Listening To The Inner Nudge: Emotional Loops And Attention

Welcome in.

I'm Bradley Tompkins.

Today we're going to talk about this topic entitled listening to the inner nudge,

How emotional loops and life patterns ask for your attention.

I invite you to get settled,

Open your heart and mind for a time that will be just for you.

In preparation for our time today,

I would invite you to have something to write with and on.

Sometimes people are very much in a meditative state,

They're quiet,

They're at peace,

They're going to lay back with their eyes closed and that's perfectly fine.

But if you do write a few things down,

I have noted with a lot of curiosity how the things that we write down,

The notes we take,

I've always been a big note taker from the earliest days.

What you say to yourself on an ongoing basis,

The things that go on inside and the things that you write out do indeed become important markers for your conscious mind,

For your unconscious mind because the unconscious part of you is listening all of the time.

And today this important topic about listening to the inner nudge,

Something going on inside,

Something that you get.

Sometimes we don't realize that we're being guided toward inner change and rather than acknowledge it,

We will ignore it or we'll label it or we'll change the nudge into something else in an effort to not deal.

The distraction,

Even anesthetize,

Do those things.

Maybe I'm just hungry or tired or there could be other things.

You don't have to interpret every incoming internal signal as an indication that there's something wrong or they need to address.

And we want to be sensitive and recognize when it is that that is the case.

It could be restlessness.

If you notice the same issues popping up again and again,

If you have recurring dreams or certain behaviors that you notice yourself doing,

Or if you have an emotional response that feels disproportionate to the moment,

Doesn't seem like the appropriate or balanced response to the thing that you're dealing with,

They're really not problems to fix.

They could just be messages to hear and to respond to.

And so we're going to explore how to recognize these repeating patterns as invitations from the deeper self and how to turn emotional friction into feedback that you can work with,

Something that you can respond to.

Growth,

Mental,

Emotional well-being,

Spiritual path of development doesn't begin when everything feels clear and perfect.

It begins when you decide to listen,

No matter what's going on.

Halt.

Am I just hungry?

Am I angry?

Maybe I'm angry about something.

Could be something that you're aware of.

And so when your body and your mind,

So we talk about these things as though they're separate things,

Body,

Mind,

Emotions,

Spirit,

Soul,

We act like,

Well,

These are compartmentalized things that we talk about just for the convenience of being able to discuss them.

But you're one person,

You're one whole congruent being with all these body,

Mind,

Your emotions,

Your blood chemistry,

How much sleep you had.

Your unconscious mind is processing and thinking through things all the time that you're not even aware of.

That's the miracle of the way the mind works.

It's just always working.

And some of your mental,

Emotional processing power is being temporarily hijacked by your unconscious mind sorting through and dealing with things.

So what we want to do is just address and recognize when those,

You're here for a reason.

So there's a pretty good sign that there's something about what you know and listening to it means that you care enough about yourself to listen.

And when we decide to listen,

Good things happen.

That's been my experience every time.

Before the soul speaks in thunder,

It whispers.

Growth comes from learning to hear the whisper.

In every moment,

The flow of well-being is coming to you.

It processes through your unconscious mind,

Not your conscious mind.

Name,

Address,

Phone number,

Email,

Your shopping list,

The things you're going to do over the weekend.

Those things get registered by the conscious mind.

But what will it mean to you?

You have in the back of your memory an image,

A gestalt for what the perfect July 4th weekend looks like.

You have within your neurology stored the perfect Sunday afternoon,

What to do on a rainy day,

And what a phone call means.

We all have these stored.

I'm going to address these as soul calling,

Something in you that's seeking to emerge.

And I would like to look at three different things.

We'll have a guided meditation.

So we're going to look at three things.

The repeating patterns and seeing those as invitations,

Emotional whispers,

And then reframing stuckness as feedback.

Repeating patterns.

When life keeps bringing you back to the same situation,

The same person or certain emotion,

I don't think it's coincidence.

The pattern is the prompt and the unconscious mind doesn't waste energy.

If it's showing you the same loop,

The same like,

Wow,

It's like I've seen this movie before.

I know this short story.

It's because there's something still unresolved,

Something that you're ready to face differently than you have in the past.

How do I respond to the information?

I got the nudge.

I understand.

