Quieting the Chattering Mind

Be Receptive To the Guidance of Your Soul

Be Receptive To the Guidance of Your Soul

– Connecting with Your Higher Self for Life Advice

Read Be Receptive To the Guidance of Your Soul blog post by Genevieve Gerard

Recently in a discussion with one of my coaching clients, we explored how to access the guidance and wisdom of your Soul for practical advice.

She was seeking revelation about the life challenges she was currently facing. She thought to receive this kind of clear information was the practical application of spirituality. My client insisted this desire is the reason that spirituality has relevance.

This conversation made me consider her point of view. Particularly, I wondered, what can you do to enhance and empower receiving guidance and direction from your Higher Self? Of equal importance, is the question what can interfere with receiving Soul guidance in your life? That led me to consider the process of receiving guidance and direction from your Soul as a practical real-life issue.

I believe your Soul is not only a part of you but it also a partner in your life. It has a vested interest in helping you learn and grow. However, from the perspective of your personality, the way that it provides the situations and circumstances from which you learn and grow are often not what you want. It is not always clear what is right or best to do.

You learn and grow in so many different ways. This issue seems to need some clarification. In my many years of life coaching, I have led individuals through many meditations in which they reached their Soul for guidance. There are some patterns I have observed. What is most revealing is how much of the preparation for the meditation is just a litany of what the seeker wants or more importantly what they don’t want.

I find it significant that often the answer that emerges as received in meditation is just a repetition of their hopes and desires that were expressed while preparing to meditate. That seems to be a clear signal that it is not the direction of the Soul they received, but rather their desires and their attachments speaking. In considering this result, I am reminded of the words of My Fair Lady, “she’ll listen very nicely then go out and do precisely what she wants.” It is all too easy to project your attachment and desire and then, because you meditated, assume that you have contacted and listened to the wisdom of your Soul.

Not only is this true but in the process of having asked for guidance, it is easy to have the expectation that your Soul is now responsible for what happens. The logical conclusion of this “magical thinking” is that the role of the Soul is to be a kind of “Fairy God Mother” who manipulates the world of matter to make your life easier and more compatible with your desires. I believe this is simply not true.

You can see this kind of “magical thinking” all over the internet and especially on Facebook with the number of abundance posts in which you are asked to type “Yes” to a positive meme graphic about prosperity or miracles. The implication is that by simply typing “Yes” you need only to sit back and receptively wait for the miracle you desire to happen.

This kind of “magical thinking” is a misunderstanding of the Law of Abundance and the principle that “energy follows thought.” It is no wonder that people become discouraged and confused.

What is missing in this kind of “magical thinking” is the role and responsibility of the personality. Whereas it is true that “energy follows thought” it is important to understand that this vital principle is not something you just turn on when you type “Yes” or “Amen” in response to a photo with an inspirational statement; then turn off all of the other thoughts in your mind.

What you do makes a difference. Your dreams, your thoughts, your plans and your goals are all an integral part of success.

Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.
           – Napoleon Hill

Indeed, meditation helps you to harness the power of your mind. Likewise, the “Law of Attraction” is activated and enhanced by all of the “Positive Mental Attitude” techniques you may use and employ. However, if you do these things only intermittently; that is exactly how they will work, intermittently.

If you ask, affirm or pray for abundance because you are afraid, you are using these principles to fuel the manifestation of what you fear. This is true even when you pray if what is in your mind while you are praying is fear. Worrying, I have often said, is like praying for what you don’t want. Saying a prayer in desperation without surrendering to Divine Will is an attempt to manipulate God. I don’t think that is how it works.

Likewise, typing “yes” for abundance while thinking about your fears and what is lacking in your life sends a mixed message. That mixed message is most often what you most often see manifesting in your life.

Asking For Guidance

This same principle is involved when you ask for guidance from your Higher Self. You have to stop your negative thoughts, your fear, and your worries. Otherwise, your personality will create from its litany of your concerns what you don’t want. You will not be able to hear anything at all from your Higher Self. Your mind chatter drowns out the still soft prompting of the voice of your Soul. To open yourself to the wisdom and guidance of your Soul or God in prayer requires surrender and a willingness to receive direction and guidance that may be very different from what you want.

