With last weekends’ Full Moon in Libra I am finding that I am thinking a lot about balance. The symbol for Libra is, after all, a set of scales. Yet what is balance and what does it mean? Something that I believe is very personal, and therefore something that only we can truly know or discover for ourselves. Recognising what we need in any given moment. For balance is fluid. It changes. What we need to feel balanced one day, one hour, one minute is not necessarily what we need the next. And I love this. For we are not static. We are constantly stretching and growing and expanding. Expanding into more of who we are, and the potential of who we are yet to become. How very exciting. How very inspiring. The fact that you and your life are constantly evolving is something to be celebrated, embraced, enjoyed. For it opens us up to the idea that we, like the Universe, are ever expanding. That maybe we too have no bounds. Except the ones we choose to place upon ourselves.
I digress! Once upon a time I used to believe that freedom was the proverbial holy grail. And when I found freedom I realised, for me at least, that balance is my holy grail. That constantly shifting request for me to dig deeper. To know myself in such a way that I can recognise what I need. And what I don’t. That the answers lie within. I know. I always know what’s best for me. I just don’t always stop to listen. To be still to hear the quiet calm voice inside of me that steers me so well. That knows inherently the way. What to do and when. A voice that grows louder as we learn to listen to it. As we honour it as we would a trusted elder or long held friend. The voice of knowing, of wisdom, of truth. Or at the very least our truth; what is true for us.
So how do we find this guidance, this voice of truth? And how do you know it’s real and to trust it? Let’s deal with that one first.
Quite simply, are the words, the insights, the guidance coming from love, or something else? Unless we are in danger, or threatened in some way, the voice of truth comes to us in an unhurried, gentle way. A way that soothes us. That helps us feel better about ourselves, our life and what we are up to in the world. For it is the voice of love. This voice that has been given many names over the centuries is the voice of our soul, our higher selves and is experienced through our feeling senses as our intuition. That delicious inner knowing.
If on the other hand, we are being urged to take quick action and we are not under threat and if the advice or guidance does not feel good, we may be being harried by our ego. It means well. It only wants what’s best for us. From its perspective. To maintain its own identity, as well as ours. Yet it does not always know. Its stance is at best a defensive one, maintaining its position or attempting to. That does not mean we should dismiss it or not pay it heed. Any wise leader takes counsel from more than one source. Our role is to define the source, the motive, the intent. Indeed, is the guidance coming from Source, from love – Divine Love, or is it coming from something else?
And like all aspects of this beautiful thing called life it’s a learning opportunity. For sometimes things are obvious and we just know. Sometimes they are not. It does not mean that we will take the best course of action. The action that will keep us in balance or bring us back to balance. Yet that is the power of free will. Of choice. Of being able to make the choices that we believe will best serve us in any given moment.
As to how we find this guidance – well that’s simple, we tune in to it. We learn to turn the dial on the radio until we are receiving the right frequency. The one that is right for us. The one that plays the tunes we need to hear at the exact right time… We’ve all had the experience, I am sure, of hearing the words of a song and knowing that they were exactly what we needed to hear in that moment… if you’ve experienced that, you know how magical it is. And this is what we experience when we learn how to tune in to our own radio station. A station that plays the songs we need to hear twenty four hours a day.
It’s learning to stop. To be still. And to listen. That’s it. If you have ever meditated you already have an easy in. The practice of being still. Of just being human. No doing whatsoever. Effortless yet paradoxically hard for so many. Until we decide that is to step aside, away from our conditioning and hindering beliefs and allow ourselves to explore something else. And in this case, the something else is our inner world. A world of endless possibilities, sound wisdom and inner peace. It is the place of stillness, quiet and beauty. A space that is endless and endlessly surprising. A space where we get to have a glimpse of our soul and a world beyond the world we reside in. Magical indeed. So I encourage you to be still and know God. To discover your own inner divinity. To connect with the Divine Light within you that knows the whole of you. That accepts you completely for you.