Conscious Inklings Blog. IDEAS, INSIGHTS & INK-SPIRATION. / surrender

We humans are quite keen on knowing where we are headed at all times. It gives us a sense of certainty. Something tangible to hold onto, like a road map that guarantees if you take all of the right turns you will arrive at your destination. The problem is that life does not work like this. Life is not a straight-line trajectory- it ebbs and flows. Often times you have to wander off-trail to figure out who you are, what it is that you want and bring these desires to fruition.

I have always been a wanderer myself- quick to abandon a promising, secure path the moment it proves to not be a fulfilling choice for me. My family and friends were particularly worried when I dropped out of high school 3 months into my freshman year. Although this is the path that is seen as necessary in our society, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more waiting for me outside the classroom.

From wandering off of the societally appropriate path, I was able to get in touch with myself and achieve what I previously thought was out of reach. Over the course of 4 years I traveled across the country, hiked through the Sierras and managed to complete my Associate’s Degree at 18, when my high school class was just graduating. This all came from listening to my intuition and letting it guide me, even when it felt insanely impractical to do so.

All too often our desperate need to know where the next step will lead blocks the guidance our intuition provides for us. Intuition is like that high school boyfriend your parents didn’t care for. It shows up, windblown hair and leather pants, daring you to hop on the back of its’ motorcycle. Every bone in your body is screaming for you to hop on, but your mind is like erm, Amanda, you have Biology at 12. And this is how you miss out on the thrill of a journey intuition paved out for you.

Wandering is an essential part of listening to your intuition.

Your intuition will lead you down awry paths that may not always make practical sense but feel right in your gut. Onlookers will likely take your swerve off-track as a sign of you being lost in life but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Following your intuition only brings you closer to yourself. In reality you are not lost, you are actually closer to finding yourself than ever before.

With that being said, I urge you to tune into that gut feeling lying beneath all of the well-laid plans. When you get the impulse to flee from the perfect path you’ve carved out for yourself, know that there is no harm in wandering off course.

Often times it is the dirt road with the overgrown bushes that leads you back to who you really are.

Amanda Brown

Conscious Ink Staffer

There are few things more powerful than the simple act of standing.

Gandhi stood for peace. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for equality. Mother Teresa stood for compassion. Hardly pushovers.

So what makes this standing so powerful?

When we stand for something, we have an unwavering commitment toward it. It’s clear and definitive. There’s no wasted energy thinking and rethinking, deciding and un-deciding, hemming then hawing. So those who stand for something enjoy super-concentrated energy.

And that’s just the beginning.

Since the entire universe loves clarity, it naturally and bountifully supports it. For example, a tree is definitive in being a tree. The universe abides by the tree’s decision and thus fully supports the tree by supplying everything it needs – sun and water, etc. The same holds true with us. When we stand for something authentic within us, we will be supported by the entire universe. Yeah, baby, yeah … now we’re talking!

Let’s take a look at how it works the other way around. Until we make a conscious commitment to stand for something, we stand for nothing. And when we stand for nothing, we’re lost in no man’s land. And in no man’s land, we can eat up a lot of energy quickly … perhaps by standing then sitting repeatedly, or standing until someone tells us to sit, or standing until someone sees us standing, so we quickly sit in fear of judgment.

What a mess.

No worries though. It’s an easy fix. First, simply get in touch with something that’s authentic within the “real you” – your essence. Then make a conscious decision to stand for it.

Simple as that.

Now, here’s the trick: Make this decision when there’s no pressure to make this decision. Don’t wait for a set of circumstances to come up before you decide what you stand for! For example, if your essence likes the idea of integrity, make a decision right then and there that you stand for integrity. So then when a situation arises that might compromise your integrity, you automatically and effortlessly say no.

No questions asked. No energy leak. The decision has already been made. If, let’s say, certain circumstances arise before you’ve decided to stand for integrity, you may unconsciously get caught up in a particular story, rationalizing this or that, and ultimately make a dishonest decision.

The standing must come first.

One last thing …  sometimes, before we can stand for something authentic, we must surrender something false, which may first require us to fall to our knees.