Have you ever wished life would come with a road map? To tell you which path to take and which one not to? The good news is, it does. You just need to read the signs.
It’s actually amazing how many signs are around us on a daily basis. The problem is that we miss a lot of them because we are just not paying attention. The signs are there, they are loud and clear. We just have to tune into them and not ignore them.
The way to do that is to become a littler quieter… spend more time ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’, taking vital moments to listen to ourselves rather than the noise around us.
We’ve all experienced that gut feeling, or a little voice telling us don’t go there or don’t do that. It’s such an awesome little predictor of truth. Unfortunately, we usually only realise how wonderful it is with hindsight. Then, we catch ourselves saying: ‘I should have listened to the signs,’ or ‘I knew right from the start this was going to happen and I ignored it.’
There’s a famous quote – coincidences, synchronicities and serendipities are all signs from the universe that you are on your path. Basically, this means there are no such things as coincidences. You are simply tuned in, plugged in and paying attention. You are listening to the signs and you’re acting on them.
You see, your ‘higher self’, the greater part of your mind, is where the truth lies. Eckhart Tolle explains it like this – we are all the universe, expressing ourselves as human for a little while. Some people like to call it God, or a ‘higher power’ or ‘intuition’. I’m going to call it the ‘universe’. It is always speaking to us and sending us little messages. It is there to protect us and remind us to stop and look around.
Essentially, the ‘universe’ gives us exactly what we want or need at exactly the right time. Usually, though, as is the general human experience, we get in our own way and we just don’t end up receiving it. Or we don’t listen properly and we mix it up.
But something really beautiful happens when we start to pay attention. We find flow, and calm, and we become inspired… Inspiration is the ‘higher self’ or ‘spirit’ communicating – in-spirit, or the spirit within.
Pay Attention or You’ll Miss It
When you really pay attention, everything around you is your teacher. It’s that simple; all you have to do is pay attention and be conscious.
For example, when you probe your brain with a question, you will always, without fail, receive the answer to the question. But, if you are not conscious or aware when you are receiving a response to your question (otherwise known as the signs), then you are completely going to miss the answer and most likely get side-tracked somewhere else in your life.
Just the other day, I was having a conversation with a friend who confided in me that she was totally lost. She didn’t know what she wanted anymore or who she was, and she felt absolutely disoriented and confused. She was at a crossroads with her relationship and didn’t really know where she was going with her life.
As a friend and observer, I could see that she had been so absorbed in her external environment and wrapped up in pleasing others that she was almost disconnected from what she really wanted to create for herself.
Do You Ask Enough Questions?
I suggested that all she really needed to do was to probe her brain with enough thought-provoking questions. I encouraged her not to settle for what she already knew, but to challenge her thoughts and really hold a meaningful brainstorming session with herself.
Then, I asked her: “what are you holding on to that you really must let go of?” She looked at me puzzled, so I explained. Sometimes, when we are feeling lost and overwhelmed, it means that we have too much going on. It’s a signal that we need to clear away the clutter and confusion and make space for things we really and truly want.
When you feel stuck, a good question to ask yourself is this: “what would you regret not fully doing, being or having in your life if it was to end tomorrow?”
If Not Now, Then When?
This applies to all of us in some way or another. It’s hard to create a habit to make time for ourselves. Often, when we feel stretched for time or energy, it’s the easy thing to sacrifice in the day, but it’s at precisely these times when we need to make it a priority.
When was the last time you did something for you and when did you do something completely new?
And I’m not going to tell you that you need to make yourself a priority because you need downtime to de-stress. No. The very simple reason you need time for you is so that you can reconnect with your inner GPS and keep paying attention to the signs. I guarantee that it will help you to focus, be more productive and be a better version of you – the great you who makes good decisions and takes positive actions and creates magical moments in life, rather than feeling like you’re just getting through it.
The inner voice is always whispering to us. And if you don’t listen, you usually end up hearing from her, but after you’ve already done things the hard way or the long way, or the arduous and often unpleasant way. The truth is, she was ready to send you on a beautiful adventure before you got in the way of her instructions.
Pay Attention to the Signs
When we ignore our inner voice – the self-talk, that exists to guide us, we can potentially end up in an emotional or physical mess. Then, of course, you end up saying to yourself – “see, I told you this was going to happen”. This is really no way to talk to yourself either, because it just makes you feel bad. We could have avoided right from the start – if only we had listened to our gut feeling, also known as intuition.
However, if you keep having these annoying scenarios that keep playing out in your life, leaving you feeling overwhelmed and confused, finding yourself with the same outcome over and over again, regardless if it’s a different relationship, job or time of the year, it’s time for you to start probing your brain with new questions like:
- What do you think about first thing in the morning?
- What or who inspires you to be a better person?
- What motivates you and gets you really excited about life?
- What is standing between you and happiness?
- If you had all the money and time in the world, what would you be doing?
- If you could start all over again, what would you do differently?
Asking ourselves thought-provoking questions helps us move from being stuck to unstuck. It creates movement. Therefore, we become more productive and create more positive outcomes.
But we need clarity and insight before things can progress in the right direction. We have to be tuned into our environment and devote time and energy for ourselves. We are the only ones standing in the way of our happiness. Don’t go through your daily routines blindly; live and experience your life. In the grand scheme of things, we are all connected to each other through a higher sense of being and it is up to us to pay more attention to the signs around us.
