August Spark
Carving a path with your inner guide.
Accessing your inner guidance to support your freedom.
I always thought I’d carve my own path, but to be honest, looking back, my freshly carved path ran alongside some pretty established ones. I could glance over the few feet of tall grass and see where I was “supposed” to go. If the others turned right, mine turned right but just off a degree. I wasn’t fully letting go and trusting that I would figure it out and truly get lost in the weeds. I was pretending at carving it out while glancing around for someone to show me the way and make it easy. I was trying to use a “Cliff’s Notes” to carving a truly passionate life.
I’d get confused, stuck or scared and start looking around social media. Like a vulnerable deer poking its head out of the tall grass to find the herd. Then I would get caught back up in confusion of who I was suppose to be, assuming everyone else knew exactly where they were going. I wanted to know what they seemed to know… what to do next.
If you are anything like me, you want that freedom to create your life your way but a cheaters guide to get you back on a path in the right direction. (can I get a “yup, yup”) The good news is that it does exist. It is unique to each person and infinitely knowledgable.
It is your own intuition. It is your personal navigation that never makes requirements, only suggestions and nudges.
This is what my entire coaching process is about. Helping you create that connection to your own guidance. You can access it any time and it will guide you where you tell it you want to go. If you never set a course or ask a specific question of your intuition it functions more as a survival guide than a directional tool. It will keep you in your target safe zone but won’t show you how to really get off that path unless you ask and trust and take action.
So how do we ask and hear this whisper or feel its nudge? There are many tools that will get you there, meditation, yoga, journaling, exercise, dreams and so on. You can see it is always there ready to help and has many doorways but we have to choose to knock and know what we want help with when it opens the door.
My favorite tool is art. The subconscious and intuition is not logical, it doesn’t care about analyzing or what others think and it works in feelings, emotions and imagery. When we take a step toward speaking its language it will pour out information.
Connecting with Intuition:
Step 1.
The first step (or constant step) is to create and develop that connection to inner guidance to be able to get that cheaters guide when you get lost or stuck on the way toward that destination.
- Allow yourself to believe that the ideas you have about how to start are from your inner guide who would never steer you wrong.
- Ask specifically what you want to know. Examples are What is my next step? What am I not seeing in this situation? How can I change my thoughts or perspective? What am I overlooking? Steer clear of questions that are about what other people will do or should do. You only have control of yourself.
- Calm your breathing and you calm your mind chatter. Focused, slow and steady breaths help calm the nervous system. Your mind relaxes and you can allow in those flashes of insight through that calm space.
- Do something to trigger a new thought. You can’t have a new thought from the same pattern of thinking or actions.
- This is where you take a break, take a walk, a bath, meditation or turn to the tools we have that hold the possibility of nudging us forward.
- I like to flip open a book with the intention of whatever I read somehow relating to what I’m looking for or wondering about.
- I use my oracle deck to point me towards where I need to look deeper.
- I also (of course) use the art making as my main tool.
Dialoging with art.
Lets try dialoging with the colors in our art and what messages they hold for us.
In my example I am asking about how to best help my own children begin to use some of these processes that I use in my own healing and guidance. I’ve tried approaching it how I thought might work and am just getting resistance.
Start by calming the breath and mind. Setting an intention. (mine was to see how best to start helping them through art and tapping)
Open to intuitive art.
This can be the hardest part for some people. The instruction is simple but the practice is hard. I pick a color that appeals to me and focus my mind on the feeling of painting, the paper, the brush and the flow across the page. This helps me tune out all the things my brain is trying to tell me I need to make or think about this color.
I follow what feels good and what looks pretty. I don't put much thought into because I don't have a lot invested in if this looks pretty in the end. I'm not selling it or showing it to anyone (except all of you).
I change colors when I feel like it and I make messes or leave space. This is really how simple the instructions are but the key is to give your mind a break. Don't let it control the outcome, the message or the process.
Listen to the message.
As I create in this loose style I will get a quick message in my thoughts about what it might mean. I hear it but let it go and don't hold too tight to it remaining the message. Allow yourself to be wrong, or right in the end, but you have to let it go so it can evolve if needed.
When you are done painting see what it has to tell you. Does the overall image have meaning? Do the colors seem to have something to say? Are the shapes interacting in a way that makes you connect them to something else or a message?
Believe what you think first.
Trust that the thoughts you hear are the messages you need.
My Tips:
Start by answering these questions in your art and see where it takes you.
1. What color seems to be calling my name?
2. What brush movements feel best?
3. How much is my brain getting involved in this process?
4. If I trusted myself, how would I answer my own question?
I’d love to see what you make. Send me an email and let me know what you tried and what it revealed for you.
Looking for more? I've put the overall process I use with clients into a do-it-yourself workbook. You can download a PDF or get a nicely printed version from this link.
