Spiritual guidance through emotions

Guidance from spirit can appear through various input channels like an inner voice, signs and symbols, physical sensations, and also through emotions.

When I was faced with a situation where I felt exploited, I was angry very often over many years. It took me a while to acknowledge that I could neither suppress nor ignore the anger and that it might be appropriate to remove myself from the situation which caused this upset. Here, I had used the emotion as guidance about what the best course of action would be. After doing this, the anger lessened. Below the layer of anger, sadness appeared instead.

I have to be aware of the temptation to judge and suppress emotions, for example, because it is thought to be ‘unspiritual’ to feel something like anger.

Generally, emotions must be felt and then let go. It is unhealthy to suppress them. This would be like a splinter in a wound covered by a band aid. Here one would remove the splinter and the pus first. Only then healing could occur.

Why do we need to feel emotions? Because they have a valuable side to them. For example, anger about injustice or being exploited may encourage me to act, to speak up and to set boundaries, for example. Anger can become unhealthy, however, when there is a repeated spiral running in my mind without any action. For other emotions like sadness, fear, and shame it is similar. There is a healthy side to them (like the cleansing power of grief), but drowning in them can become unhealthy.

The challenge is to allow the emotion without suppressing it, but also without drowning in it. In order not to drown in it, it is helpful to stay in the witness place as the emotion comes up. The witness place is that spacious awareness that watches and allows anything to come up and be felt without judgment.

Emotions come in layers. For example, below anger, there can be sadness (or it can be the other way round). And below the sadness, there can be fear. I found it helpful to stay with the emotion to uncover the underlying layer.

I have to be aware of the tendency to cover an uncomfortable emotion up with another one which feels better temporarily but is even unhealthier (to cover up anger with revenge, for example).

It can be challenging to name and interpret the emotions correctly. Be aware of the danger of misinterpreting emotions.

• Tears can be tears of victimhood and sadness. Or they can be tears of joy and relief when coming Home.
• Excitement and the urge to do something can be misinterpreted as anxiety.
• A pause between waves of activity can be misinterpreted as apathy or depression.
• The aspect of humility in reverence and surrender or submission to divine will can feel similar to the humility aspect in remorse or repentance.
• There is a difference between quiet joy and excitement.

Sometimes it is appropriate to act on an emotion and sometimes not. Anger can be an indicator of a situation of injustice and the urge to act on it can be appropriate. But repeatedly dwelling on anger in the mind is pointless and unhealthy.

For emotions as guidance, when we are in alignment with the higher self, there is joy. When we are off track, we have given in to fear and then there is guilt, discontent, or a low-level depression. (But not every guilt is a sign of being off-track. Sometimes, there can be guilt imposed on us by society for unusual behavior. But this would not be a sign of being off-track.)

When we are on track, fear can be present. It is uncomfortable but it is not a sign that something is wrong. The spiritual journey becomes about continuously walking through the rings of fear and expanding our comfort zone.

Beware of the fact that fear can mask as apathy, confusion, procrastination, or self-sabotage. It can also come as a wolf in sheep’s clothing and mask as over-responsibility or a sense of obligation and duty (when it is really attachment in disguise).

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More information on divine guidance can be found in the divine guidance workshop script here:
https://karinfinger.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/divine_guidance_workshop_script.pdf

Guidance from spirit through words, pictures, or songs

Messages from guidance can come to us not only from the inside (as an inner voice, for example), but also from the outside. It can be a song in the radio where the lyrics mean something. Or it could be words or pictures showing up, in an ad, on a t-shirt, anywhere. The challenge with this type of guidance is notice it and not dismiss it as mere coincidence.

Here are some stories to illustrate this type of guidance:

What topics to write about?
I was wondering for quite a long time whether I should focus my work rather on the stages of the spiritual journey or on the topic of divine guidance. The universe seemed to suggest divine guidance. But I found the stages of the spiritual journey, especially the difficult dark night, much more interesting.

Then I overheard a tiny part of a phone conversation where a woman said into her cell phone, “…they are both important. This is what Aaron has said…” Coincidentally, ‘Aaron’ was the name of my spirit guide back then. I knew this snippet of a conversation was a sign for me.

The first youtube video
In 2015, I got nudges from my guidance to do my very first youtube video, but I was very reluctant to that idea. I had just come out of hiding and started writing on WordPress a few months earlier and I found that this was challenging enough.

But then we were on summer vacation in that same year when my younger son (10 years old at that time) told me he had met another young boy at the holiday location whose name was Aaron (coincidentally), and with excitement in his voice and wide open eyes he told me, “And, Mom, you know what? Aaron has his own youtube channel!”

That synchronicity almost knocked me off my feet. And then I gave in and did my first youtube video in 2015.