Or I'm learning to interpret the nudges because this is about intuitive evolution,

How to develop your intuitive abilities.

But there's a moment for most of us when we realize,

I've been here before.

Not just the place that you are,

But it's like a feeling in a loop,

In a pattern.

And sometimes it feels like you're in a movie a little bit,

But what is this pattern,

Deja vu almost?

Like I've seen this before.

Maybe it's a certain kind of relationship that keeps showing up or a recurring conflict.

Different people,

Different circumstances,

Different contexts,

But that same conflict comes up again.

Anger toward X,

An old story about yourself that seems to replay no matter how much you've grown.

You've done the inner work.

You've read the books.

You did a workshop in a class and you meditated and you saw a therapist.

And then this thing keeps coming up.

When those patterns repeat,

It's a sign to take a closer look,

Especially if it contains certain negative emotions.

Certain negative feelings arise and those negative emotions,

They're not negative in the sense of being bad.

We call them negative emotions because they don't feel good.

That's why we call them negative.

But their intention,

Their purpose is to draw your attention to something that may need to just be looked at,

Resolved.

The unconscious mind doesn't send that same message over and over again for no reason.

There's a repetition because now at this stage of your development,

You have the capacity to meet it differently than in the past.

Your unconscious mind is incredibly persistent and patient.

And you could be saying,

Well,

I'm here at this wedding and this is a great weekend.

I'm looking forward to this.

And your unconscious mind goes,

Great,

Perfect.

I'm glad you had some time off because there's this thing I've been wanting to deal with and I'm wanting resolution.

How about now?

And you're like,

No,

Not a good time.

But your unconscious mind goes,

Fine,

I'll be back.

I run this place.

The sleep,

The patterns,

The emotions,

The habits,

That's my domain.

The unconscious mind isn't controlling you like strings.

But so much of what you experience on a daily basis does not derive from your decisions about what to do on this day.

Response to the nudges that you get will give you the clarity about what's the best thing.

Instead of asking,

Why does this keep happening to me?

We could ask a different question,

A better question.

What is this pattern asking of me?

What part of me still believes this story?

What lessons have I postponed learning?

And if I learned this lesson and actually take action as a result of understanding it,

What will it mean for me?

Who will I have to become that's truly me as a result?

You don't get to hear the message and understand the lesson here only.

That's read the book,

Listen to the webinar workshop,

Even this experience here.

I'm not likely to be saying things that are entirely new to you.

But a general invitation that if the lesson has arisen and you get it intellectually,

It wasn't my fault.

Those things are no longer true for me.

I'm not in that place anymore.

That's the lesson,

That's kind of the,

Oh yeah,

I get it.

That's what a lot of therapy and semi-therapeutic practices allow you to do,

To surface the thing.

Now that you surface it,

Not what makes it go away.

I do seek relief,

I do want to feel better,

But what is it that I need to learn and then take action on with my physical body?

What will I do?

How will I stand?

How will I sit?

What will I know inside and then what will it mean for me when I walk,

Talk,

Speak?

Reserve speech and not speak out because that was my lesson.

That's when you get the lesson.

When you're in that situation,

You have learned the lesson and the negative emotion that accompanied that message will diminish.

You could still have a memory around it,

Nothing wrong with the memory,

But the meaning of anger,

Sadness,

Fear,

Hurt,

Guilt,

Anxiety,

Worry,

Those are the things that disappear because they have served their purpose.

I'll let the cat out of the bag when I say that we often fear the growth that we need to do because of how big you are and how wonderful and amazing you are and who you are becoming as a consequence of growing,

Who you will show up as.

I just want you to know you are fully capable of fulfilling that goal,

Purpose,

Outcome,

Identity.

There is no person on the planet better prepared to be you than you.

When we treat the repeating patterns as invitations rather than an indictment or something wrong,

You're going to shift your energy from helplessness and unawareness into inner partnership with yourself.

If you sense a draw,

A nudge to make changes and you don't seem to get out of that cul-de-sac of loops,

Stop for a moment and look around.

Even say,

Thanks for the message.

I'm ready to hear what it is.

What is the message?

What is that pattern?

What's the pattern?

Just what is the pattern?

For me,

It might be starting another project rather than finishing one that I'm on.

