Everything is Okay

Some days it feels like everything is very much not okay. Life feels precarious, untenable, beyond our abilities, but we know we have to keep going so how do we do it? Where do we look for inspiration, for faith in a positive outcome, for the next chink letting in light? My first instinct is always to reach out, and this is often an excellent starting point -- it reminds me that I have a circle of people holding my safety net should I fall and that reassures me and lets me take the next step -- the deeper, more life-changing one.

For that one, I have learned -- finally -- to go within. We are all our own best friend and yet we give ourselves very short shrift on this front. I suspect this is because we are never taught to take our own counsel. We are told to ask the experts, uncover the facts, put together a rational study of pros and cons, but this fails to take into account that we are the experts on ourselves, "facts" can be subjective and one good "pro" can outweigh a whole truckload of "cons".

The world is also a rather noisy place: our heads are full to the brim with millions of pieces of information and there is no silence in which to hear our own little voice -- the one that really matters, the one that has our best interests at heart. And sometimes we do hear its guidance and choose to disregard it anyway. We explain it away as selfish or ask "what do I know?". Well, rather a lot, actually, and being "selfish" is usually nothing of the kind. An act of kindness to yourself will go a long way in translating its benefits to others. Why does no one tell us this? I don't have the answer and I have finally found the confidence to stop asking the question.

So, next time you are at a crossroads or have an important decision to make or, indeed, just feel out of sync with yourself, may I suggest that you simply be quiet? Do whatever it is you do to still the incessant chatter in your head (walk, swim, meditate, knit, jog, lie on your back and watch the clouds...) and listen -- and then trust what you hear. Why would you steer yourself wrong?