Check In or Check Out

Article that appeared in The New Leaf ™.

We each have a built in navigation system, a reliable, if not infallible, compass for charting our course. This compass is accessed when we check in with our felt sense of what is true for us, what is right for us in this moment. Here are five keys to accessing this internal compass, and to using it successfully to chart your true course, the course that allows you to live on purpose and prosper.

• Start with your body. Your body is present even when you check out mentally or emotionally. It is a constant witness and truth teller, if only you will listen to what it has to say.
• Practice. Unless you are willing to live a checked-out life, there is no substitute or suitable excuse for not making time to check in. Once you make a regular practice of checking in, you will find that the rewards are exponential. That is, each dayís check-ins bear fruit from those of the days before.
• Use it or lose it. If you do not make time to check in with your body and the whole of yourself, your ability to do so will atrophy.
• Take good bearings. Your awareness of where you are now and your understanding of what is your next step will be distorted if you begin with bad information. To ensure the integrity of the process.
• Listen for what is true for you, not for what appears to be true for someone else
• Notice and listen without judging what comes into your awareness.
• Take your time. Rushing the process so that your awareness and your answers are imposed rather than discovered

The links below feature three very different books, each of which offers opportunities to check in with your inner guidance on a regular basis. If you do not already have a personal practice for checking in, find a practice that speaks to you and get started. If you have a practice, but are aware that is rusty from lack of use, recommit today.