To become more aware of how your fears and worries are controlling your unconscious requests is important. The power of your mind automatically responds to all of your thoughts. It responds to your wishes, and it responds to your fears. “The Law of Attraction” and the principle that “energy follows thought” do not have a shut-off valve. It is on 24-7.

That energy follows your thought works with every positive affirmation. It also works with every meditation of intention. However, it also engages with every fear and worry that crosses your mind. Therefore, it is important to understand that what you are thinking is constantly creating what is manifesting in your life.

For this reason, it is crucial for you to be aware of your thoughts and value and respect the co-creative power that they have.

Meditation is a powerful tool to help you use your mind to live the life you desire by gaining mastery over your mind. To help you increase your awareness of what you are asking the universe to provide, I recommend that you do a technique I call the “detached observer.” If you follow my work and my writings you that will note that this is not the first time that I have recommended this technique. This technique is not a meditation but what I call a meditative technique.

Detached Observer Technique

 

One technique that I have found valuable in my own practice and in my years of coaching and counseling people is that you begin just by self-observation.

I recommend starting with committing just 3 minutes a day to consciously observe your thoughts. When you observe a negative or fear-based thought flash through your mind, edit it, correct it and replace it with a conscious thought of what you want and are striving to manifest in your life.

This self-observation, edit, correct (with intention) and replace technique is most important and empowering when what crosses your mind is a fear. To do this consciously and with intention is best achieved in a meditative state while aligning with your Higher Self and focusing on your life’s purpose. In this alignment, you have a greater vision.

This technique is best done free of self-judgment or criticism (each of which works against achieving positive thoughts to replace the negative and fear-based chatter of the “Monkey Mind.”)

I refer to this as a meditative state because it is not really meditation, but as you are seeking to consciously align with your Soul and your Soul purpose in life you are in a higher state of consciousness and keener awareness than just thinking. So this exercise of observation from the perspective of the “detached observer” is a bridge between normal uncontrolled and casual thinking and meditation.

This can be a powerful and transforming technique. As I mentioned I recommend starting with this technique 3 minutes every day. That may seem very short but if you really consider and catch most of your negative thoughts to edit, and revise and replace the thought, you will have made a huge step forward in your ability to harness the power of your mind and learn to quiet the chattering mind. This simple (although sometimes not easy) step is important in learning to meditate and to empower your life.

In teaching this technique to my coaching clients, most have observed that a daily practice of this technique begins major transformation in their lives.

I suggest that you start out using this method for 3 minutes a day for 30 days. Three minutes of your day is not very much. However, three minutes is enough to demonstrate my point. Three minutes is sufficient to describe the energy you are sending out.

 

Harnessing the power of your thoughts and making them serve you, while very simple is not always easy. Your mind functions in a multilevel way with ideas so rapid and diverse it is like catching quicksilver.

Throughout the eons of teaching meditation, helping the student gain control of what is often called “The Monkey Mind” or the “Chattering Mind” has been the goal.

In fact, the extended periods of meditating on the ‘no thing,’ ‘the void,’ ‘the sound of one hand clapping’ and other techniques that I learned in my early days of meditation, all seemed to be focused on learning to quiet your chattering mind.

Likewise, mantras repeated serve the same purpose. Similarly, the repetitive phrases of awareness that are taught in mindfulness meditations serve the same goal; they teach you to focus your thoughts and wrestle control from the chatter. Using guided meditations serve the same purpose. They are certainly easier than focusing on the “no-thing” or “the void.”

ATS Affirmations For Abundance CD-MP3 by Genevieve Gerard

 

Check out my Awaken to Success CD or MP3’s, which give you 21 positive affirmations for abundance. Use these to empower yourself to create the life of your dreams.

 

All are techniques to focus your thoughts in the desired direction you choose for your consciousness. Guided meditations are an effective and efficient way to harness the power of your mind to help you create the life and experiences you desire. Focusing on a problem with a focused intention on a daily basis can be transforming. The issue of regularity and repetition are key elements in using meditation to change your life.

