7 Clues you are where you are meant to be

Its common to question why you are where you are and also where you are headed. Finding the right question to ask is more important than the answer. Ponder these clues you are exactly where you are meant to be;

1. Asking ‘what do I’ do & ‘how do I do it’ reflects discomfort with emptiness and flow of inspiration. (This points to living in the head rather than heart)

2. Meditating brings you to inner solitude where you feel enriched and renewed by divine will (contrasts with personal will-often overrides intuition)

3. Discovering what energizes and excites you is as if money is irrelevant

4. Awakening is observing the mind, seeing everything with greater clarity 

5. Being present and listening to what life is calling for from you

6.  Being honest is being what the world is attempting to become

7. Listening to the Soul is recognizing what life inviting from you

5 Tips for soulful living

When you live true to your soul, you feel peace, contentment, abundance and fulfillment.  You actually experience what the ego mind tells you to keep chasing.  You may be asking, how can I be happy now? Ponder and integrate these tips:

1) Meditate regularly. It is often assumed meditation is simply sitting in a lotus position in silence. In fact, one can meditate anywhere and many approaches to meditation exist. Everything is a divine creation because you are a divine creator.  Being consciously creative in the kitchen, garden, with paint, wood or other materials can also be a form of meditation when you lose all sense of time. Explore options.

2) Take up spiritual pracitce.  Disciplined spiritual practice enables you to strengthen and sharpen the body verhicle.   Yoga, Tai Chii, Chi Gong and other practices prepare the body for meditation so you hear your soul clearly.  This is about harmonising your physical and energy bodies,  gaining insight into emotions as they arise and mastering your mind. Spiritual practices also exist to balance each chakra

3)See Beyond "You". Divinely-inspired activities that reflect a soul calling  are not motivated by ego or self-interest.  The human vehicle you use simply divine light in action and can allow grace to work through it. Spiritual practices allow you to deepen discernment so you recognize what is soulful or  not.

4) Notice synchronicity. When you follow inution, you come to discover a trail of synchronicity to guide you to make more choices that feel right.  The logical mind does not understand, does its best to question, instil doubt,  talk you out of listening. If you cannot explain why, its likely divinely inspired.

5) Nurture the unexplainable.   A divine idea is formless, much like truth itself is formless. Every divine idea comes down through your heart and mind and takes specific form with perfect timing.  When you are ready, it begins to take more concrete shape within you through feeling alone.  As you nurture what you cannot explain, you are allowing it to grow and emerge into the world in its own unique way.

12 Tips to deepen self-discovery

No matter who you work with as a guide, mentor or coach, no matter which courses you take or books you read that impact self-awareness, ultimately you are on a journey of self-discovery and progress at your own pace. Ponder these ten tips to deepen self-discovery with little or no money:

1) Look beyond traditional education.  Whatever it is you think you wish to learn or do, be aware many ways exist to obtain some insight for free.  Explore newsgroups, meet-ups, instructional Youtube videos.  Interview people, attend public lectures by those who have done it. The avenues are endless.

2) Nurture a creative art.  This is a way to unleash what cannot be said in words.  This is not about expressing it to an audience or gaining approval.  Its about translating inner knowing, revealing things and growing to trust yourself. Pottery, weaving, painting, design, dancing, knitting, or any combo of creative activities.  Whatever gets the juices flowing. Do it. 

3) Go on a group excursion in nature.  This could be anything from a bus trip and picnic lunch in a local park to a hike, extended canoe trip, mountain climbing or more rigorous trekking. Join a regular birdwatching group or walking group. Stillness speaks.  Interaction with new people can be suprising.

4) Research the mystical. This could include things like reading, watching films, going to an ashram, exploring meaning in night dreams, or taking up a spiritual internship with a mystic or shaman. Whatever it entails, ponder what enlightenment is and what it is to live life more fully.

5) Travel.  Put yourself in situations where you need to act on your feet. You could volunteer for an organisation, find a job abroad, be a live-in nanny, hitchhike or take your motorbike through new territory.  Whatever you choose, experiencing a different culture, learning a language, or fending for yourself in a foreign place allows you to see life from new vantage points.

6) Change your job or career.  Step outside the familliar.  Check out want-ads.  Try out for community theatre. Identify transferrable skills, new priorities or an inner longing to do whatever you have been postponing.  Now is the moment.

7) Face a fear. Whether its public speaking, sky diving, being more assertive or expressing yourself with more honesty to people in your life, take steps to show yourself that fear is an illusion that begins and ends in the mind.

