Is Regret Stunting your Decisions?
So You’ve been down the road a little way and you’ve made a few bad turns. You ended up somewhere you didn’t expect and now you are starting to question the past choices you made.
You may be a little hesitant to make some big decisions since now you are left with the scars of your past. So how do you make better decisions while also steering clear of the wrong ones?
Do you want to make better decisions in life? You have all you need inside you to make it happen but it takes training to learn how to harness this inner wisdom for powerful guidance and decision making.
You’re ready to move on but feel a little stuck and wounded. I get it. I’ve made some bad choices myself….like marrying the wrong guy the first time around.
We all make bad choices and that is part of the beauty of being human but you can get better at making decisions.
Where can you tap into your wisdom superpower where all the sources of knowledge and limitless intelligence exist?
Where Individual Wisdom Resides
We are all born with an inner voice that usually develops in early adolescents preparing us for adulthood.
This is the trusted voice that guides us. It is the source for your core values and beliefs which you have adopted and is our inner conscience that governs the rules you live by.
This voice can appear parent-like in that it is loving and care-taking. It can also go by different names: intuition, gut instinct, conscience, innate wisdom, or whatever you choose to call it.
The inner voice is a quite whispering like voice, it wants to challenge you and plant seeds of growth. This voice is motivated by intrinsic and non-object-based happiness.
The desire of the inner voice is to live your full potential. Though the inner voice is quiet, it wants you to listen big.
When you listen and follow your true inner voice, you feel empowered, authentic, loved, peaceful or enlightened.
You will always feel good. This is your higher-order thinking voice that wants to create, evolve and grow.
The voice is also your caretaker, it will question you when you are not doing things that are best for your life. It will help you know what is right and wrong.
It will tell you what you need to do to improve, develop yourself or even how to accomplish your goals and dreams. It wants to become the creator of your life and begin to craft what to do and when.
It’s the artist behind the vision for your life.
The Listening Stance for Personal Wisdom
Some people can hear their inner voice to make decisions and can do it quickly. Some of us cannot hear this inner voice. The inner voice can be silenced if you don’t trust it, believe in it or have confidence that it is knowledgeable enough to guide you.
To tune into the channel of your inner voice you will need to learn to quiet all the other noise, turn off the channels or have negative vibrations going on around you. You will need to find a way to quiet your mind, to find stillness.
Get away from distractions and have your level of actions turned down. Let go and surrender to current circumstances in order to feel peace.
Some of the best ways to do this is waking up early in the morning, doing relaxed deep breathing exercises, going for a walk, writing in a journal, doing meditation, prayer, or being out in nature.
Provide yourself an opportunity to appreciate and see beauty in the small things such as looking up at the clouds, a simple sound, and the touch of your blanket. Learn to enjoy your own company.
While here you can restore your inner balance and give yourself the space needed to create an alert stillness. This is when you can start developing quality thinking inside you.
When you are quiet and your mind is turned down to a low level of action and activity, you are now in the receiving mode and the listening stance.
It may not happen while you are quiet and still but it will plant the creative seed and if it doesn’t happen right away it will follow minutes, hours later or even the next day.
You will know you are there when you start to receive subtle thoughts that give you answers and feel like you are in a state of wellbeing.
Strengthen the Listening Muscle
This may take training but if you remind yourself of the “why”, that you are doing this to make better decisions and feel confident and independent in the process, then you will be more patient with yourself and begin to learn and commit to practicing.
Start off by trying this breathing exercise for 1 minute a day. Discipline yourself to do this daily. Take 3-5 deep breaths.
With each breath breathe through your nose. Fill your lungs full of air then hold the air in your lungs for a few seconds. Followed by slowly releasing the air through your mouth.
Feel that you are alive and allow yourself to just surrender to the breath. Imagine pushing all negative toxins out of you as you push the air outside your mouth.
After a week add on a few more minutes incorporating another quiet activity such as writing in your journal, prayer or meditation. Like any new habit committing to just one min a day is a great first start that helps form the commitment to making it a part of your life.
Eckhart Tolle says this, “Conscious breathing stops your mind. But far from being in a trance or half asleep, you are fully awake and highly alert.”
Deep breathing draws you away from the outside noise of the past or future thoughts but brings you into the present moment and allows you to focus on your deeper space where the source of quality thoughts emerge.
Once you have practiced this for a few months and you want to go deeper and tap into the wisdom of the universe which comes from the source of our creator. I encourage you to come back and and read “Getting The Most From Your Inner Voice”.
In Summary
So let’s recap, first if you want to get better at making decisions, you’ll need to start listening and trusting your inner voice. We all have it, we just need to give it quiet time and space to activate.
Next try practicing a deep breathing exercise to restore your inner world. Do this for a month and add on another activity to help discipline your thoughts and capture your ideas.
Julie Allen is a Dream Career and Life Coach in Seattle. Sign up for her free monthly Life tips at www.thestorymakers.net.
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– Julie Allen