When intuition strikes, it’s a wonderful thing. And when it doesn’t?
You know, you’ve got a decision to make about what price to charge, or what topic to cover, or even where to spend hard-earned money on marketing design. The deadline can’t stretch any more than it already has, and you’re still dithering… which way to go?
If only you could know for sure what to do, so that it will all work out okay. Argle-bargle! Ugh! Where is that darn intuitive guidance when you need it?
Is the answer even more spiritual practice?
There so many stories of holy and enlightened people who had ‘sight.’ Folks who knew what was going to happen in distant lands, or in the next hour. Is it their spiritual attainment that provided guidance?
Well… kinda, sorta, yes, but it’s the wrong question. The real question is: What is guidance really for?
Some people seem to want to engage their intuition so that they can be on easy street; do the right thing, be in the right place, to make sure everything works out they way they want it to.
In that kind of situation, guidance is another form of control, or what is commonly known as ‘spiritual materialism’ where despite ‘spiritual techniques’ your focus is the world, and not connection to Source.
This is a sure-fire way to kill true guidance. And years of meditation and prayer can’t fix it.
Would you let your child wander into the street?
Stick with me here- this is a bit of topsy-turvy approach that may spin your brain as much as it did mine: Ignorance is a technique the Divine has for keeping us close.
Huh?
Let’s say you’ve got a four-year old, full of curiosity, energy and a desire to explore. Set them down in your front yard, and they may go anywhere. Behind the bushes, into the poison ivy, out into the middle of 39th Avenue.
You want your child to develop and grow with a healthy sense of curiosity. But, you want to keep them safe as they do. So you put a fence up, to keep them from wandering beyond the limits of their abilities.
Ignorance is a Divine fence.
Ignorance of the future is like that. It’s a Divine technique to keep us from wandering too far from the Source of Love.
Think about it. When you’ve felt lost and forlorn, feeling far and distant from your heart and from love- isn’t that when you are most likely to fall to your knees and ask for help, no matter how ridiculous you might look or feel?
And how often has the help and the answer arrived for you at the last possible moment, just in time to avert crisis?
You came back to Love. And the guidance and the help was right there.
All those spiritual masters with knowledge and sight? They could have that kind of information, because they didn’t assume that they were independent of Divine Love just because they were given access to some knowledge.
Enjoy your ignorance.
When you don’t know what to do, instead of trying to force your way past your ignorance, trying to desperately figure out the solution as the deadline looms closer and closer… instead, realize that you’ve reached the Divine fence of ignorance.
You have a choice: you can either push, claw, dig, or climb your way past that fence out into traffic, or you can return to Love.
Sounds nice, Mark, but, uh… the deadline is still here. What do I do? Returning to Love isn’t going to pay my mortgage!
Isn’t it? Well, let’s take a closer look at guidance.
Keys to Guidance
•Actions arise out of relationships.
When you feel gratitude towards someone, you’re naturally moved to action- maybe to compliment them, or give them a gift, or simply thank them.
Similarly, once you can access a healthy relationship with the troublesome area, you may find that you naturally want to do certain things. That’s guidance- the actions that arise spontaneously and organically from a healthy relationship based in love.
•Guidance is a relationship, not an action.
Often when we’re asking for guidance, we’re asking for what to do, how to do it, and when. These are not useful questions for guidance.
Love and connection are about relationship. Instead of asking what to do about choosing your web design, for instance, trying asking in your heart:
“What would a healthy relationship with my web design feel like?”
For instance, perhaps your relationship with web design is needing more patience. Or more love. Or more compassion. See what your heart shows you. And what actions naturally arise out of that healthier relationship.
• Give it time, no need to rush.
Deadlines have a way of breathing down our necks. Sometimes a healthy relationship contradicts a deadline, and requires that you ask for more time, or to somehow create more spaciousness so you can get more settled into this healthy relationship.
That’s okay. I find that the majority of ‘urgent deadlines’ are not as necessarily urgent as one might think.
If you’re struggling with a decision, let go of trying to figure out what to do. Instead, focus on your relationship with the item/issue in question, and see what you naturally want to do when you’ve left the fence and returned to love.