Obey Source
I was talking to my Mom about what I would do in case I would be fired at work. Would I accept or would I fight it? Then a woman walked by in a t-shirt with the word OBEY on it. It is the name of a brand. But I had never seen it before. It seemed like a sign to obey the will of Source.

The whole universe is steered by the single guiding hand of Source. Anything can become a message. I am walking through life and seeing God sending hints to me through many things that I encounter in my daily life. To other persons these things would seem just plain normal without further meaning. But to me, they sometimes contain a message and give me shivers of joy, awe, and gratitude.

Guidance from spirit through physical sensations

In 2013, my inner voice told me to put my experiences into a book format. So, I sat down regularly and wrote. And when it came to the chapter on guidance, the following happened:

“So, I’m gonna write the chapter on guidance today. Even though I feel tired and feel like sleeping, an inner voiceless voice keeps telling me to sit down and write. I keep discussing and procrastinating.

„ Shall I do laundry first or make that phone call first ?“

„No, write!“

„But I’m tired and can’t concentrate.“

„Write. I’ll help you.“

I do the laundry first and procrastinate further until I suddenly feel a pressure between my right shoulder blade and spine.

Who’s that? Feels like my spirit guide is poking his finger right there and pressing me to write. I sigh and give up. I sit down with pen and paper. Ok, what should I write? My guide takes the pressure off my back and I relax.”

Sometimes guides use physical sensations as a means to connect with us.
The challenges here are to notice these signs and then to interpret them.

Awareness helps for noticing. Just practice being aware of sensations in the body. What do the feet feel like at the moment? What does the stomach area feel like and is there tension?

Not every muscle twitching or ear ringing is a sign of guidance. But sometimes guidance uses these input channels.

I had a guide who created physical sensations (goosebump-like tingling or muscle twitching) usually on the left side of the body. This had become a sign for recognizing that my guide wanted to connect with me. So, watch on which side of the body it occurs. It could be important.

Sometimes I see tiny sparks of light. They came when I asked my guidance to send me a confirmation for the thoughts from spirit. Often, I do get inner guidance via thoughts. But the problem with thoughts is that I never know whether they are just from my ego mind or whether they are higher guidance. So, I asked for a sign of confirmation. And I got the sparks and also some audible sign (a cracking sound of window frames or so).

The spark, in my case, is always a tiny single point of light in the left eye field. And it is like a neural flash on the retina. That means that it is not really “out there” but it is like a single dot of light impression appearing on my retina. Somewhat like when one has stared into the sun too long and then there is an after image of light on the retina which takes a while to fade away.

When I get such a spark, I usually ask myself what was the thought which I was just thinking before. And then I assume that this spark is a sign from spirit that the previous thought was a message from my higher self.

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More areas of divine guidance are covered in my workshop script which you can download here:
https://karinfinger.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/divine_guidance_workshop_script.pdf

Divine guidance through songs in the mind

Once I was told in a dream to contact an old friend. When I hesitated to follow the guidance, I got a German child’s lullaby song (Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf; Sleep, baby, sleep) in my mind telling me that this choice would keep me asleep.

But when I agreed to contact the person, I heard a love song. Eventually, I gave in and contacted the person. It turned out that this was much to their benefit and I was glad that I did follow my guidance.

Sometimes I have a song in my mind which keeps repeating over and over until I notice it. I wonder where it comes from since I did not hear it recently. This is especially remarkable if the song comes up right after waking up in the morning or even in the middle of the night when I go to the bathroom.

For me, the song is not audible, but it is in the mind, an earworm.

In my experience, these songs come up even if I have not asked spirit a question before.
The song usually plays on and on, sometimes for days and without any lyrics, until I notice it and get the message.

In order to search the internet for the lyrics, I try to remember at least one line. Sometimes, this endeavor can drive me crazy. But I try to stay patiently with it until I remember something which can be searched on the internet. This is a bit like meditation or trying to recall a dream, meaning that I have to be in a relaxed state to recall something. Too intense concentration and focus as in intellectual tasks would be counterproductive.

What a surprise when I find the lyrics, realize that I did not know them before, and yet they make sense in my current situation!

I write it down in a journal and reflect on it. What is the connection to my current situation? Merely
descriptive? Or does it suggest an action?

Associative writing or the dialogue with the inner voice helps me to find an interpretation.

Sometimes I hear love songs. They take on a totally new meaning. Rather than being about two people who are in love with each other, it becomes all about the courtship and unification between the higher self and my human self who tries to remember her divinity.

To sum it up, with this particular input channel of divine guidance, the challenges are:
-) Noticing it
-) Remembering at least part of the lyrics
-) Interpreting the meaning