Maybe I'm working on finishing energy and for me that pattern would be I get into a new thing without completing.

What questions arise for you in those moments and then how do I respond?

The next one is what we'll call emotional whispers.

So one is behaviors,

Patterns of things I get out and I can see and I recognize,

Hey,

I'm doing this thing again.

This one is more about emotional intelligence,

Knowledge,

Insight,

Wisdom that comes from inside.

Even if it's irritation or apathy,

It's like the blinking red light on a dashboard of your car.

Those negative feelings or emotional whispers are not something to tape across so that you don't see them.

That would be the equivalent behavior.

I don't want to see that thing that's saying check engine.

The old joke is I got out,

I checked the engine,

It was there and so I continued to drive.

That's kind of what we actually do.

Instead of overriding them or trying to feel better,

We can learn to pause and to ask what part of me is speaking through this feeling?

There is an origin and discovery of the origin does not address it,

Doesn't fix anything.

It just causes you to know,

Oh,

There's that thing.

Emotions are,

In that case,

Messengers.

They are not enemies.

They're data.

They're inbound for your awareness.

You do not decide on an emotion.

You do not decide that a joke is funny and you're going to laugh,

Ha,

Ha,

Ha.

The emotion arises spontaneously before you're aware of it.

You're laughing,

Smiling,

Crying,

Whatever.

You become aware of it because it's already happened inside.

Not every message comes through the words.

Sometimes the most important messages that you get are just that.

They're a sensation,

An import,

Sometimes just a knowing.

You feel like you're an intuitive person.

You just know something.

You feel maybe in the body.

You're tightened in the chest.

A flare of irritation comes up or restlessness that you can't quite name.

You get to a room and that's not it.

It's not the book.

It's not the TV.

It's not the computer.

What is it?

You go to the other room.

I'm not hungry.

That's not it.

This is a restlessness and the time is to pull up a chair and close your eyes.

Meditation is an incredibly helpful process to regulate and take care of a number of things,

Very important things.

I'm a huge proponent and there are times when meditation is not the right thing to do.

There are times when the behavior looks the same.

This is when you grab your pen and paper and you sit down.

We're not meditating.

You're not trying to discipline yourself.

You just close your eyes and go inside and have your pen and paper there.

This is preparatory work.

You meditate afterwards and just sit there.

You'll think,

Oh my gosh,

How long is this taking?

But you look,

Oh,

That's 30 seconds,

A minute,

Two minutes.

And just sit there and the knowledge will come.

The insight will come.

Yes,

You may get the nudge to call somebody and you may get a wonderful idea and some other things,

But just being with yourself long enough like,

What are you doing in there?

I'm just having quiet time.

You're just taking quiet time.

These emotional whispers are intelligent and they will arise for you spontaneously.

They don't come to ruin your day or to derail your progress,

Just to give you information,

To give you some guidance.

So when you allow yourself the opportunity to experience it,

You will get them.

Oftentimes those messages come to signal that something is stirring in you.

It's never a bad thing.

If we learn nothing else from the work of people like Carl Jung and others who followed him,

It's that the shadow,

The thing I don't want to look at is not bad,

Evil,

The sign of foreboding or something bad,

But something good that's seeking to emerge.

It's saying,

Hi,

I need this resolution.

There's something big that's going to happen.

And when you deal with this thing,

Something that's longing to be known and to be heard and to be released,

That feels like resolution.

Comfort is coming.

Oh,

It feels much better.

That's never the end goal.

You want to feel better and you will feel better for sure.

The good news is this other thing that's waiting in the wings to emerge as a result of releasing emotional baggage around something.

It's like you're trying to take care of this old beat up car long enough to sell it so that the brand new car can come in.

You know,

It's like,

Let's take care of the thing because the other one's waiting right there.

Most of us have been taught to manage or override or even ignore our emotions.

We label them as inconvenient,

Improper timing.

We try to talk ourselves out of those feelings.

We distract.

We spiritualize.

We minimize.

We do anything to really avoid truly feeling.

And oftentimes we want to read a new book.

We want to obsess over a new therapist or anesthetize the emotion with something else.

Emotions don't work that way.

They don't go away when ignored.

They go deeper.

They go into the body.

They go underground.

And then they start showing up sideways through who knows what your unconscious mind's incredibly effective.

