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Your Inside Voice Lesson
I recently had the opportunity to test the very material I have spent the past year writing about. I had hired a specialist to help me deepen the process content of my book to make it more "marketable," and I approached our two-day intensive full of enthusiasm.
One day into our session, I woke up in the middle of the night, with a voice screaming at me, "This is not your process! It's not right! It doesn't fit the vision of your book!" The voice came from deep inside me, and I lay awake the rest of the night trying to understand why I was having such a strong reaction to the new process.
Of course the voice was my inside voice-the voice of my intuition-that "gut feeling" or inner knowing that exists deep in all of us if we'll only listen. Your inside voice is the one that knows who you are. It's the opposite of your ego voice, which focuses on who you think you should be. Unfortunately, even when we hear our inside voice, we don't always trust it-or want to hear it. It's easier to get caught up in the desperate, fearful voice of the ego. And my ego kept saying, "You have to do it. You're paying a lot of money for her expertise, so just get over it."
When I discussed my concerns with the expert, she insisted that for the book to be "marketable," I had to do it her way. So when I got home, I tried hard to force the new process into my book, second-guessing my persistent inside voice the whole time.
After a week of struggle, I finally acknowledged that my inside voice was telling me the truth: I could not write a process that wasn't mine. I expended a lot of unnecessary time and energy by not listening to my inside voice immediately, but you don't have to. The next time you feel uncomfortable-when something doesn't feel right but you don't know why-close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and ask, "What is going on with me right now?" And then listen for your inside voice lesson.
Warmly,
Diane
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