Artwork Title: Emerging Soul
Artist: Atousa Raissyan - Soulystic
Website: atousaraissyan.com
Facebook; @Soulystic
We've been told that all the answers to everything we ever need are within. I used to feel like this was some big spiritual test where I had to figure out where to look. I read it again recently, "The answers are within," and laughed. Wow thanks for telling us, I thought, but what the Hell are you talking about and where do I start looking?
It's not a test. You just have to be willing to feel.
I learned it's not about looking, it's about feeling. It took me a while (twenty plus years in a healing career) to get comfortable-ish with feeling. I had to keep coming back to my desire to heal and be me - to live a joyful, passionate life. That desire had to trump everything else. The journey within became my path, my calling, and my joy.
If our soul's mission is to connect to the divine and heal this world, wouldn't you think there'd be a huge red bullseye on the map and then 7 billion maps would drop from the sky?
Not that easy.
I want to make it simple for you. I'm tired of spiritual ideas I can't understand. I'd like to give you the map, point out the bullseye and lead the expedition. Coming?
Here are 10 things you need to know about where to look when you journey within:
1. It's about awareness - the ability to feel and observe everything without reacting or judging it. "Everything" means the thoughts, feelings, emotions and sensations that come up when you do life. What do you notice and feel?
2. Awareness happens in your body-mind-soul. It's all three integrated with each piece sewn with threads of the other. You can't separate them so stop trying. What you're aware of has a component of thinking and feeling to it and those are both tied to your soul's calling. Yes, your soul is calling.
3. What we're aware of is colored by the lenses we wear. Our lenses are different than everyone else's depending on the life we've lived. Every experience we've ever had creates the lenses and effects awareness (and judgement) of current day moments. Let this one idea be in the background of every relationship you have and you will start to feel a shift.
4. We all have shit to heal. Be aware of the stuff that makes up your lenses and learn the difference between reactions/triggers and knowing/intuition and how each of those things feels in your body. Start connecting what triggers you to a physical feeling. Start connecting what lights you up to a physical feeling.
5. The voice within is your intuition. Your intuition has it's own language which takes practice to learn. I promise you have one. Everyone does. The messages coming from within that everyone talks about? Your intuition. Just like learning any other language, it's a skill you can master. Intuition 101 should be a mandatory class in every school. Time to go to class!
6. Body awareness is the gateway to within and your intuition. Everyone has a body and everyone can do this. It's a matter of feeling. What do you feel? Notice the resistance you have to feeling. Notice everything. Your fierce discipline of awareness is the key here.
7. Getting in touch with your body can be difficult. It's why you think you can't hear your intuition. We're listening for a voice, rather than feeling for a feeling. We'd rather not feel. Feeling means healing and healing your shit can be difficult. If you want answers you have to be brave and willing to feel everything. Life's events can be severely traumatic, so many people need help feeling.
8. The body mind complex holds a memory of every past event. Some of that stuff gets stuck, energetically and physically, in our bodies. We can access healing through the body by feeling and awareness and peel off the layers of crap that sit over the gateway to within. The light will begin to shine through, the intuition will get louder and we'll get in touch with that place inside that guides us.
9. There are dozens of ways to connect, feel and heal. The healing arts of meditation, John F. Barnes Myofascial Release, acupuncture, Emotional Freedom Technique and Breathwork are my favorites. You can read a book on the subject. Or try journaling. Start a discussion with a friend. Find a therapist to guide you. Go to a lecture. Or try a class. We live in a day and age with more help than ever before and we don't need to be afraid to use it.
When feeling is complicated, as in the case of significant trauma, you'll need help. Most everyone could use help. It's okay to ask for it. And it's okay to keep looking until you find the way that works. Don't give up.
10. Every moment's an opportunity to feel and your entire body a vessel made just for that. Your whole life is a journey allowing for the practice of connecting to this sacred space within. So they are right - all the answers are within. There's one big question left here; are you willing to wake up, be brave, and heal your shit?
The journey awaits.