Confusion.

Numbness.

Tension.

Headache.

Something that just can persist.

Yes,

We respond.

Somebody said self-abandonment as a response to trauma.

I was abandoned perhaps or I wish that I had been.

And so I'm going to.

It's like a symbol,

A message.

And so I'm going to do this behavior.

So what if instead of managing your emotions,

Which don't need to be managed,

They manage themselves just fine.

What if you welcomed them as messengers?

Even the difficult ones,

Especially the difficult ones,

Because they carry information from the unconscious mind.

Sadness might point out something that you've outgrown that no longer fits you.

Irritation might indicate that there's a boundary that you have not enforced well.

Apathy might indicate that your inner compass has gone quiet for a moment from neglect.

And that by attuning to the brilliant heart,

Space,

Mind,

Responsive capacity that you have as an intuitive to be able to respond to know that you do know.

We play a game called I don't know.

What's wrong?

How are you feeling?

What's going on?

Oh,

I don't know.

We do know.

But we don't want to talk about it.

Ask this.

What are you willing?

What are you trying to show me?

And then listen.

Your body does know.

Glad that you're here.

The emotions do know.

Your body does know.

And they're not the enemy.

They're the early warning system from the soul saying,

Hey,

Can we take care of this?

Because good things will come if we do.

Brief exercise with you now.

If it's safe and convenient for you to simply take a moment and close the outer eye and just sit there for a moment,

I'll ask a couple of questions.

I'll do the work as well.

What messages are seeking to emerge right now?

Don't interpret them.

Just what is the message?

It could be a word,

A phrase,

A feeling.

It could be a symbol,

An image that you don't know what to do with.

Simply allow it to come forth,

Whatever's there.

If you get something,

A word,

A phrase,

An image,

Jot it down.

What is the message that's seeking to emerge in me right now?

As you learn to and respond to listening to this process inside,

You get good things happen.

Lots of things happen inside that you recognize,

Hey,

There are ways for me to listen and then there are ways for me to respond.

What are the responses that I need to do?

I want to mention again for a moment about the reframing because we don't often interpret these things.

Reframing means that if you felt stuck,

Like you're in that cul-de-sac,

Reframing that as feedback.

Because we're kind of,

Sometimes we're a little bit obstinate or a little bit incapable of recognizing that I have been ignoring.

Your unconscious mind's very patient and persistent and comes back around.

Feeling stuck is often interpreted as weakness,

But really it's not.

It's your deeper self who's preparing you for a new way of moving forward.

And so the pause or the circling,

The frustration,

The,

Hey,

Do you get it yet?

Do you get it yet?

And you're like,

Yes,

I got it.

Well,

It's all just feedback for you.

So when you shift from judging that discomfort,

Why am I always feeling this way?

To listening to it,

New options for taking action will occur to you.

That the messages are there for a reason and they're positive.

They don't feel very positive,

But usually they are.

Now,

We all know the feeling of being stuck.

You're like,

You have no movement,

You have no clarity,

You have no spark,

No drive.

You can even feel a little down or depressed,

Like you're treading water in your own life.

But the truth is,

Stuckness is not about failure.

It's not about really being stuck.

It's,

Listen,

Don't tell,

But it's you who's saying,

I'm wah-wah.

No,

I don't want to listen to that.

I don't want to.

It's a protective thing.

Like,

I don't want to feel bad.

I don't want to even look at it.

I don't look under that cover because it's painful.

So the feeling of stuckness is kind of like a holding pattern from your unconscious mind asking you to listen and slow down long enough.

And sometimes the mind,

You know,

Like you want progress.

I want to feel better.

I want to move on and get going.

But the soul,

Your inner spirit wants integration more than it wants a firework display.

It wants to feel integrated and whole.

What was once separated wants to come back to wholeness.

There's nothing in you that's broken or damaged or missing that needs to be fixed.

It's parts of ourselves that we have let sit alone by themselves.

And we don't want any part of our kid sitting in the corner alone.

We want to draw that back in.

So our tendency is to push forward and work hard.

And the little kid goes,

You and your big world.

We say,

What's wrong with me?

Why can't I just move on?

And the little kid inside says,

I've been told that all my life.

Why I don't fit in.

