June 2023
How can you tell when you are hearing The Still Small Voice or if your brain and/or all of your societal, social and cultural conditioning has taken over?
The Still Small Voice is your inner knowing – it may speak, or show you a picture, or give you a sensory sensation. It may do all or none of those things. It may be consistent and sometimes it may do lots of different things. (I call that the “I need to get your attention because you aren’t listening to me” tactic.)
It may seem like your brain and your body are crazy making, when you are working with and listening to The Still Small Voice.
My biggest challenge has been when I get somewhere (or something) that I planned for, dreamt of and decided that THIS was where I not only needed to be but BELONGED. Years, decades of working on getting somewhere, working the plan and checking the boxes…
And when I got there, it was the rude awakening of “ugh, wait what?! This is not the place for me!” Cue the shrill shriek as I tell myself I wasted time and money getting to this place and NOW WHAT?!
Commence the bargaining with myself. I repeat all these facts.
“I spent years (and usually the accompanying ridiculous amounts of money) to get here. To be here. And of COURSE, I want to be here.” (Though the pit in my stomach and heaviness in my soul tells me otherwise.)
“This is just imposter syndrome, this is just uncomfortableness I need to work through. I just need to get out of my head and enjoy the moment.”
Yet that pit and heaviness continue. I have to take them both as seriously as the facts. And also knowing that they could be part of the anxiety of change cover up. Just because I have a heaviness and a pit doesn’t mean this is wrong. It could mean that I’m freaking out over my good fortune and accomplishing a goal. Not that I make this a regular habit or anything…
We can always talk ourselves, our body and our mind in and out of things. I’ve talked myself into some really stupid things because it felt right. I thought I was getting all the signs from my body and mind to “Go Go Go” when really it was just the thoughts and feelings I fed it (or the thoughts of the world around me fed into it.)
But I’ve also talked myself out of some really incredible experiences with the same feelings, sensation and logic that talked me into the stupid decisions that I would rather forget.
So after many years and hundreds of thousands of dollars of stupidity…(I’m sure many of you can relate)
I have two questions to check if it is my Still Small Voice talking to me.
Or if all the voices in my head and heart and gut have just learned how to dress up and sound like The Still Small Voice (because they are tricky that way.)
- How comfortable do I feel with what the voice is telling me?
This could mean that I totally agree. Or that I don’t agree at all and just want the voice to shut up already. I have found that when I don’t want to hear what it has to say, I want to go the pure logical route such as “Well the pros and cons list says I should!” That’s my cue that I need to stop and listen. But it’s the same when I’m in agreement as well. My high anxiety agreements, like I’m using the voice to justify, when I’m not necessarily “okay” with the decision…well, that may not be my Still Small Voice.
If there is peace though, like a coming home, in the agreement, even if I like it or dislike it, the odds are good that it is my Still Small Voice.
- What would I proceed to do with this information? And how does that feel?
This helps me clarify if and what are the next steps. Is there a sinking feeling? Is there lightness? Is there a sinking feeling and a lightness at the same time? In my history, it’s been both but the lightness always outweighs the heaviness.
Is there something else that I could do in agreement if not the one feels heavy?
This one of my tools that I use to interact and take action on my Still Small Voice.
But like most things with The Still Small Voice, it’s more organic. There’s not a flowchart that it always uses and the body doesn’t always line up with the voice and your thoughts.
It’s more like walking in the pitch black and using your hands and feet to feel what is front of you. You need all the help you can get as you figure it out.