Mahatma Gandhi once instructed his devotees to “be the change you wish to see in the world.” His point was: don’t identify the problems of the world and kvetch over the shortcomings of humanity. He advocated instead actively embodying the higher qualities of being that each of us desires to see in the people around us.
With the cultivation of your Internal Guidance System (IGS), you have a tool to help you be the change you wish to see. Your IGS will help you to true yourself up to a perspective that is different and more rewarding than the habitual, reactionary one that most of us perpetually adopt. By focusing on, and following, your opening sensations, you align yourself with a perspective that is conscious, creative, and a source of new solutions from a deeper form of intelligence.
By following your IGS, you’ll find that it becomes easy to shift who you are and to change the way you see the world around you. The health, ease, and confidence you feel will begin to change the people and situations you encounter. When you experience openings, the change you wish to see becomes enjoyable instead of fearful or painful. You may then find miracles showing up in your life.
Every Day Sacred: Living with Confidence, Grace, and Compassion
The practice of using your IGS is about making every day sacred and supporting yourself as you move from fear, worry, anxiety, stress, and reaction to a state of clarity, peace, and empowerment, regardless of what is happening in your particular situation.
Your lifetime holds many different levels of purpose and destiny. One of the highest levels, I believe, comes from living with the mind-set that every day is sacred. For me, “every day is sacred” means expanding and moving in response to opening sensations as a means of service to something higher than myself. It means moving out of the fear, worry, anxiety, stress, reactivity, power plays, and problems and instead accessing the eternal sacredness in every moment.
(*Editorial Note: Opening sensations are expansion/opening, as opposed to contraction/closing, in your chest, throat, and/or solar plexus area. Some describe it as an expansion, a release of pressure, a relaxing feeling, an upward opening of energy rising in a V or Y shape, a sense of lightness or an ability to breathe more deeply. This is what I refer to as “opening” or “being open” throughout this book.)
As you practice living with the mind-set that every day is sacred, at some point you will find yourself moving from stage 1 (in which you notice and feel the sensations of the IGS) to stage 2, in which you live in the flow of opening sensations from moment to moment as a natural way of being. When you’re moving from stage 1 to stage 2, you move from “Oh! I’m feeling and noticing something connected to what I am thinking” to: “There’s something else going on here. On a moment-to-moment basis, I feel flowing energy coming into and going through me into the world, and it is creating peace, goodness, and balance.” That flow will lead you to becoming a symbiotic part of the world around you.
Every day you will notice a growing sense of confidence that you are a part of the whole, and you will cherish your part without feeling a need to overemphasize it or deflate it. You will have become a living example of grace and compassion.
Choosing Where We Focus Our Energy And Attention
Many times I have picked up the phone to talk to a dear friend and realized she was already on the phone before I could even dial — because she had just called me. Or I have called her to change the time we were going to see each other, and she was about to call me to change the time, too. You may have noticed this type of instance in your life. As you move more deeply into stage 2 of your Internal Guidance System, you will notice these instances happening more frequently, to the point where you are in a flow with others and life itself. What is exciting is that this way of being is available to everyone; it simply takes establishing the practice of cultivating your IGS to make being in the flow as natural as breathing.
The alternative is to stay disconnected from ourselves and focused on our imperfections and those of others. I like to think of our closings as unpleasant triggers being set off to remind us that we have a choice regarding where we focus our energy and attention.
My trigger causes your trigger, which causes a whole new level of communication that would never have occurred if we were just running around in paradise, having fun together. That trigger is exactly what we need in order to grow and evolve — to become richer, deeper, and better aligned with our highest selves, our highest truths, and our deepest joys.
“Every Day Sacred” Does Not Equal “Every Day Perfect”
Making every day sacred entails adopting a point of view and a way of being that allows your IGS to show you the jagged edges that need to be polished so that your gleaming diamond of the Self can emerge.
This practice is about bringing sacred awareness into your everyday life. It is not about being perfect according to your ego. It happens when you’re messy and when you don’t do things well. In addition, it’s not about being perfectly conscious all the time; it is about being conscious when you’re not perfect, and being present enough to find your opening thoughts.
Over time you will increase your level of consciousness and capacity to remain present; and as you do, you will be able to focus on opening and to move toward divine collaboration with others — collaboration that leads to the furthering of love, joy, compassion, and forgiveness. Following your thoughts that open you naturally supports you in being a part of this type of collaboration.
I believe we came out of paradise so that we can rechoose it with a greater level of appreciation and depth. Part of what we’re experiencing is learning to understand what we don’t want, so that we can have the integrity and perseverance to move away from pain and fear and toward creating a new form of paradise, one in which we are all conscious contributors.
Enjoying the Process of Learning to Use Your IGS
One final note: Remember to enjoy the process of learning to use your Internal Guidance System. It is an amazing part of you that is so special. For me, getting to know one’s IGS is the next beautiful step in the evolution of the human soul, one that is available to everyone who is living now. This new leap will allow us new levels of experience and will provide a deeper richness in our being, a path to healthier and more empowering relationships, and a greater sweetness in the intimacy we practice. This is what making “every day sacred” means.
The Internal Guidance System is playing a large role in all of this as it instructs each of us — among millions and millions of human beings — in how to accomplish our highest good and fulfill our highest potential. It is giving each of us access to a new source of wisdom and intelligence.
Through this new point of view, we also have access to a greater level of compassion — compassion for everyone in the world, including ourselves. As we work with the IGS, we learn to stop our self-critical thoughts and thoughts condemning others and ourselves. We begin to see that these thoughts create unnecessary pain.
As we interrupt them more quickly and frequently, their hold on us starts to expire. We notice that we are opened by expressions of compassion and by accepting our human form, as well as by appreciating our own willingness to work toward that opening, regardless of the fears of our minds or egos.
Learning Self-Mastery with Compassion
Remember to have compassion for yourself as you move through the process, and remember that thinking thoughts that close you is the gateway to opening thoughts, new growth and expansion of being.
You have heard many teachers tell you that the answer to your woes is learning self-mastery, being present, or following your inner truth. Absolutely do this! But this time, do so with the confidence that you have a tool — a built-in sense — that can guide you firmly and lovingly in the direction of your spiritual evolution and highest good.
Regardless of grander reasons for learning to use your IGS, what is most important is that you love your life, enjoy the journey, and live to the fullest. That is truly the gift of following your thoughts that open you. You get to have the best life, day by day.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for learning about your IGS so you can create from the thoughts that open you a fulfilled and successful life.
©2016 by Zen Cryar DeBrücke. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted with permission: New World Library,
www.newworldlibrary.com
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Your Inner GPS: Follow Your Internal Guidance to Optimal Health, Happiness, and Satisfaction
by Zen Cryar DeBrücke.
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About the Author
Zen Cryar DeBrücke is an inspirational teacher and speaker. A successful entrepreneur and business executive, Zen has coached hundreds of business leaders to use their IGS for success in every area of their lives. Zen is a member of the Transformational Leadership Council, which includes luminaries such as Jack Canfield, Marianne Williamson, John Gray, and Michael Beckwith. She is known for her earlier work as the CEO of The Netkitchen, an Internet strategy/consulting firm, where she spent four years creating innovative Internet campaigns and properties for Fortune 500 companies. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area on ten beautiful acres with her husband, young son, three cats, dog, and nine chickens. Visit her at http://zeninamoment.com/