Daily meditation need not be an arduous process. Moreover, although in my early days of meditating I was instructed to meditate for 30 minutes to an hour daily, I have found over the last 48 years that daily meditation consistently applied with intention is more important than the time spent.

When I create a guided meditation experience, I strive to capture the essence of the subject that I focus on in a 10 to 20-minute session. In meditation, it is quality rather than quality that counts.

The process of quieting your mind chatter enables you to receive the still prompting guidance of your Higher Self. Likewise, to be receptive to the wisdom of your Soul, it is important to cease your attachment to what you desire or expect in order to open your heart and your mind. Ponder on this.

This dual process of quieting your mind as much as possible and surrendering your personal will and desires to be receptive to the guidance you are receiving are crucial steps in receiving advice from your Higher Self.

We must let go of the life we have planned,
so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.
           – Joseph Campbell

I also recommend that if you are seeking the wisdom and direction of your Soul in your life that you set aside at least 10 minutes a day, regularly to meditate on that very subject. Then apply the technique of the detached observer by revising and reframing every negative thought, aligning it with what you feel your Higher Self is directing you to. Do these meditations with as much of an attitude of surrender to Divine Will as you are able.

I further recommend that you follow your “asking” time with a reflective and receptive time that you write in a spiritual journal. This combination of meditation and journal entry will increase the effectiveness of your request.

You Higher Self, your Soul, is available to you. When you can quiet your desires, your fears and listen to your Souls wisdom and guidance, it becomes a partner on your life journey, and your life journey becomes your spiritual journey.

 

Namaste,
Genevieve

The blessing of love on all that you do!

 

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Last updated 2-04-2018

 

Copyright © 2016-2018 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC, All Rights Reserved.

 

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Into The Silence

Into the Silence: Ways To Calm Your Mind

Read Into The Silence article by Genevieve Gerard

It is in the silence that we can hear the still quiet promptings of our Soul.

It is in the silence that the Peace that Passes Understanding is Revealed.

It is when we enter into the silence that we can hear the voice of God.

The silence is a full and fertile experience opening us to an inner world that the noise of the world drowns out, and the chattering of our mind obscures.

We are instructed in the Bible to “Be still and know that I am God.” For many, perhaps for you, that stillness is hard to achieve.

To experience that silence and that deep stillness is the purpose of meditation. The portal to meditation opens when you calm your mind, open your heart and invite the Light. Each guided meditation that I have created over the years begins with the instruction to calm your mind, open your heart, invite the Light.

However, as I move through my life I hear people say, repeatedly, that they find it difficult to meditate. It seems that for many it is the first part of that injunction “Calm the Mind” that is so challenging. It makes sense then that how to teach a meditator to experience a calm mind has been the work of sages, yogis, and gurus since there have been teachers on the path to enlightened awareness.

For many people, the chatter generated in their minds drowns out the silence. This “chattering” is anything but calming for all too often it is jammed with fears, negative self-judgment, and criticism. It is liberally laced too with the unfulfilled expectation of both themselves and others.

The silence of a calm mind may seem out of reach to you. The mind’s chatter, although you are sitting quietly, may be anything but silent. This is why the regular practice of meditation is so important. It begins to school the mind that your meditation time is a sacred space and a safe space to give the chatter of your mind a rest.

It is in the silence of the calm mind and the open heart that the guidance of the Soul and Presence of God can be experienced. There are many ways that we can move toward that calmness of mind. What way you choose at any given moment of time can be varied and responsive to the events and circumstances in your life when you choose.

 

HOW LONG SHOULD I MEDITATE?

What seems significant is that you set aside the time and have the desire and intention to calm your mind, open your heart and invite the Light. It does not have to be a long period of time that is set aside. Ten to fifteen minutes a day would make a great difference in your life. You do not have to go away from the world as the holy men of ages past did to achieve enlightenment. You can learn to meditate and receive the many benefits and blessings of meditation right where you live and in the midst of your busy life today.

Now some may say, “I don’t have time to meditate every day.” The old wisdom response to that is to say,

If you don’t have time to meditate every day,
then meditate 2 times a day.”
        – Anonymous

If you don’t think you can take the time, take that as a sign that you can benefit even more than others from meditation.

