“If you are listening, if you are awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open, again and again so that it can hold ever more wonders.”

~ Andrew Harvey

When you’re feeling stuck and can’t seem to figure out which direction to go or what your next step should be, an “Inner Knowing Session” may be helpful. Let me explain, this is when you have a debate with yourself – out loud, with you arguing both sides!

If I give my inner voices the opportunity to be heard, I can bring everything out into the open and look at an issue from all angles. Fear dissipates and solutions emerge.

I was first exposed to this concept at a wonderful workshop I attended. They taught us that if we take the time to have an argument with ourselves it forces us to dig deep and call forth our inner wisdom, finding the answers hiding in our subconscious mind.

First, they divided us into pairs. We sat with our chairs facing each other. Person number one would tell a sad story with lots of detail and make their situation sound hopeless and impossible. Person number two would then be empathetic and gentle and give their best advice to person number one of how to solve the problem. Then we switched roles. Person number two would have the chance to spin a horrible/unsolvable tale and person number one would be the guru to guide them in finding solutions. This part of the exercise was easy, we’d all experienced both roles before.

Then we were asked to put an empty chair in front of us. We then were asked to take on both roles – the person who felt stuck, as well as the person with all the wisdom. This exercise was life changing for me. I’ve used this technique over and over since my first experience in that workshop. It has helped me get through some really rough times.

There are several ways to do an Inner Knowing Session:

• Schedule an appointment with yourself. Set up chairs to face each other. This is an effective way to facilitate getting everything out that’s spinning around inside of your head. Start by voicing all the fears, worries and concerns that are plaguing you. When you feel you’ve completely expressed the negative side, get up and move to the other chair. In the new chair, begin speaking as your Sacred Self; your highest and best self. All the confidence, strength, and wisdom within you will have the opportunity to come forth. Force yourself to go on and on and on. It’s a beautiful thing. As soon as your brain says, “Yeah but _______ and ______”, stand up and switch to the negative chair again. Repeat these steps over and over until you feel like you can move forward and feel peaceful about the solution you’ve uncovered.
• Spontaneously start talking to yourself whenever the need arises. You don’t always have to use chairs to distinguish the two sides.
• You can use different hands on the steering wheel as you drive to remind yourself of which side you’re voicing at the moment.
• You can sit in your bed and simply look to the right and then to the left as you express the different thoughts about each side.
• If you want to use this tool at a time when speaking out loud isn’t an option, you can hold a pen in your right hand and then move it to the left as you hold a discussion silently in your mind.

Inner Knowing is incredibly effective. It’s a secret weapon you can pull out whenever you’re yearning for clarity and peace.