Your inner self is not trying to be difficult.

It's being honest and it's so persistent that it doesn't sleep.

That part of you is saying,

You're ready for a new way of being.

Not through force and not through your big efforts,

But through alignment.

So,

When you pause to ask what's underneath this stuckness,

This feeling,

You often find that it's not a block.

It's a boundary that's waiting.

The good things are just on the other side.

It's a moment of truth.

So don't rush the pause.

The pause,

The loop,

The cul-de-sac is a sacred moment.

It's a sacred time.

Don't leave the hallway trying to move into the next part until you've addressed what's there.

Okay.

What is it that your body is telling you in the feeling of,

If you have experienced that sense of stuckness,

Or I'm here again,

Or this loop,

Or this pattern,

What is the message to you from that?

Precisely the body's message is the desire for wholeness,

Healing,

Connection.

Your body is there to.

.

.

It's the temple.

It's there to hold.

It's not the thing.

It's the holding space for infinite mind,

Infinite spirit.

And you get to run and take care of and hydrate and manage it.

And so when there's disruption,

It often comes out through the body saying,

Hey,

I'm not ready to sleep or I sleep too much.

So you'll know.

You will know.

What is that message to you?

You know,

The truth is,

I think that we do know.

The secret that we pretend not to know is the thing that we avoid going into is the thing that holds the key to our next level of growth.

I know that you probably say from time to time,

I don't know what's going on.

We just skirt around the pattern and say,

We label it,

This is how life is.

And we distract ourselves with goals and stories and spiritual ideas.

But underneath,

Something wiser already knows that this discomfort,

This repetition,

This trigger,

It's not random.

It's the door that we keep walking past,

Even though it's the only one that's been unlocked the whole time.

We keep looking and rattling locked doors,

And there's one usually there.

And listening means that you have to deal,

Feel more,

Admit more,

Act differently.

And we keep things light,

Skim past,

Skim the surface,

Or we label it.

It's just,

You know,

I'm just in a funk today.

Maybe that's the best explanation,

But here's the truth.

You check in with yourself,

It'll resonate for you.

You do know.

There is a part of you that completely knows and so desiring of that connection,

Of love,

Not from another human being,

Of connection,

Poignant awareness that only comes from you.

There is no class,

Workshop,

Book,

Conference,

Certification,

Human being,

Personality,

Relationship that can fill that need.

You alone are uniquely qualified to do so.

And it comes from divine source,

But it is still you who does it.

It is about alignment.

When we stop pretending that we don't know,

You begin to experience freedom and you choose to hear what's been speaking in you all of this time.

So we do know,

But we like to play the game of I don't know.

Just to take away a few things,

Just to kind of repeat what are the things that I've been saying,

And then we'll do a little guided meditation here.

The repeating patterns and emotional loops are signs.

They're not setbacks in your growth.

They're signs that growth is about to happen.

Emotional restlessness is an invitation to pause and listen and stuckness or the feeling of being stuck is part of the preparation for a new way forward.

It's the cul-de-sac.

The unconscious mind communicates through emotion,

Through repetition,

Through symbols,

Through feelings,

And is worthy of our attention to not ignore.

Listening is the first step toward real transformation.

Begin by turning toward the feeling,

Not away from it.

It's an indication of good things to come.

Before we do the guided meditation,

I just want to mention a couple of things about the people said about distractions and diversions.

We have attempts to anesthetize,

And you've heard it enough to know that this is not a strategy that bears much fruit.

Your life doesn't have to be miserable on that account.

It just means that the distractions and the entertainment and habits and patterns and looking at the phone and doing anything that you do on a repetitive basis rather than dealing with the inner work,

It's a good sign.

But the other one I want to mention is,

I don't know if it really came from Jim or not,

But if it didn't,

It probably was implied,

Is some of us are simply more sensitive,

A highly sensitive person.

There's times that it could be somebody else's emotion you're dealing with.

It could be somebody else's energy that you're picking up because you are sensitive.

So it's a question,

Not a dictum,

A rule,

A law that says it has to be something you've not addressed.

But you're a living,

Breathing human being with emotions and past,

And we all have things that we've caused things to mean.

And I even put ESP.

Maybe you're sensing energy from people around you because your unconscious mind is so sensitive,

So aware.

