Are you ready to cast your soul's vote?

Are you ready to cast your soul’s vote?Election season is upon us, our mailboxes are overflowing with campaign literature and the polls will soon be open - are you ready to cast your soul’s vote?  And I’m not talking political parties here, people.First question, are you a telemarketer of your own feelings?  Do you find yourself taking a poll of friends and family before making decisions?  Do you hop on the phone to enlist the help of your emotional support staff?  And so the polling begins…What do you think I should do…what do you think this means…do you agree, what would you do?  The real question is, what does it matter -- this is your life and you are the one who will live with the consequences of your choices.  What’s with the polling in the first place?  The more we look outward for answers, the further we move away from our unique gifts and abilities to tap into our own deeper selves, to honor our soul.  It’s like wandering off the path in the wrong direction.Decision-making is not about popular demand.  Listening to your own inner guide and soul’s voice isn’t a popularity contest – or about the majority rules.  Note to self – you are the majority.  While we all want to be loved and accepted, to go with the flow and not ruffle feathers along the way – we already have the answers within us that we are looking outward for.  Deciding to turn right or to turn left with our life choices must resonate from deep within, despite the solicited (or unsolicited) opinions of others, no matter what anyone else thinks.Let’s face it – on some level we all perceive ourselves as possessing great problem-solving skills when it comes to someone else’s life, especially with our own families and close friends.  We are chock full of ideas in that arena.  We have strong opinions and self-righteous judgments, but what about getting back into our own backyards and redirecting our energies?  Since when did this become about public opinion to begin with – when did we decide that opening our decision-making up to a roundtable discussion become a good idea?We have forgotten much of what we already know.  As we stray from our instincts we dull ourselves down.  We have forgotten how to sit with our feelings – how to simply ask ourselves what is the emotion that is popping up, and going further, to push through it and mull over the “why.”  Why is it showing up in this moment, and what is its gift and higher purpose?When I ignore my own intuition, I can see the bright light dim, like a bulb running on empty, about to flicker out.  There’s no faking-out intuition – she’s savvy, demanding and will not be ignored.  She cuts through BS in a nanosecond.  Oh and the other thing…she’s not perfect, she doesn’t have everything wrapped up neatly in a pretty bow, she isn’t June Cleaver or Martha Stewart making everything look pretty on the outside.  On the contrary – she is all the pieces and parts that come together to inform the whole – the fears, the failures, the rejection, the shame, the guilt and the shadows.  Sometimes things are messy.The perceived unflattering aspects of ourselves, the ones we would much prefer to bury away deep within, never to see the light of day – cannot be contained forever.  It is through our humanness and the acknowledgment and acceptance of ourselves, that we become our most vibrant selves.  It is through the acceptance of ourselves in entirety, that we can love the whole and live authentically.  It is through the sharing of the realities, not the fantasy depictions of ourselves, that we heal as a collective.  You can’t have it both ways – it’s not a restaurant buffet that you get to choose from.  The whole kit and caboodle is yours.  Accept it, unsavory bits and all.It takes too much effort to harbor these unwanted bits.  As a matter of fact it takes more energy to hide these parts of ourselves, than it would to face the fear of exposure.  Denial doesn’t make them go away.  Like the boogey man hiding in the closet or underneath the bed, when brought to the light of day, their power over us dissipates into thin air.  Our fears feed upon our desire to hide them.  Denial is like heroin to fear.  Think of the amount of time you could reclaim back in your energetic life, if you just stopped denying these parts of yourself.  What if you got down on your knees, flashlight in hand, and took a good look under the bed – all the way down into the darkest corners and through the dust balls – shedding some light, calling them out one by one.  What if, instead of choosing to deny these aspects of yourself, you had compassion for yourself instead?  And rather than punishing yourself in this darkness where you are most vulnerable, insecure, afraid and possibly even cruel, you were to greet them with compassion, knowing that in the end, these are simply the parts that want to be loved.  It becomes a game-changer.So what are you waiting for?  Are you willing to expose yourself, to reveal these parts of you previously suppressed and hidden away?  Start by acknowledging them.Are you willing to stand up for your own inner compass and defend it ferociously? Betraying our own voice is the most egregious offense against self.  So how do we flex this muscle – it begins with true conversation, showing up and owning it.  Only when we tell the truth through compassion, not condemnation, can we be healed.  There’s no faking here.

“If we do not heal that story, it is easy to become the very thing we despise.”

- Zainab Salbi

There are times in our lives we need to make decisions, not due to their popularity, but rather their resonance with our calling – from the place of knowingness.  The more we dull these instinctual gifts, the lower the frequency we operate on.  Playing it safe in life, going with the flow, is not necessarily being aligned with our missions.  We are not meant to play small or to conform to the ideals of others.  We are meant to play big and to shine.  And within this transformation, we can go inward and reactivate our true purpose from a new perspective.  I think I see a big bold blank white canvas ahead.  So what are you going to paint on it?Are you going to take a survey about what colors to use or cast a vote for your own inner goddess?

“Dare to speak goddess not English!”

-Sera Beak