FINDING YOUR VOICE

In a world that seems filled with pre-programmed ideas, it can seem hard to find your inner, authentic voice. It can seem daunting to tune out the messages we are bombarded with and to find your way into a strong inner knowing of what you want, unfiltered by what society tells us to want. It can seem impossible to hear yourself think with all the messages that are pumped out by others trying to get our attention.

My advice?

Make time to be alone with yourself.

Make time to be alone with your thoughts.

Make time to go within and see how you feel.

I do this every single morning as I write and allow my inner wisdom to come forward to guide me. It’s a practice I highly encourage because it always leads me to outsized leaps forward. I make a huge connection between what I am feeling and what I am thinking, and in that awareness, I am able to reform what I think, so that I can affect what I feel.

The better I feel, the more energy I seem to have. The more energy I have, the more inspiration I seem to have. The more inspiration I receive, the more I am in love with life. In this way, a tiny effort by me to improve what I think sets me on an upward course of better and better feelings and better and better experiences.

So much better that at times I hit a limiting belief that says this: You are having too much fun.

Not true. Not possible. Not a belief that I want to carry into the world.

While I write about spiritual topics, I make no bones about my belief that fun and spirituality go hand in hand. Fun is a sign that you are on your path. Fun is an experience where you bring your true self into the world. Fun is a bellwether that you are close to a truth.

And here is a truth I can’t deny. There seems to be a grand plan at work to help all of us see that life is supposed to be joyous. There seems to be a cacophony of voices out there showing us that good feelings portend good results. There seems to be an open invitation from the divine to enjoy life and stop contributing to our own suffering.

Yes, there is suffering in the world. I am not immune from seeing it. But I am also fully aware that most of my personal suffering has been caused by my own thinking and not the fault of the circumstances around me. Thus, I am proudly using my voice to cajole, to advocate, and to teach others that they can alleviate their own suffering if only they paid attention to what they think.

We are living in bold times. We have abundant freedoms. We are collectively far more accepting of differences, which allows each of us to express authentically. Yet many of us still have not taken responsibility for our thoughts.

If you hold a belief that limits you, get rid of it.

If you hold an idea that makes you feel lousy, trash it.

If you are taking action in fear, take a few moments to root out the fear and stop perpetuating the idea that good people carry fear into the world.

I once heard that the definition of bravery is doing something even if you are afraid. I have a better one: bravery is showing up as your authentic self, using your authentic voice, and making it a point to take responsibility for what you think. We don’t need more people who confront their fears. We need more people who see the root cause of their fears—their thinking—and then change their thinking. For good.

Take one idea that limits you and do the work to swap it out for a better idea. You are doing holy work. Take one fear you hold and do the inner work to suss out the idea behind the fear. This is work that helps us all. Take one belief about yourself that you think is fixed, and open your mind to seeing yourself in new ways. With these small, tiny actions, you will be doing us all a favor.

We all benefit when one soul heals. We all benefit when one person takes control of her own happiness. We all benefit when one person goes first and says, Fear is wholly unnecessary. I like to think that the message Fear not might have been enough, but apparently many of us need more specific instructions. **

Ready to join me in rooting out fear? Sign up for one of my courses and learn how you too can change what you think to better support us all.