There could be things outside of you that you're expecting to be the same,

And they're not.

They don't work the same for the world,

And therefore they cause a little uncertainty or dysregulation on your own part.

And the spirit message here is that going with the message and going with the discomfort,

It doesn't mean that you're pathologically,

You know,

So much of medicine therapy and the self-help field addresses itself to essentially pathology.

It's just what's wrong.

But it's not always a message like that.

Allow,

Address,

And recognize there is a path forward for the way you want to be and the way you want to feel.

I prepared something for myself.

I'll share it with you.

It's something that I use to help make a note.

What does it look like?

But I call it preparing for success.

You can create something like this for yourself as well.

I have a sheet of paper.

I print it out weekly.

It has a theme.

I'm a big fan of just like the theme for the week.

So the theme for this week is caring.

I have a note about relationship first.

I have the date and then the week of the year,

You know,

Like 52 weeks a year.

So this is week whatever,

You know,

48.

Goals and action items.

I have two parts here.

This top part,

Priorities,

What's on my mind,

What needs to be backburnered,

What positive traits,

What self-care,

And what gratitude,

What can I be grateful for.

Okay,

And just,

It's like for a whole week,

This is what I'm going to focus on,

Positive traits in myself and others.

Reach out.

I actually put a person's name there,

You know,

Somebody I should reach out to this week.

Just try to continue to reach out to people.

So that's the first one.

This is the top part of the page.

I couldn't get it all on there at once.

Tracking your wellness.

How am I doing?

Some people say,

How are you doing?

I'm fine.

Well,

Maybe.

Let's look at the bottom part,

Because I have down there a personal,

And it's a note.

You see right up there.

What can I let go of?

What connection is going on?

And what loops can I close?

But look at the bottom part.

Mental,

Emotional,

And physical well-being.

How am I feeling?

What's my state like?

So you see there,

Seven days a week,

Linkert scale one through five.

This may not be for you,

But this is something that's helpful to note,

Just to try it for a week.

How are you feeling?

Meditation,

Reading,

And journaling.

Mood.

What's your overall emotional state?

Pretty good.

Three,

Four,

Five,

Whatever.

And make a note.

And physical well-being.

How are you feeling physically?

Hydration,

Weight,

Movement,

Nutrition,

Stretching,

Sleep,

Meds,

Whatever is on your routine.

Because this is information to you.

Maybe you'll see a pattern,

A physical and mental and emotional based on behaviors and activities that you engage in.

What you consume,

Your sleep patterns,

Who you're with,

Everything kind of links and loops.

And today we're here to address the fact that there may be messages from the unconscious mind that we need to pay attention to.

So on the practical side,

Giving yourself a litmus or a scale to look at how are you doing in the course of a week gives you a great deal of information.

And it may show you that,

Huh,

It was really just once that whole week that I was really not doing that great.

We'll tend to loop and include everything in a very broad generalization rather than saying,

Yeah,

I had an afternoon where I was kind of down,

A little sleepy,

Whatever.

So just make a note about that.

I'd like to draw us to a point where we could have a guided meditation a few minutes to address your mental emotional state and to ask a few questions.

There isn't anything to do.

You don't have to figure anything out right now.

But if it's safe and convenient for you to put yourself in a state where you could just hear for a minute,

Hear the message from within.

What is seeking to emerge in you right now?

When the noise settles,

The messages emerge.

That's why some people don't meditate,

Isn't it?

I don't want to slow down long enough to hear what's going on behind the scenes.

But you're brave enough and care enough about yourself to just listen for a few minutes and hear.

So figuring things out,

That's not your job.

Your unconscious mind knows how to heal.

Body,

Mind,

Emotions.

So just let your awareness settle for a moment and allow whatever wants to be seen or felt to gently come forward.

Maybe your mind still feels busy or distracted and like you need to do something.

That's okay.

What we resist will persist.

And so simply allow anything that comes up right now and just notice it.

The messages and the messenger doesn't need to shout.

They wait.

Just being here right now with a heart of openness is enough.

Write it down.

You can break the rule of whatever you think the rule is about meditation.

We're not trying to make something happen here.

We're just going to let the noise settle so something quiet inside can emerge.

I'm going to allow some time between these cadences for you to hear.

