We all have times in our lives when we need to make an important decision or are at a crossroads seeking guidance on how to proceed. Sometimes the choices are easy when we have a deep knowing or gut feeling about which direction we should go. But sometimes the way forward seems clouded in doubt or our emotions are too strong to get the clarity we need. Many factors hinder clarity from emerging but the good news is that with practice you can cultivate the state of being needed to bring it forward when you need it most.
One thing I’ve learned is that to get clarity, you need to get quiet and still enough for the answers you seek to crystalize out of a state of harmony. Many years ago I can remember working with a mentor on this when I was at a major crossroads in my life of leaving my corporate biotech job to create my own holistic business. In every session, I was told to get quiet in mind, body and spirit. At the time my life was ridiculously busy which made it difficult to find the time to cultivate the states of quiet stillness I was being encouraged to access.
For me, like most of us, the hardest part of getting quiet was an overactive mind full of all the things, thoughts, people, events etc. There was fear that if I stopped filling my mind with thoughts, I’d forget something important resulting in failure. I was continuously told to keep going getting as quiet as possible, even though I thought I had already achieved it. This is where I learned that the level of quiet stillness you can achieve develops throughout your lifetime. And in the 2 decades since that time, I have never stopped my journey of generating deeper states of quiet and stillness.
This state of quiet stillness needed to access greater clarity also helps supercharge your personal growth journey. Not just because we can get clarity on things, but because when we get really still and quiet in mind, body and spirit things we have to face our stuff. The old hurts, traumas, and conditioned patterns from our childhood, for example, can no longer be swept under the rug. So the next step becomes to have the courage to welcome in the monsters lurking in the deeper recesses of our psyche for tea rather than trying to deflect, distract or run from them.
I remember doing my yoga teacher training which was after many years of personal growth. I absolutely loved the 5 hours of meditative yoga we did every day since I reached states of pure consciousness full of harmony bliss and unconditional love. It was through this yoga practice I was able to create, strengthen and habituate the state of embodying my full life force energies. For me, this was a turning point to know that part of healing from old wounds is to fill your essence with the true nature of bliss of abundance of life. However, some of the other yogis in the group who hadn’t done much personal growth before coming to the training were coming unravelled having to spend 5 hours a day with themselves in meditation. What this showed me is that what you need to heal will make itself known to you when you give it the space to emerge. And it is through the states of stillness and quiet that allow for that to happen.
Sometimes we can overcome these patterns by simply acknowledging them, but remember you don’t have to do this alone. And often it’s best to seek the counsel of a therapist, friend or family member when we need assistance. The deeper the wound, the more likely a therapist will be needed, so be aware of this and ask for the support that you need.
As we begin to uncover the disturbances in our field, our human minds will often try to understand or explain or find reasons behind these states to seek safety. If we know what we’re dealing with, where it came from or why it’s happening our system will calm down a bit, it’s how we’re wired as humans. But here’s the thing, it’s difficult to see the lesson while we are learning it so we must be mindful to give ourselves the space and time for clarity to come. And not give the monkey mind more bananas by ruminating on the problem states.
Having a clear desired state intention helps to repurpose the monkey mind to more useful tasks, like getting clear on what it will be like when we get the clarity we are seeking. How will you feel when you have what you want? Knowing the destination and feeling what it will be like is essential. Getting a felt sense of what you are trying to create will allow you to activate the co-creative forces of the universe to get clarity on how to manifest what you want.
Clarity comes from being fully present in the moment and is diminished when we are out in the future worrying about the outcome or being emotionally triggered regressing to a past version of ourselves. Accessing full presence at the moment is best achieved through meditative practice.
You can listen to the guided meditation in the associated podcast as a meditative practice, but first, let’s talk about some practical tools you can use when you run up against things that keep you from feeling peace and harmony in stillness and quiet.
When a challenging feeling, emotion or memory arises as you access deeper states of stillness, ask yourself: What does this feeling remind you of from the past? When have you felt this before? Who were you with? What age were you when you first experienced this? Allow your present-day self to send the strength, resilience and resources to that younger self. Or just simply give them a hug and a word of encouragement to let them know they made it through that difficult time to a place where you are now, on the precipice of creating something new. Encouraging your younger self is a form of inner child work that can help you make peace with the past.
Sometimes, when clarity is elusive this can be a kind of energetic eddy in your personal growth. Eddies are circular movements usually adjacent to areas of flow, that are found everywhere in nature. Rivers, oceans, and wind in our weather patterns and ocean currents. This is a natural and essential part of the ecosystem that allows for rest, rejuvenation and recovery. If clarity escapes you, and you feel like you’re going in circles, maybe it’s just that you are in a natural eddy where integration, rest and renewal are needed. Eddies follow the universal laws of sacred geometry, specifically the golden mean spiral that underlies the creation of life. Tuning into and working with this sacred spiral knowing that it is cultivating a new you, can help to access peace and presence to trust in the divine order of all things.
You can also help your system cultivate clarity by recognizing how you got clarity in the past. Take a moment to think of a time when you were really certain of the way forward. That feeling of knowing that comes from within, where certainty was present. Take a moment to remember back to that time. Get a sense of the quality of that inner knowing. Where in your body did you feel it (gut, heart, whole body)? What is its vibration? Is it a voice, a feeling or a picture? Get a clear sense of these qualities so that you can recognize them and use them to navigate times of confusion. This will allow you to sort for that inner knowing, recognize it more quickly, and easily call it up when you seek clarity.
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If you’d like to explore these ideas on a deeper level for your own self-healing, tune into the podcast episode below to get you fully present at the moment, clear, aligned, and open up your receiving channels to cultivate clarity.