8) Be entrepreneurial. You could start your own business, offer to be an apprentice or intern to test the waters or simply be more pro-active in different ways in your life.  Consider Jon Bon Jovi who started a restaurant where you give back in time or effort to the place rather than pay for the meal.  Imagine the possibilities.  A limit only exists when you believe in it.

9) Take a break. Take a year off from what you regularly do or had planned to do. This could be a gap year from school, a sabbatical from paid work, time to yourself away from relationships, a multi-month hiking trip, or maybe you join a crew on a ship sailing to a foreign desination. See what unfolds as you trust the universe.  Realize everything comes together.

10) Write.  Be it a diary, journal, blog, newspaper editorials, an email newsletter, contribute posts to a Facebook or other community group.  Discover what the power of words reveals.

11) Meditate.  Explore different meditation practices and listen to the wisdom of silence more often.  This is the way to rediscover what true listening is.  Its a practice humans tend to be conditioned away from.

12) Be an 'initiate'. This hard-to-define term implies a person who, through intense inner work, achieves enlightenment, illumination, and selflessness to work wholly out of the spiritual world for the sake of the world and humanity.

Be intensely aware

Be like a river.  It asks for nothing.  It has no direction or destination. Attention on particular directions introduces limitation.  Simply intuit what to do and which way to go. Cooperate with the inevitable, with the flow of life itself.  Be open.  Feel ways to navigate beyond what mind thinks. You start to see what you are ready to see. The flow sheds light, brings clarity, in ways that cannot be imagined.  When you are not focused on division, you surrender.

The mind is taught to focus and fixate on objects, to judge and develop dependence.  It contracts around what it can pin down.  It desires to control it.   Let go of noise.  Appreciate being unsure of what is unfolding in energy, light and unseen information.  Ease into a state of meditation on true awareness.  Introduce a question into the silent mind. BE that.

Come to your senses

Falling asleep is easy.  Notice how many people are sleepwalking through life. Have you ever had the feeling that anyone is falling awake? Are you connected with yourself, your passion, your destiny? Who is asking this question? Who is answering it?

Many people have the impression their life is splitting apart.  Notice your own inner conflict? You may think you want one thing while you are doing another. If you work in one place, you may wish to work somewhere else or shift focus to start a business. If you are involved in one relationship, you may wish to be involved in another.

If you feel restless, think you want to go "there" while part of you is here, this is an invitation to recognize the nature of overthinking. If you have a body, a mind and especially if you have a cell phone to interrupt you, why not come to your senses?

Notice five familiar senses are sending you messages. The non-conceptual sixth sense is also active. Which ones do you hear and overlook? Senses reveal everything.  The mind judges or shifts focus from what no longer matters. Notice the focus of your attention.  How do you feel about it? What does this reveal about wakefulness? and tainted views?

Notice the diversions in your life of wants, fear, doubt and pain. Notice when you feel suppressed, repressed, or like you are running from something. How many times during the day do you interrupt yourself in thought and speech? Forget what matters?

Everything invites you to ponder what it means to be here in this moment.  Listen with your bones, your organs, your flesh and your whole being. Reflect on your life with an open heart and pure compassion. Notice what you see deep within. The distinct possibility exists you are re-introducing yourself to who you truly are. When not grounded by thoughts, time and space, then what happens to 'you?' Next time you are in the shower, notice who or what is in there with you. Notice the mind wanders away from the refreshing water and lather. Next time you are in public transit, notice the mind churning. Areyou asleep while awake? What sort of trail are 'you' leaving?

Do this simple exercise: be aware of the breath.  This is mindfulness or non-judgmental awareness.  It invites us to be aware of what is fundamental in life rather than on what the mind thinks is urgent.  Notice thoughts that arise as the mind prompts you run on an endless treadmill.  Notice the mind distracts you from the breath and just living.

Ever had the experience that you can see without seeing? Its like something is in front of you but you only notice it when you are ready. Something knows where you came from before you were born and observes everything all the time. We also only see and hear what we are willing to accept. Meditation allows mindfulness to arise. It enables you to cultivate intimacy with what is ordinary. Stop taking what comes naturally for granted.

How often are you true to yourself? The problem is not with doing anything in particular, its with the personal pronouns you use to identify with something you think has virtue. It is not what we do that matters but being aware of it and allowing ourselves to feel deeply. Allow yourself to be at home in all of the senses. Bring the mind home to awareness and refine your capacity to see things as they are. The challenge is to atop doing all that gets in the way. This is advanced training in the art of living.

"Today like everyday we awaken empty and scared." - Rumi