The slowness of this will go more quickly than you can address consciously so just let that happen.

Maybe you think that if you don't hear anything that there's nothing there but there is something inside of you that's still listening on your behalf so trust that deeper part of you to take in what it needs right now.

I guess it was a good thing for you to drop in,

Wasn't it?

Listening begins with allowing so just allow.

Take a deep breath and let it go.

Perhaps inside there that place you go when you want to feel good just want to feel comfortable you're certainly not asleep you can hear everything here but in that quiet and familiar place what's that space look like for you inside?

A garden?

A porch?

A library?

Where is the space when you want to know?

Just trust it.

This is your space.

It's nice to go to a place where you're not the only one there.

Sometimes restaurants could be a good place but nobody else is there so we don't go there.

And in this space perhaps there's someone waiting for you not a stranger but a friend a presence of a being that you may have sensed before they've always been there.

You might see that person clearly or simply feel that presence nearby Take a moment to just be with this friend representing not only the part of your unconscious mind that's seeking to emerge and also higher self who says I have never left you.

You'll know because there's no judgment no pressure but kindness in the eyes.

I know you.

I've always known you.

What is it you've been wanting me to hear?

And simply wait here.

There's no rush.

This friend is so close but doesn't always speak in words alone.

What is the feeling?

You may get something specific.

It would be a wonderful thing.

You can write it down.

It will not disrupt the time that you have here.

Sometimes when you meet with a friend like this they say I have a gift for you.

You don't have to open it now.

It will be revealed to you later.

If you sense that,

Simply receive the gift.

Thank you.

I can't wait to find out what is so big in this package and simply receive it.

You'll know when it's revealed to you.

Knowledge,

Wisdom,

Insight,

Peace,

Capacity.

You'll know.

It will come to you at the right time.

You've heard some things today that would indicate this relationship is the most important one.

The one between you and you.

Thanks for the message.

I heard you loud and clear and I came.

Perhaps you'd like to feel better.

That could be part of the gift.

Now that you came and you know how to come.

So why don't we in this moment pause for a moment and receive what you need right now.

Healing in the body.

Calm for the mind.

Special nurturing and love for your soul,

Your spirit.

Watch it grow.

As you receive,

Allow and accept this gets bigger,

More powerful.

What would a good response be?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Now if there's work to do,

There's things to address.

You got the message.

The specifics will be provided in the proper time.

Today's lesson was about listening and hearing.

You know how to get back here.

From this place of continuous awareness,

Peace,

Wisdom,

Insight,

Knowledge,

You will know to come here to receive.

And the doing and the thinking and the acting will be more on that conscious side out there.

Things you want to take care of,

You want to do.

Much of the healing work is not about doing,

But just about acknowledging,

Coming inside,

Hearing the message,

And not doing anything.

But just allowing the continual flow of well-being that's coming to you now and at all times to find its home in your heart.

Take a deep breath.

We'll begin to think about coming back up to full presence just a moment,

But before you do,

Take a little snapshot.

Like you would with your phone,

Click,

Click.

I want to remember this place,

This feeling,

This meaning.

So I take a little snapshot because I used to pretend not to know how to get here,

But I do know.

And I have a little picture to remind me.

Very good.

Click,

Click.

Oh,

You would like another little dose there to remind you.

Receive it.

Good.

All right,

Take a deep breath.

Are you glad that it doesn't take hours and hours and hours of tortuous,

Disciplined effort to reach the deepest parts of you?

Because that's what they sold you,

Like it's going to take months and years of practice and discipline and the hard meditation mat and uncomfortable positions.

It's not the case.

Okay,

So when you enter into a state of this peace or well-being or wholeness inside,

It probably contrasts for you the chaos and the not okay feelings that you experience on the outside.

Today was about recognizing that the place you go when you want to feel good is inside.

I just have three questions for you.

Three little questions for self-reflection.

You could capture them in whatever way makes sense for you.

Thank you so much for your beautiful feedback.

Three questions for you.

Self-reflection.

What patterns or issues have I been circling lately?

This is kind of back on each point that we made.

What are the patterns or issues?

What do they look like for me?

What does the pattern look like?

What emotions tend to repeat themselves in quiet moments?

And if I treated this discomfort as a message,

What might it be asking of me?

