Originally shared on 4/19/23.
Some weeks the “what I write” in this space comes to me, in a soft whisper, and I know that it’s going to be magical! Some weeks, it is pre-planned, based on a theme, and some weeks, I am just not sure what to tell you! This is one of those weeks…. I had a pre-planned idea, but it’s not landing, not feeling right for some reason. So I decided to sit down and let the words flow onto paper and see what it is my heart wants to speak to you.
This may be in honor of The Alchemist, an amazing tale by Paulo Cohelo. I just finished it last week – so many nuggets of wisdom about following our hearts toward our own personal legend. Yoga folks call our own personal legend our ‘dharma’ – our reason for being here, our purpose in this lifetime. It’s not “what” we do, but “who we are, when we show up to do it” (thanks Jessica Hoch, Moxie Malas, for that quote from this past weekend).
Funny, even as I start to write this I am remembering that a few days ago, my heart was saying write about The Alchemist – but my logical mind did not think that was it, and I breezed over it…and now here I am letting words flow onto paper and this is what is coming out. This is the essence of The Alchemist – learning to trust our hearts, learning to read the omens or signs that are available to us – – – being in the flow of life, connection to nature, and everything around us.
For many of us, we lose the ability to connect to our hearts at an early age – I won’t go into any of the why’s on that – but when we stop listening our hearts, our hearts: “speak more and more softly.”
Somehow in my late twenties I reconnected with my heart – in listening to my heart, I did radical, bold things, that took me places I hadn’t anticipated – good places where the motivation wasn’t at all financial, just following a dream, or a feeling that it was a part of my path. This is easy to do in your twenties, before you have kids – relatively easy… but somehow even when we find our heart’s voice, we can lose it again. Motherhood, or “adulting” often means we start using our practical, thinking mind almost entirely – because we have young humans to keep safe, and bills to pay. I have certainly consulted with my heart many times over the years of mothering, and listened…but when it comes to my work, I have definitely felt a little confused sometimes about which voice was my heart, or sometimes I asked and felt like I couldn’t hear it. Reading The Alchemist, I feel a commitment to reconnecting with this voice in a meaningful way in all areas of my life – and again making it my guide, my guide for my own spiritual evolution – as it is intended to be. We are truly spiritual beings having a human experience here – and although bills need to be paid – our happiness is tied to finding this voice and listening. Looking for signs, and feeling the way forward.
Some of you know the voice I am talking about, some of you may have a little or a lot of experience in working with it. My experience is that it is a soft voice – that I can only hear in a flickering moment – and if I am not present I miss it completely. If I am present and I hear it, I can usually feel a familiar warmth in my belly, and heart – that tell me that this is the inner voice, the soul, the spirit, intuition, or purusha. In Sanskrit, it is called Purusha, which roughly translates to “that which rests in the city of the body.” It is our connection to the infinite, our connection to the divine love that is at the core of all the spiritual traditions – known as ‘god,’ and by many other names. Maybe it is more of a feeling than a voice in your head – it may be different for everyone – would love to hear about your experiences with this voice/intuition as well!
Sometimes when we listen to this voice time stands still, the stars align and the universe allows words to flow onto a page in moments – moments to transmit an idea you didn’t even know you wanted to share today – you didn’t know with your logical mind…
“The voice of the soul is the one that interrupts the senses influence on the intellect,” (unknown). This might be another guidepost to recognize the soul voice, it is the one that softly offers you advice when you are reaching for another ____, even though you don’t need it, or queuing up another show on Netflix, when it’s past your bedtime – look for that soft voice that interrupts your senses desire for something, in favor of your higher good.
For me, looking back, connecting with this voice in my twenties looked like this: rented a cute corner apartment in uptown; bought a MacBook (to write, and edit video); sold my TV; quit my full-time corporate job to serve tables and volunteer for a non-profit; practiced yoga at 2am; wandered around the library and grabbed books that jumped out at me; planned a whole day to do nothing; covered the clocks in my house, and moved on my own time. I still do some of these things – but my bed time is earlier!
Okay, so what is my heart trying to communicate here? I think I’m trying to say: anything is possible…that is one thing. However, anything you can wish for is more likely to happen if it is in alignment with your true purpose, dharma, or personal legend. If it is not in alignment with your hearts deepest desires you can wish and hope and dream, and it may not manifest. If it is in alignment with your heart, if you have learned to listen and are on your path – then the entire universe will conspire to make it happen – anything is possible when your dream is connected to your hearts desire. So, get quiet, and listen – once you have found the inner voice, follow it. Will everything be perfect everyday on this path, no of course not – there may still be hardships, that may be a part of the journey…none of us can entirely escape those, but we can learn and grow as we go. The Alchemist says It all, and says it better – if you are feeling inclined pick up a copy and see what you think!
So I wonder, what is your dream? Is your heart still talking to you? Can you find it again (I think you can, I know you can).
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve; the fear of failure.” (The Alchemist, p. 168 – Kindle Edition)