Quips and Tips for Spiritual Seekers

Making decisions clearly isn’t easy when the mind says one thing and the body feels another. These opposing views can drown out the heart and soul’s desires, where true clarity exists. Taking time to listen to your body and mind for concerns, wishes and doubts, puts them at ease so you can connect with the heart and soul where your highest truth will be revealed.

I love this quote by Gary Collins: “We can try to avoid making choices by doing nothing, but even that is a decision.” Everything we do or don’t do is a decision so it makes sense to become clear about what we want so we can make the best decision possible.

In the book, Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions, the authors offer guidance on how to define problems and make choices using eight elements from considering risk tolerance, to looking at how decisions made today will influence future choices. Below, I’ve created a four step process for listening to the body, mind, heart and soul in order to ease fear and doubt, and access clarity and certainty when making important decisions.

Make Clear Decisions by Communicating with Mind, Body, Heart and Soul

What’s on Your Mind?

The logical, analytical mind usually speaks the loudest with its concerns and worries, ranting on about what might go wrong, what’s more practical, and what should be done. The mind may offer practical advice, but it is often riddled with fear and doubt. It’s important to process the mind’s concerns so it can relax and allow other viewpoints to be considered.

When making decisions, ease the mind by writing down all the pros and cons to the choices available. Focus on the analytical and logical advice coming from the mind’s thoughts and beliefs. Once this list is exhausted, thank the mind, turn off the analyzer and connect with the body.

Listen to Your Body

The body is filled with wisdom, but it also carries sensations and emotions from past experiences, both pleasant and painful, which can interfere with clear decision making in the present moment. Discerning what is real and true for the body takes time and patience.

To listen to your body, become relaxed and centered within. Tune out thoughts and simply feel sensations throughout the body. Focus on the decision at hand and ask your body what it feels about the situation and choices. Feel any emotions that surface and allow them to process.

Notice which emotional reactions are from past experiences and which are directly related to the current dilemma. Reassure your body that the past is gone and then focus on the present. Ask it what it wants regarding the situation.

Your body may communicate through emotions, sensations, pictures or words. There may be a strong yes or no indication, or there may be aspects your body wants to negotiate. Only promise what you can follow through with. Once your body has been heard, thank it, and move onto the heart.

Connect with Your Heart

The heart is all about love and passion. The heart’s desires may seem illogical at times, but they are usually the most rewarding pursuits. When balanced with the mind’s logic, the body’s wisdom, and the soul’s vision, the heart can be an ideal compass.

After listening to your mind and body’s preferences, place a hand over your heart and connect with the loving energy within. Ask the heart how it views the situation. Ask it what it wants. Ask it for whatever insights it has, and integrate these into your decision making process. Thank your heart lovingly and step into your soul.

Ask Your Soul for Guidance

Each person is a spiritual being living in a human body, having a human experience. Most people are not raised to listen to their soul for guidance, but instead let their mind and body dominate. When a person is spiritually balanced, they see the bigger picture in life and intuitively know what’s best for them.

Spend five or ten minutes turned inward in silence, meditation, or prayer, as a way to become spiritually centered. Say hello to yourself as a spiritual being, bigger than your mind and body. Look at the decision to be made from this higher, broader perspective. Viewing the choices out in front as symbols might be helpful for gaining clarity. Which choice contains the energy of truth, lightness and possibilities? Which one seems darker or dismal? Trust your intuition on which is the best decision.

After listening to the body, mind, heart and soul for guidance, it becomes easier to make decisions clearly. Once doubts and fears have been heard, and longings and passions have been felt, the heart and soul’s higher wisdom can be known.

Do you have any questions or insights on how to make decisions clearly? Please comment below.