That's like a summary wrap-up of the experience,

Because the thinky part of you,

The curious and the,

Oh,

I want to be in charge.

I want to take responsibility for my life and know that I did the good thing.

That part of you,

Well,

We have to give that part of you something to do.

And so these are some questions you can reflect on.

But truthfully,

The work you already did.

But because you have the curious,

I want to be responsible and take care of things,

Then we have the questions for you.

Perhaps you'd also like to take a look at some affirmations.

I used to have affirmations every week,

Some affirmations to say,

Hey,

I'm in the process of becoming.

Seven affirmations,

One for each day,

Meaningless in screen grab format,

Highly effective,

Purposeful,

And on point when they're handwritten by you in your own handwriting on three by five cards or some other way.

Number one,

I honor the patterns that show me where to grow.

Number two,

I listen to the small signals within me.

I listen to the small signals within me.

Number three,

I'm willing to befriend discomfort as a guide.

Remember the tape across the blinking red light in the car.

I'm learning to pause and ask deeper questions.

My restlessness is a message,

Not a flaw.

I grow through attention,

Not pressure.

I trust the timing of my inner unfoldment.

Outside,

Things just happen.

They continue to grow and happen and just chaos and all sorts of things.

But the one I listen to is the inner unfoldment.

Who am I becoming?

What part of me is seeking to emerge here and now?

How do I grow in this place?

And know that you're here on purpose,

The meanings are real,

And in subsequent weeks to this teaching,

I will be sharing with you other principles on what to do,

How to address nudges that are indicative of the inner growth,

The spiritual evolution,

The emotional maturity that's seeking to emerge.

Signs that you may need to do some inner work.

What that inner work looks like,

You don't need to rationalize.

You don't need a master's degree or a PhD in psychology.

The knowledge is only part of the work.

That's why I said a lot of times they'll tell you,

Help you to understand,

But that doesn't fix anything.

It doesn't address anything.

It doesn't resolve anything.

It just surfaces.

Then you go,

Well,

Now what do I do?

You cannot rationalize your way to wholeness or well-being.

It is something that emerges in you and through you and as you.

At the borders between the expanded consciousness that you are up against,

Pushing up against,

There could be trouble at the borders.

It could be chaos.

It could feel a little bit,

But as you grow and expand,

That becomes a new territory,

Familiar,

And it's groomed into the wholeness of you.

I have a friend who revealed to me that with one exception,

He doesn't cry.

It was not like a man's man,

Kind of macho,

Like I don't ever cry,

But a very kind,

Sensitive,

Intuitive,

Gentle person.

He just doesn't cry,

Just not his thing,

But he told me an example.

I have another friend,

A female,

Same way.

Experiences the emotions,

But just doesn't cry.

There are some people who are more sensitive.

I cry all the time,

Little things.

It doesn't have to mean sadness,

It just means excitement or joy or awareness or connection or whatever.

So just recognize we're not all the same,

And so we don't want to label and interpret emotional patterns and behaviors as meaning anything specifically.

Your own sense of awareness – oh,

I remember one other important comment that the gentleman made.

Not every individual has to go deep in order to do inner work.

Some of us definitely have to go deep.

We have to go inside because we're buried below awareness,

So far deep,

Because we're afraid of what we'll see when we emerge that.

Some of us need to go deeper.

Either way,

It is an invitation to wholeness,

To well-being,

And to peace.

And I hope you want that because the good things that emerge on the other side of feeling good,

Feeling better,

And coming back into that state – and I can't promise you'll have it 100% of the time,

But a lot of the time – what emerges on the other side of just feeling good is you delivering your gift,

Sharing your message with the world,

The purpose and the reason for you showing up,

What's uniquely yours,

Your gifts,

Your abilities.

Your gift to us is what emerges when you feel like you've done the work.

And you can do it.

Some people kind of muscle through,

But recognize that at all times that bigger work is what's nudging,

It's like why we do it.

We want to think that it's just so we feel better,

And you will.

But there's also a bigger reason for it,

And that's the reason you came forth.

And I hope that you will appreciate,

Acknowledge,

And respond to it.

This is the time we have today.

I'm Bradley Tompkins with Pathways to Creative Well-Being here on Insight Timer.

Peace and blessings to you.