Where does Inner Strength come from?

Many of us are being called on to access an Inner Strength we either didn't know we had or may not trust its existence within ourselves. Our trust is truly being tested.

Where does your strength come from when the systems and people in power or even around you are abusing and manipulating their privilege or systems to suit their needs and purposes?

If you believe in God or a Source greater than you, it may come from there.

If you don’t, or your faith is being challenged at this time, where do you get your strength from?

In these times where the Ego and its affects are clearly on display on the world stage, how do you gather strength from within without the Ego?

Look around you and consider all of the individuals you know who have chosen to walk the path less taken. Every single one of them has a large dose of personal strength. Something within themselves spoke loud enough that it could not be ignored, even if some of them may have tried.

Eventually, we all are faced with the choice to be true to ourselves or else we suffer. This pull to be our authentic self is the sound and guidance of ones’s Soul.

The challenge in our society is we are educated in the sound and language of the Ego, not the Soul. The Ego talks. She is the non-stop, repetitive conversation you have in your head. Consider the strength it takes to stop this mental chatter! We have all been there. Whether we are anxious, proud, bored, angry, indignant, excited - each of us has gotten lost in the story within our own heads. The ego feeds on this chatter and the emotional charge of the story whether it is positive or negative. It is the food for the ego to grow and evolve. And, if you do not have a relationship with your Soul or the part of you supports yours & others greater good, the ego will falsely believe it is in charge of your life and is who you are. And, as we are currently witnessing on the world stage, will defend its stance at any cost.

The key with the ego is it requires a mixture of discipline and letting the ego know what its role is. The Soul leads and the Ego assists. So, if the Ego knows what you want from it, it will alert you and support you. Yet, if you are not present or listening to your inner guidance from your Soul, your ego can easily get distracted and try to take the lead. This is where discipline comes in.

The challenge is the Soul does not use words. Stop and consider this for a moment. Words are our most common form of communicating and what we are trained to use to get our needs met from a very young age. Yet, more than 60% of our language is non-verbal, the language of the Soul. The Soul communicates in feelings, images, symbols, metaphors and archetypes.

Let’s go back to strength. Try this if you will. Take a moment and close your eyes and try to silence your mental chatter. What happened? Did the talk suddenly increase? Did you witness the talk and then it faded away to a moment of silence, then started again when you noticed the silence? Did the silence increase for extended periods the more you allowed the chatter to just be? Or did the talking become louder and louder so that it was simply noise?

Now try the same exercise again, but this time tell your ego to notice what happens in the silence. What did you witness? Did you become more aware of the energy in your body? Did you hear sounds more in your environment? Did your ego witness what was happening with a comment and then quickly receded?

Try the same exercise one more time, but this time ask your Soul what she wants you to know? What did she show you? Was there an image or a recall of something? Were you shown someone or heard someone or yourself saying or doing something? What do they represent for you? Remember, the Soul speaks in metaphors and images so what you receive may not be a direct representation but instead needs to be interpreted.

It takes courage sometimes to follow your Soul’s wisdom. Sometimes there are no guidelines as the path has not been walked yet. Other times your purpose goes against the norms within your family, community or culture. Currently there are many who are being called to be pioneers within our communities and bring a new paradigm of values and principals to our systems. This takes Strength. Full stop.

Think back to the first exercise when you tried to silence the mental chatter and it got worse. Now look at what is happening within our culture when ideas of change have been brought forward. The chaos got worse as things became out of balance. The old systems tried to regain balance by trying to bring the old ideas back.

Yet, if you know within your heart that you are being guided to create or support a new idea and follow this lead, the noise from the old paradigm becomes less. The key is to listen to your heart not your head. Why? Consider what your primary fight, flight and freeze responses are. Are you currently experiencing them? If so, you are leading from your ego or head and not your heart or Soul. These defensive responses are not wrong as they have been created to protect you. They are also a signal for you to be aware and more conscious of where you are responding and creating from.

Take a moment to recenter and ground so you can re-align with your Soul.

When you are being guided to create new paths or be your authentic self, there will be natural times when you are defending and protecting yourself. Self care is paramount for having the strength to follow your Soul’s calling. It helps to have a toolbox of ideas that you can utilize for a variety of situational needs. When it comes to strength in particular self compassion is vital.

I truly believe we have the opportunity at this time to create a more just and fair society for everyone. Each of us has something to contribute to the changes that are occurring in our collective consciousness. When we listen to the guidance of our Soul, the path is less cluttered which strengthens our resolve to continue when the environment around us is challenging or does not support us. On this day of Remembrance, be brave and have courage to find the strength within you to follow your heart and your head will follow.