How do you learn to listen to your inner wisdom?

How to learn to listen to your body, when it's giving you clues to what your inner voice and wisdom wants to tell you.

It might sound easy to listen to your body, when it's giving you clues to what your inner voice and wisdom wants you to hear - but it isn't if you haven't been taught how too.

As small children we all have the ability to listen to our needs, our boundaries and our dreams and wishes. But as we learn to be more civilized, we often loose this ability.

In order to be civilized we need to take other peoples feelings, needs and boundaries into account and in the process of learning this, we often loose the balance of being civilized and still be able to hear ourselves.

We end up being really good at putting other peoples needs and feelings before our own - and step by step we silent the voice of our own needs, feelings and boundaries.

In doing so, we make our selves smaller and smaller and if we continue to do so, we loose track of who we are and what our purpose is. And in my expirence this is what causes stress.

How do we start to listen to our inner voice and wisdom again?

So we need to start listening to our innner voice and wisdom again. And how do we do that?

I have found that it takes time to learn and to be able to read our body's signals, when it's giving us clues to our inner voice and wisdom .

It takes time, practise and silence

It takes time, practise and silence. We have to be silent for a while both socially and mentally.

This is why during covid many people discovered the need to reconsider how they lived their lives. They suddenly had the time and the stilness to feel that something in their lives where off.

The first step ∞ Be still

So the first step to learn to listen to your inner voise and wisom is to take some time each day to be still and see what comes up.

In the beginning maybe nothing comes up. That's okay. Keep practising.

And when and if it feels right start asking your body questions:

For example:

Do I like my job as it is now?

Does something have to change?

Do I want to work more?

Do I want to work less?

Do I want to do things differently?

Do I want something else in my life?

Ask yes/no questions and feel the reaction in your body. Not your minds recation. Your bodys reaction.

A good sensation means "yes".

A bad sensation means "no"

A bland sensation means "not now", "maybe later", "ask another question" or "aks a more specific question".

As you get a reaction to the open questions, start to be more specific, eg:

Do I want to work 4 hours a day?

Do I want to work 10 hours a day?

Do I want to make career change?

Do I lead according to my values?

Do I live according to my values?

Try different variations of the specific questions, e.g. different hours of work per day or specific values you want to have more presence in your life and feel which one gives you the best sensation.

It you don't get a reaction, try this👇

It you don't get a reaction from your body, when you ask the question, do this:

Ask the question, answer "yes" and feel the reaction in your body.

Ask the question, answer "no" and feel the reaction in your body.

If you still don't get an answer try an easier question - e.g. do I like pizza? I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes we have to start with the easy questions to be able to reconize our bodys responses.

The second step ∞ Be brave

The second step to learn to listen to your inner voice and wisdom is to be brave enough to trust it and to follow the answers you get. This often proves to be difficult, because the answers usully don't follow logic.

Most times there will be another answer to the question that makes more sense logically and therefore it seems like your body has giving you a wrong answer - but it hasn't. When you start experiencing with making decisions

"I can't explain, why this is the right decision, but it feels good"

So you need to practise to be brave enough to say to yourself (and your mind): "I know it's the right decision, because it feels like good."

And if you're being asked: "How do you know this is the right answer?" you have to be able to say - at least to your selv: "I just know".

This is in my expirence the most diffucult part to learn. To stand strong in believing that what your body, inner voice and wisdom tells you is the right thing.

For me personally it has been a game changer to realize, that hearing myself say or think "I can't explain, why this is the right decision, but it feels good" means, that it is the is the right decision.

You are changing the way you have made decision for years. And you are changing it into something you can't really explain in a logical way - so most likely it will be difficult at first. But that's okay. Keep practising and it will get easier.