I suggest and encourage at least a daily practice of meditation because the health benefits and the consciousness and prospective benefits are best incorporated into your life with consistency and continuity. Whereas any technique of meditation when practiced regularly can positively and dramatically transform your life, some you will find easier than others to help you experience the calmness of mind and dampening of mind chatter that is desired.

In my teaching, I found that guiding people in a meditation and focusing their minds on a particular awareness is most effective. That is why I have created so very many guided meditations.

 

Check out Grounding Arrow MP3 by Genevieve Gerard

 

A great beginning guided awareness meditation to reconnect and rebalance you to your life force and create peace and calm is my Grounding Arrow Meditation. It can be done in the quiet of your home or while walking.

 

Click here to >>>Get More Info About This Meditation.

 

 

To choose to meditate, to set aside the time with the intention and the desire to calm your mind, open your heart and experience the Light of your Soul or to hear the still quiet voice of God is what is important. How you do it is not as important. That you take the time is of paramount importance.

 

WHAT WORKS?

I found over the many years that I have practiced daily meditation that one technique or another best suits an individual day, situation or circumstance. Personally, I have changed meditation methods frequently. Although it is human nature for someone to think that their way is the only way, I suggest that within you is wisdom that can direct your choices, that of your Higher Self. In the world are a myriad of instructions and a wide variety of products to choose from. Some are free and some charge a fee. Some techniques are very simple and easy. Others require deep understanding. What works for you is best revealed with experimentation.

Any time you have, at the conclusion of the meditation time experienced, a greater calmness of your body, your emotions or your mind you have gained a great deal. The more often you open yourself to that experience, even if it is in the brief period it takes to think an affirmation or a seed thought, you are opening your life to a richer and deeper awareness.

In addition to guided meditation, using a mantra as either an invocation and evocation, or a repetition of a specific thought focus, or saying an affirmation are all effective tools. Pondering Koans (stories used by Zen masters to instruct on important consciousness points), saying Psalms, repeating a rosary or repeating a favorite prayer in your mind are also meditative experiences. Although there are subtle differences between the experience of prayer and meditation a prayer can often be used to quiet the mind sufficiently to bring you into the receptive part of a meditation experience, the silence.

The use of prayer beads that help followers use repetitive prayers or statements as a mantra are also a way to help you to meditate. Repetitive movements with repetitive thoughts are all ancient ways to meditate. The repetition of a Psalm or prayer is a form of coming into alignment with your Soul, as is chanting. Whatever the language used or technique employed it is the intention to open your mind and your heart to the presence of the Divine and open up to your Soul’s Light that makes the transformation happen.

Within you is a wisdom that will direct your path if you only open your heart and your mind to its Presence. You may have noticed that I often direct you in my writings to tune into that Presence and refer to it as the Soul or your Higher Self. I do this because not only are the health benefits of meditation well documented by science but there are very few things you can do in life that has as powerful and profound a positive influence as meditation, on your health or on your ability to be successful.

 

SOME SIMPLE MEDITATION TECHNIQUES

A very simple technique would be to declare your intention by affirming and saying:

I am of calm mind,
as I open my heart,
I invite the Light “
        – Genevieve Gerard

Then just sit in the silence, quietly and reflectively.

Of course, there is much more you can do and add to the experience but your intention to have a meditative experience once you have set aside the time is a first step. Then you can add other techniques, guided meditations, repetitive mantras, affirmations, prayers or whatever of the vast array of what is offered in the world that you feel guided to.

In a recent article, I discussed the power of an “I Am” statement. You can create a mantra to repeat in your mind out of “I Am” that defines the Presence you wish to experience that day.

Examples would be:

  • I Am Love

  • I Am Peace

  • I Am Joy

It is in the silence, the time to limit the input of your mind’s chatter as much as possible and in the quiet removal from the world’s input, that the magic of meditation happens. There are some who have created audio meditations where the sound is scientifically modulated (alpha, theta, and the deepest delta waves) to bring you into a specific meditative experience. These are helpful for some people as a way of conquering the mind chatter and putting you in a meditative state.

