I recently watched a video of Carolyn Myss discussing how guidance works. She shared how she returned from teaching overseas and walked into her New Hampshire farmhouse only to feel that she could no longer live there. This house had been her home for ten years. Without taking her coat off, in twenty-two minutes flat, she had arranged for a neighbor to help her pack, her brother to fly down and drive a moving van, and asked her mother if she could stay with her until she decided where her next home would be. That’s guidance. It starts with a thought and then the floodgates open. Some of those thoughts may lose momentum, but not before we are cognizant of a new direction.
Jay Shetty, a digital creator and life coach, mentioned in one of his Instagram posts that he could not decide which of his ideas he should focus on as he felt like he had so many that he wanted to explore. His mentor advised him to explore them all and went on further to say that the universe would show him which ones he should continue to develop, and which ones would no longer be viable.
Most people think that there is a lot of fanfare around receiving guidance, but that is not really how it works. Yes, there are times that we experience miracles and receive a message that has major implications in our lives, but mostly guidance is meant to move each of us along a path of joy. The inspirations we receive are meant to increase our vibration by supporting our happiness. How do we know when the guidance is real and will lead us into our stream of goodness? Intuition is unique to each of us and requires that we hone our understanding of it through trial and error. I’ve been vacationing in Europe for the last 10 days. My partner and I decided to go with the flow and let our guidance determine the countries we explore, the places we stay, and the activities we embark upon. We had a rough idea of where we would start and just let stars direct us from that point forward. Our adventure began in Milan. From there we headed south by train to Genoa. After a few days in the city, we woke up one morning feeling like we should head to the Italian Riviera. He stumbled into a great deal at an amazing castle surrounded by a park overlooking a couple of bays. It provided the sanctuary we both needed after being in the hustle and bustle of cities. I really needed the slower pace of life, the warmer weather, and time to simply watch the seagulls soar. Sestri Levante restored me. How did my guy know? As he looked at the destinations offered, his physical body relaxed when he read the location of The Grand Hotel Dei Castelli. This is one way he uses his intuition when traveling.
Onward to Paris via Geneva, Switzerland. In Geneva most people speak both English and French. This gave me the opportunity to ease back into the French language. I started off pretty rough but began working out the kinks as the French vocabulary made its way back into my conscious mind. This experience also provided an epic fail moment as I learned traveling by rail through the Swiss Alps knocks my body out of equilibrium. Not my best moment. Refusing to let a little motion sickness stand in the way of our journey, we again ventured by train to Paris. I barely held it together for that leg. My tarot card spread indicated I should fly, but I ignored its wisdom. Once in the Gare de Lyon, we were thinking about yet another train to get us to the airport to pick up a car, but this time I let my body have a say. She demanded we take a taxi to Charles de Gaulle airport to pick up our reserved rental car instead. This time I heeded her advice and it proved to be fortuitous as we spent the half hour ride asking our cab driver several questions that would help us to navigate driving in France. (Are you catching on to the rhythm of universal flow?) As I explored our hotel options, my body responded with enthusiasm to a chateau in Chantilly. Just looking at the photos and then reading the description made my choice pretty easy as I could feel my eyes zero in on a particular place and then my body felt excited and happy about the prospect of staying there. This is incidentally how I shop for produce. I let my eyes draw my attention to the fruit and veggies my body wants to consume and then I notice how my body feels when I hold the produce. The produce is always the most flavorful when I go this route. As it turns out it works equally well for choosing hotels. We booked it and have spent the last two days recovering from the train rides and enjoying the solitude of nature. Our hotel even had bikes we could ride into town giving our bodies a little exercise. Here, fewer people know English, so my rusty French is now getting well oiled. Lucky break? (The universe might know what she’s doing after all.)
This entire adventure has been a clashing of two worlds. I am rediscovering the part of myself that fell in love with a country, her people, and their culture in high school and am now introducing her to the love of my life. He loves it when I speak French! The world is opening up to me again. I am typing this article on the veranda with a demi bouteille (half bottle) of wine from the town Saumur, one of my favorite places that I visited over 30 years ago. My love of travel inspired by my father and supported by my partner pulls me back into my flow, a place I never intend to leave again.
This is my guidance in action taking me right into my flow. Being in your flow is not having a travel itinerary. It’s a willingness to work from suggestions that lead you to the people and places that will support whatever journey you are on. The way the world responds to you will let you know if you should continue moving in that direction or change course. Trust that your spirit recognizes these signs and that the universe will continue to drop breadcrumbs, hoping you will be hungry enough to consume them and search for more. Postscript: As we pack up to travel to our next destination, we hear our new neighbor (the four legged variety) expressing his discontent of being left alone. Looks like we’re leaving in the nick of time. How’s that for right timing?!
Comments