Journeying: Learning to Trust Ourselves
When I guide patients on a journey to meet the spirit of their unborn child one of the questions that comes up most frequently is: how do I know that I'm not just making this up? Is it just my imagination? This is an important and natural question. We live in a culture that is almost entirely focused on the mental aspect of experience. We value logic and reason over intuition, dreams and and various other forms of non-rational/non-linear ways of knowing. Not only do we value it more, we believe that it is the only REAL truth. On top of that, we are taught from an early age to trust authority, whether our parents, our teachers, our doctors or our political leaders over our own inner knowing. It is my firm belief that one of the most damaging lessons we teach our children is to trust the word of others over their own knowing, or their own experience. On a deeper level, when we ask whether or not our journey is just our imagination, what we are really asking is: how do I know that I can trust myself?
The best answer that I have to that question is to say that it takes time and practice. When we have been taught in various ways to trust others above ourselves, we won't know how to trust ourselves because very often we don't know the voice of our own heart or spirit. Learning to hear it, and learning to listen to it takes practice-- and trust. Journeying takes practice. In the beginning it may be difficult to differentiate true guidance from your own mental chatter. Things like fear, doubt and worry can come into the picture and cloud your ability to journey, and to interpret what you experienced.
In the beginning you might not know whether or not it's your imagination, and that's okay. Let the uncertainty be there as it is an important part of your own healing. Over time you will learn to tell the difference between your own mind and a genuine encounter with a guide, or your child's spirit. Some tips that may be helpful include:
After setting a clear intention to meet your child's spirit, trust what shows up. If a proper intention is set, then whatever you are seeing/feeling/experiencing will be true on some level
Always write down your journey. Sometimes you'll find that in the moment the guidance/information didn't make much sense, but when you look back on it weeks, months or years later, it will suddenly make perfect sense.
If you receive any insight or guidance, sit with it and see how it feels. Does it resonate?
As you journey, you will learn what it feels like to receive true insight and you will find yourself trusting yourself more easily. I will leave you with a quote from one of my all-time favourite thinkers, Terence McKenna:
"Reject authority. Authority is a lie and an abomination, it isn't real. What is real is your experience."
Happy Journeying.
