Honoring Your Internal Whispers
This week I’m thinking about those whispers we all have inside. What are they saying? What happens when we follow them? What happens when we don’t?
You know those internal whispers – the ones that tell you what you want, what makes you miserable, and what you really want to change but are scared to do. Those whispers that say, “I reallllly want to do this”or “I can’t f*cking stand this for another day!!”
This week I’m thinking about those whispers we all have inside. What are they saying? What happens when we follow them? What happens when we don’t?
You know those internal whispers – the ones that tell you what you want, what makes you miserable, and what you really want to change but are scared to do. Those whispers that say, “I reallllly want to do this”or “I can’t f*cking stand this for another day!!”
What happens when you don’t listen to those whispers and just keep on as if they aren’t saying anything? For me, the whispers don’t stop. They don’t give up. They just keep whispering day after day. If I continue not to listen, I notice myself starting to get aggravated, frustrated and testy. My fuse gets shorter and shorter. I want those darn whispers to shut up! Can’t you tell I’m not listening? That doesn’t seem to help either. My energy drops and negative thoughts become more and more prevalent. I mentally defend the very situation that’s making me miserable, just so I don’t have to listen. I get exhausted and worn out from all the efforts.
I heard a saying (from Oprah) that when you don’t listen to an internal whisper, the message gets louder. It becomes a pebble, then a brick, then a wall falling down on you.
In short, if you don’t listen, the situation gets worse and worse until you finally have to pay attention.
This happened in legal career . . . actually, it wasn’t much of a career, more like “a series of jobs” I had in the legal field for about 8 years. Before I realized that work was something I could use to fill my soul, I thought that just getting a different job would satiate the whispers that said, “You want more than this. You should do something else.”
So I would do something else. I got new jobs in different areas of the law that seemed more interesting, paid more money, or were more challenging.
Along the way I was never really excited or passionate, but I did well enough to justify continuing on. It wasn’t until I found myself as an attorney working at a global law firm in New York City that I realized the wall had come crashing down. How I felt in that situation was no longer just a nagging whisper, it was a crushing blow every day. I finally realized it was time to do something about it. In that situation, what I saw myself becoming if I didn’t listen was more scary than the changes I would have to make. I refused to become the cynical, bitter woman hunched over a desk with failing health and no joy that I envisioned in my head.
Does this sound familiar to you? Have you ever waited and waited, ignoring your internal whispers until you were so miserable that there was no option but to finally change something?
Why do we do this to ourselves?! Yes, we humans and our egos and our fears love to maintain the status quo.
It can be so damn hard to change! It takes work, it takes tears, it takes pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone over and over again. It takes time and energy. It takes commitment. It takes charting new territory and being with uncertainty. It takes feeling fear and doing it anyway. It takes faith, trust and hope. It takes guts.
I’m writing this to share what I’ve learned with you, but I’m also writing it for myself. Just because I’ve created a new path in my life and career doesn’t mean that I have it all figured out! I’m walking this path knowing that it is a lifelong path, one on which I can’t become complacent. I can’t even begin to think that I have something 100% figured out – because that’s simply impossible.
I heard a saying (from Oprah) that when you don’t listen to an internal whisper, the message gets louder. It becomes a pebble, then a brick, then a wall falling down on you.
In short, if you don’t listen, the situation gets worse and worse until you finally have to pay attention.
This happened in legal career . . . actually, it wasn’t much of a career, more like “a series of jobs” I had in the legal field for about 8 years. Before I realized that work was something I could use to fill my soul, I thought that just getting a different job would satiate the whispers that said, “You want more than this. You should do something else.”
So I would do something else. I got new jobs in different areas of the law that seemed more interesting, paid more money, or were more challenging.
Along the way I was never really excited or passionate, but I did well enough to justify continuing on. It wasn’t until I found myself as an attorney working at a global law firm in New York City that I realized the wall had come crashing down. How I felt in that situation was no longer just a nagging whisper, it was a crushing blow every day. I finally realized it was time to do something about it. In that situation, what I saw myself becoming if I didn’t listen was more scary than the changes I would have to make. I refused to become the cynical, bitter woman hunched over a desk with failing health and no joy that I envisioned in my head.
Does this sound familiar to you? Have you ever waited and waited, ignoring your internal whispers until you were so miserable that there was no option but to finally change something?
Why do we do this to ourselves?! Yes, we humans and our egos and our fears love to maintain the status quo.
It can be so damn hard to change! It takes work, it takes tears, it takes pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone over and over again. It takes time and energy. It takes commitment. It takes charting new territory and being with uncertainty. It takes feeling fear and doing it anyway. It takes faith, trust and hope. It takes guts.
I’m writing this to share what I’ve learned with you, but I’m also writing it for myself. Just because I’ve created a new path in my life and career doesn’t mean that I have it all figured out! I’m walking this path knowing that it is a lifelong path, one on which I can’t become complacent. I can’t even begin to think that I have something 100% figured out – because that’s simply impossible.
I hear whispers every day. I keep bumping up against my edges. When I don’t listen, the result is always the same.
Memo to self: To live life guided by realness, authenticity and aliveness requires ongoing commitment and engagement to try new things, to go beyond what is known, to step into the unknown and just be willing to play and experiment.
Listen to the whispers and act.
I’m writing this one down.
What whispers are you hearing? What are you going to do about them?
Yours in wildness~~
Lisa
Memo to self: To live life guided by realness, authenticity and aliveness requires ongoing commitment and engagement to try new things, to go beyond what is known, to step into the unknown and just be willing to play and experiment.
Listen to the whispers and act.
I’m writing this one down.
What whispers are you hearing? What are you going to do about them?
Yours in wildness~~
Lisa
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