We make lots of decisions, everyday. The ability to make good decisions for ourselves is critical for living a conscious life. Life can get complicated and most often it is uncertain. Deciding how to raise our children, invest our free time, or the best business opportunities for us, to name a few, can become overwhelming. We try and try to figure things out but ‘figuring it out’ comes from a more shallow and limited part of us, our mind (Outer Authority). Our mind can play tricks on us. It can question our instincts, stir up anxieties and self doubt or hold us in a back-and-forth game of no decision or missed opportunities. The Human Design System provides a reliable, authentic and consistent way for us to make decisions. It resides within each of us. This phenomena is called our Inner Authority. Learning and practicing your inner authority will minimize your errors and wasted energy.
Making decision from our inner authority gives us access to our body wisdom and inner knowing. For most of us, this is uncharted territory. In the western world we were taught to make decisions based on logic, reasoning, or apparent visual benefits such as status. When we are faced with making a decision, we can hear the shoulds going off in our head such as: I should visit my family, I should join that group, I should follow that career path because it pays more money, or because that is what my older brother/friend/cousin did. Or, we don’t know what we want! When we can’t make up our mind, we settle for less-than an optimal reality.
Have you tried to make decisions based on your inner authority? Like anything new, it does take practice. As you practice following the guidance from your inner authority, you’ll develop these 4 important skills for conscious living.
Skill of Self-knowledge – Do you often say yes to your spouse or close friends to keep the peace? Have you fallen into habits of watching the same TV programs, thinking the same negative thoughts, or tolerating unpleasant environments or people? We’ve all heard that the most important relationship we have is with ourselves. The greatest gift we can give to ourselves is to believe and rely on our inner knowing and then act accordingly. To know who you are, you have to exercise the discipline of paying attention to your instincts, gut feeling, or inner knowing. When you follow your inner authority you begin to uncover interests and likes you didn’t know you had or you knew you had but you hadn’t made them a priority.
“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.”
— Dr. Benjamin Spock
Skill of Calmness – Are you always in a hurry to the next thing? Is your schedule packed with appointments and places to go? Is the only time you say “no” or “enough” is when you’re exhausted? When you make decisions based on your inner authority you’ll find that you say “yes” to that which nourishes and supports you and “no thanks” to people and places that perpetuate unnecessary stress for you. You’ll cultivate a much calmer existence that enables you to surf the waves of life.
“Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.”
— Natalie Goldberg, author & Zen teacher
Skill of Self-confidence – Is it difficult for you to trust your gut reactions, feelings, or inner knowing? At first, building trust does require taking a leap of faith. One way to develop trust is to practice following your inner authority on smaller events or decisions, like what movie to watch or inform a trusted friend you’re saying “no thanks” as a practice. As you find more opportunities to practice, you’ll gather evidence as to the consistent validity of your inner knowing. You’ll notice that you spend less time second guessing or commiserating regrets and more time feeling good and being congruent with your wisdom.
“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”
— Mark Twain
Skill of Conscious Action – Life is a precious gift! We have an energy force that wants to be expressed out to the world. Most of us have a strong desire to get the most from life and of life. You have a choice! You can spend your energy on the people and places that take you out of alignment or deplete your energy. Or you can invest your energy where you find the most harmony. When you follow your inner guidance you’ll know what actions to take to promote a stronger alignment and a more conscious life. Action that is unique for your energy force.
“Action expresses priorities.”
— Mohandas Gandhi
Do you know where your inner authority comes from? Are you someone who has a strong gut reaction to things? Or have you found that you make better decisions when you have a few days to sit with it? Learn more about the different types of inner authority in this interview and handout.
ReGina is available for private consultation, on-going coaching, workshops and presentations on Aligning with your Design and applying this revolutionary science for personal and professional success.
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