. Without the mind working overtime, there is space for us to work out how we really feel about things. This means we can be guided by our inner being, our soul, our intuition, and who we really are.

Have you ever thought about how our bodies tell us things?

You may have experienced your body telling you something before. When we really want something, it excites us. We experience a surge or 'tingling' in our bodies. We feel like dancing and singing when we are joyful. On the other hand, when we do something we hate doing, or which goes against what we believe in, which 'drains us’, we may feel tired or ‘heavy’.

What we put in our bodies can lessen or nullify our ability to really be aware of how we actually ‘feel’ in a situation. We may not know what to do with an emotion or we think we ’shouldn’t’ feel it, so we try and dull it or escape from it, through distracting ourselves through food, alcohol or other substances to create a buzz or feeling. Conversely, by opening up and letting ourselves feel things as they happen, we can choose how to respond and acknowledge our true self through that process.

When we are dreaming about changing something in our lives, this is really evident. When we dream, we let that inner part of us have a little air time. But then all of a sudden, wham! Our minds tell us that we should want something else, or try and convince us that it’s not sensible. This is our beliefs, past and upbringing challenging what we really want, that intuition, that consciousness. This is why we don't ever 'get around' to our dreams.

Inside, they are still our dreams.

How can I start?

So how can you begin to be guided by what you really want, by your own body? There are countless ways. However, today let’s keep it simple. Focus on the present moment, and ask yourself one question:

How am I feeling about this RIGHT NOW?

Don’t judge how you feel, just feel it. Just observe. Notice. Become aware.

As you practice this, you’ll get better at noticing. Some thoughts about not ‘being allowed’ things or ‘not being able’ to do things might come up. Just observe. Make a note. Treat yourself so kindly during this process. 'Change' can also feel like ‘challenge'.

My own awareness has allowed me to work out how best to deal with situations that I've faced, how to make the decisions that are best for me, how to  know what I really want and how to rely on that when I’m faced with an array of options.

My body knows, it always knows.