Personal Compass

“Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive - the risk to be alive and express what we really are.”

Don Miguel Ruiz

Have you ever had an experience where you just knew something was right or wrong for you? Have you ever walked on a beach, or somewhere else in nature and experienced an insight or inspiration, perhaps in answer to a question you had? Many of us have but not recognised this as wisdom’s guide. This is what we call Direct Knowing, and it is one of your most powerful tools in life. We may experience this as a very clear insight into what direction we should take our lives, or as a quiet whisper which gradually becomes louder and louder if we ignore it.

We learn to pay close attention to this. In clearing the path through our intentful practices and awareness, to listen to Direct Knowing, we discover that there is a collective wisdom available to us all that spans across all time. It is the place from which our greatest artists, philosophers, scientists and leaders have sourced their insights and inspiration.

One of the ways we harness this is by using it to set our Personal Compass - our guide to living life fully and completely from an ethical and loving perspective. Our Personal Compass is a focused intent, sourced from the wisest place, on how to fully approach the life we are experiencing now. It is never fixed, but is alive and breathing into all that we do. We discover that by having this powerful exploration and guide we know what is wanted or needed to take us deeper, to get us through, to allow more joy and find our own version of expression and success no matter where we find ourselves.

In exploring your Personal Compass, here are some practices to get you started...

Your sense of what is life-affirming

We have a deep wisdom available to us all. This Direct Knowing is innately life-affirming. It is, however, not something that we generally acknowledge in our society. In this practice we start by beginning to know what it is to understand and work with our Direct Knowing.

Choose a particular day when you will be interacting with many people. perhaps at work, or at a social gathering. Even time with your family can work here. Go about your day as normal, without changing anything in particular in how you act or what you say. Bring more attention than you would typically do to what other people do or say. In doing so, see if you have an instinctive reaction to this, as either being a life-affirming act by them, or a life-negating one. For example, talking kindly about someone would be life-affirming, whereas gossiping about someone would be life-negating. See if you can notice a deep sensation, or feeling, which comes from their action. For many of your interactions you may not notice anything. For some, where the person has been life-affirming, you may simply notice that you leave the interaction feeling uplifted. For others, in particular if someone is doing something clearly life-negating such as stealing or hurting someone, you may notice an immediate instinct or feeling which points to this. Simply notice your reactions and see if you can bring them more into your awareness.

This practice is a first step into your Direct Knowing, from which you can build your Personal Compass. It helps you begin to tap into your instincts more easily, from which you can begin to discern then from the usual chatter of your moment-by-moment thoughts and emotions.

Accessing your Direct Knowing (intuition)

Listen to the ‘Connecting to your Direct Knowing’ MP3. You can find this HERE (Audio is Coming Soon).

Once you have done this, sit quietly and reflect on what is important to you from that wise place. What values, ethics, ways to live. Where to come from, rather than where to get to.

Statements to live by

Once you’ve listened to the ‘Connecting to your Direct Knowing’ MP3 (Audio is Coming Soon), sit quietly and reflect on what is important to you from that wise place. What statements can you come up with that are guiding lights to live by? What heals you and reminds you who you are? Write it up. Make it beautiful. Hang it on your wall. Keep it in your phone notes, or somewhere easy to access. This will change over time so revise it often.

Sometimes it can be difficult to know where to start with this so to give you some ideas, here are some of ours:

- I am not my body, but my body is my incredible home to live within.

- I am so much more than I can ever know. And so are you.

- None of us are ‘worth’ anything, and we are all so precious.

- I take time every day to move my body and breathe.

- I focus my love of our planet into conscious choices about what I buy, how I move around and how I dispose of things.

- I create from a place of inspiration.

- At least daily, I acknowledge the immense beauty in every individual, including myself.

- I immerse myself often in the natural world, particularly when I’m in the city.

- There is nowhere to get to. I am already here. Always.

- Doing or believing different is always possible, right now. Choice is the only thing that stops me.

- Today, I gift myself the stillness my body and mind seek.

- I look into the eyes of those I love, daily and send love to those whom I’m not with today.

- Hugs. So many hugs.

- I seek to notice areas of my life where I have undernourished myself and give extra attention to those places.

- I allow myself to feel deeply and express freely - out, not at.

- I allow inspired ideas to guide me.

- Wisdom is everywhere.

- Verbal appreciation and love changes the world. I choose to gift it often.

- Barefoot on the earth makes everything better.

- Open water swimming enlivens us beyond most anything else.

- I remember the wind, rain, sun and snow all have deep gifts. With bare feet, I stand in them all with an open heart and allow them to open something new in me.