How do you listen within? How do you begin to center yourself and hear the deeper messages trying to come from within you? 

These are questions I have asked myself many times over the years. On my personal journey toward an authentic connection to my innermost self, I have taken many paths. Some were more difficult than others. Some were not as helpful as others. Some require little effort, and some require significant effort. On my personal journey, I realized the “right path” is not always linear or clear. Perhaps many of you are struggling to find the right path toward an authentic connection and cannot seem to find a path that feels aligned with your goal. 

On today’s walk, I pull from my years of academic and experiential education to share with you a few ways to start this practice and navigate your journey toward an authentic connection with your innermost self by giving you some guidance that worked for me in the hope that the lessons I’ve learned on my journey to an authentic self will help you find the path to yours.

In This Episode

Notable Quotes

• “What’s important here is to recognize that the body is always talking to us through sensations - through feelings, even those feelings of tension and stress. The body is trying to communicate with you and the body holds extraordinary intelligence and wisdom that it’s trying to bring to the surface. We’ve got to slow down long enough and bring our awareness to it. So to spend time to really begin to feel into whatever it is that is present within your body. To feel for where there is comfort and where there is discomfort; where there is ease and where there is strain. Where do you feel expanded and where do you feel constricted, whatever that might be. It might even be a little knot in your muscles. It might be a creak in your neck. It could be any number of different things. But just take time to scan the body and get present to what is there right now.” - Luke (2:52) 

• “The heart communicates best when it is in what is called a coherent state...meaning a natural, peaceful, balanced rhythm that allows our body to be in a more restorative and generative state of being…When we are in this state, there is a different level of fluid connection between the heart and the brain. They are coherent. They are in balance. And, therefore, they are communicating more fluidly and intuitively and not as many distractions are getting in the way. Which is why we wanna ask the questions in this type of a present state - a coherent state. So to ask questions like this: “what is it that you are truly longing for? What sorrow do you feel for the world, your family, or your communities? What joy or beauty or love do you feel for the world, your family, loved ones, or community? What do you wish for me to see, to feel, or to know? What is it that you know that I need most right now? What might most support me at this time?” And you can even ask your heart, “What would you ask of me? What would you have me do?” You can ask any number of questions of your heart that can take you deeper and deeper into your experience.” - Luke (12:43)

Resources & Links

On This Walk