 

TAKE THE TIME TO MEDITATE

Because for me meditation has been the portal to joy and love, insight, and understanding and a sense of harmony and union with God and all of life, I encourage you to set aside the time to have a meditative experience. You can start the practice now.

I do encourage regularity. The repetition helps your mind calm as it recognizes that this is the time to be calm, too quiet the chattering mind, to tune in and receive insight.

This then becomes a sacred time as you acknowledge and recognize:

This is the time to be still.

This is the time to let yourself just be.

This is the time to open your heart to the expansion of love.

This is the time to be open to the guidance of the Light of your Soul
and the promptings of the Divine.

Taking this time is a gift you can give yourself that will repay you with blessings beyond measure. To be touched by the Presence of your Soul or to hear in the silence the voice of God guiding you, loving you or comforting you is the gift that meditation can give.

This time, set aside by you is for you and will be a blessing that can transform your life empowering you to be and become all that you are meant to be.

Namaste,

   Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on all that you do!

 

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Last updated 11-26-2018

 

Copyright © 2014-2018 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC. All rights reserved.

 

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Quieting the Chattering Mind

Quieting the Chattering Mind

by Genevieve Gerard

Meditation is practiced for many different reasons and purposes. One among these is to quiet the mind of the endless chatter in which an undisciplined mind engages. This chatter is usually negative self thought that creates negative feelings. The mindless chatter is filled with unfulfilled desires and critical judgments of the self, with “should have,” “could have” and “ought to” as repetitive phrases. This chatter goes on and on, never being satisfied with what is because it is always focused upon desires that are based on imagined ideals. These imagined ideals are created and fed by popular music, movies, advertisements and impressions of what it believes to be going on in the life of others.

This chatter can destroy the chance for peace and true happiness, because in the constant noise that focuses on what “should be,” the fullness of what is happening is missed. Feelings of despair can be generated as the mind compares real life to these fantasy ideals. In the noise of the chatter, moments that offer the opportunity for joy or peace are drowned out by the criticism of one’s life, that there aren’t more of these moments of joy or peace.

The nature of this mindless chatter is to never be satisfied. If something wonderful happens the mind can quickly becomes fearful of the loss of the wonderful moment, thus diminishing, and ultimately blocking the experience of joy. The mind chatters on and on, “Why can not every moment, person or event be this wonderful? Why must I loose this?” On and on the mind spins discontent, even in the happy events of life, judging each experience and fearing that unhappiness is lurking behind every joy. As this chatter fills the mind it obliterates from the consciousness the experience of the moment.

Through the practice of meditation the mind becomes free to experience the moment. In the moment, joy can emerge to be experienced and appreciated. In the awareness of each moment feelings of deep peace can replace the feelings of discontent that the mind chatter manifests.

The longer one can quiet the mind the deeper and fuller this experience becomes. At first one might only be able to quiet the mind for a brief moment, but that moment is a timeless celebration of what is. The Soul is freed and the spirit soars. In the peace within, the mind is able to experience an awareness of life in all of its fullness. For even in just a moment without the nagging distraction of the mind’s chatter one can glimpse the incredible freedom and power of living in the moment.

There are a myriad of meditation techniques that have been employed for thousands of years to teach quieting the mind so that the aspiring student can experience the moment. In just one moment in which one can fully be in the moment rests the wisdom of the sages and the wisdom of the ages. Once you have found your way into that moment you can begin to assert the mastery of your Higher Self over your lower mind and come to know the joy, the peace and the freedom that are available to you.

The lower mind, the chattering mind, will struggle to stay in control of you and your life. A combination of the practice and discipline of meditation will teach you to quiet the mind over the objections, tricks and distractions the lower mind will offer. Each moment of quiet you achieve is its own reward. And with practice and discipline you can extend the quiet, bringing you joy and the fullness of life.

About the author: Genevieve Gerard teaches Transformational Consciousness – from first awakening to enlightened awareness. She helps you experience the joy that results from the spontaneous “touch of the soul.” Browse her body of work at www.GenevieveGerard.com.

Copyright © 2009 & 2011 Genevieve Gerard

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