How to Access Your Inner Guide to Make Better Decisions and Follow Your True Path

When the ancient Greeks needed answers, they consulted oracles.

Oracles were priestly men and women at designated locations, like stone temples, who offered wise counsel and predictions.

The source of this wisdom and predictive power was said to be the gods. That is, the oracles used a form of divination to guide others.

Imagine wrestling with a challenging problem where no clear answer seems to present itself.

Maybe you are considering a new vocation, starting a family, going on an extended trip, or invading a foreign land.

Ready to consult your Inner Guide?

Let’s dive in …

What It Means To Decide

When our minds wrestle with problems, it can be mentally and emotionally draining, leading to fatigue.

Decision-making can be hard work. We don’t know what the decision will mean to us in the future. We often fear we’ll make the wrong decision.

The Latin root of decision means to cut off or kill. To decide is to cut off or kill other options, which our mind dislikes doing.

So we often avoid making difficult decisions. Avoidance, of course, only prolongs our anguish.

Instead of wrestling with indecision, imagine letting an oracle bring clarity to the issue. And because you trust that oracle wholeheartedly, you know he or she will provide proper guidance.

Problem solved. Tension relieved. The challenge is that trusting in an external oracle is precarious and can lead to our undoing …

What is an Inner Guide?

An inner guide refers to a “higher” or “deeper” part of one’s self. In fact, in some traditions, it’s referred to as THE Self.

There are various ways to interpret the meaning of an inner guide.

From one perspective, the “inner guide” is us in our highest form. That is, when you strip away the ego’s prior conditioning, programming, and beliefs, you have a source of innate wisdom found within each of us.

Alternatively, one’s inner guide can be perceived as the archetypal Self, or Sage—the God within.

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung often referred to this archetypal Self as the Wise Old Man. In his active imagination, he met this inner guide in the form of Philemon.¹See Jung’s biography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, and The Red Book.

Philemon guided Jung on many inner adventures. The insights from these inward journeys were the catalyst for his entire body of work.

The Source of the Oracle’s Wisdom

Did the oracle’s wisdom stem from some external source like the gods?

Pythia, the oracle at Delphi, apparently had a pretty good track record; she was considered to be infallible.

From the perspective of depth psychology, we would say these oracles were attuned to their unconscious and perhaps the collective psyche. That is, these ancient intuitives had access to their inner worlds and the inner dimensions of their culture.

This access may have occurred spontaneously or through prescribed rituals. From the oracle’s perspective, the voices and insights they received were likely projected outward.

That is, the idea that were attuned to the archetypal Self may not have been available to them. They lacked the language or differentiation to describe the phenomena that unfolded within themselves.

External Knowledge Versus Inner Guide

It can be comforting and supportive to get outside guidance and wise counsel when problems arise.

Yet, in Abraham Maslow’s study of self-actualizing individuals, he found people with positive mental health are less dependent on others and tend to be more autonomous and self-directed in making life decisions.

Instead of consulting others about their problems, they tend to direct their attention in the opposite direction: inward.

They call on their deeper nature, latent resources, and creative impulses to solve their problems.

Tapping Into Our Deeper Nature

Coming to trust one’s inner guide, however, doesn’t happen instantaneously for many of us.

Much of our inner, more profound nature remains unknown—especially in today’s “modern” world.

Freud suggested that we actively repress our nature because it is feared, disapproved of, and foreign to our conscious egos.

As a consequence, many aspects of our inner nature are forgotten. They are neglected, unused, overlooked, and suppressed.

This process of forgetting begins early in life, mainly as a response to parental and cultural disapproval. This disassociation in our psyche is what creates our shadows.

Instincts Lost and Regained

Before we can come to trust our center, we need to first connect with it and open up to it on a conscious level. That is, we must forge a stronger bond with our unconscious.

As modern folks living in a technological age where many of us live in urban dwellings, we have primarily become divorced from nature and our instincts.

Maslow writes in Toward a Psychology of Being:

Humans no longer have instincts in the animal sense, powerful, unmistakable inner voices which tell them unequivocally what to do, when, where, how and with whom.

At the same time, Maslow continues:

Authentic selfhood can be defined in part as being able to hear these impulse-voices within oneself, that is, to know what one really wants or doesn’t want, what one is fit for and what one is not fit for, etc.

Maslow’s perspective is reminiscent of the ancient Greeks who saw the soul as an internal organizing principle that gives meaning and direction to each life.

Various Paths to Your Inner Guide

There are many practices one can use to begin tapping into these “impulse-voices” and intuitive messages.

Here are a few paths to consider:

Engaging in Inner Work

Carl Jung offered two primary methods to help connect, communicate, and integrate your divine inner center: dreamwork and active imagination.

Both of these methods help bridge the gap between the unconscious and the conscious.

In fact, many forms of inner work can help get us acquainted with our inner voices.

Training in Integrative Practices

Eastern practices like Qigong and Yoga provide integrative methods that connect the body’s instincts with one’s mental capacities.

Philosopher Ken Wilber referred to this body-mind integration as the Centaur.²Wilber, No Boundary, 1979.

In the context of transpersonal psychology and numerous Eastern traditions, this body-mind integration represents a fundamental aspect of human development.

I found an ancient standing practice called Zhan Zhuang to be instrumental in this area.

Immersing Yourself in Nature

One of the reasons “modern humans” are cut off from their instincts and Inner Guidance is because most of us are divorced from nature.

Immersing yourself in a natural setting—void of any technological devices to distract you—can be both healing and restorative.

The more time you spend in nature, the more self-reflection becomes spontaneous. Over time, it can help you reconnect with your instincts.

Learning how to ground yourself on the Earth can be instrumental in this process as well.

Reducing Internal Noise

How can we hope to hear our inner guide when our minds are tuned into an endless thought stream?

This, again, is another sign that the body is divorced from the mind. Living in our minds, our thoughts take center stage. All of our energy and attention goes toward thinking—the conditioned behavior of the conscious mind.

The ancient traditions provided methods to help still and steady the mind without creating internal tension. Learning how to “stop and see” is a vital skill and it’s essential in connecting with the innate wisdom within us.

Inward listening may be the most basic yet highly effective means for reconnecting with our higher soul.

Cultivating this inward listening is often done through mind-training practices.

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With practice and patience, we can begin opening up to an infinite wellspring of inner guidance and wisdom that flows effortlessly.

It can feed our souls and guide us on a meaningful journey throughout our lives.

How to Access Your Inner Guide

Tapping into these “impulse-voices” is a matter of doing the one thing, we as modern people, have all but forgotten to do: be still.

Our inner oracle isn’t difficult to access. It’s available to you right now. It’s being drowned out by our:

• Compulsions to be busy
• Obsession with constant thinking
• Neurotic need to feel in control

To counteract these forces, hear the voice that says you need to keep going—to be “productive” with your time—and then set it aside or let it go.

Then, allow yourself to stop, to pause, and to be.

Slowing down is essential if you want to connect with your inner guide.

An Inner Guide Meditation Exercise

If you have a few extra minutes, access your inner guide right now:

1. Sit or stand with your feet parallel to your shoulders, firmly on the ground.
2. Feel the ground beneath your feet.
3. Lower your gaze to reduce distraction. Keep your eyes open but relax your eyelids.
4. The crown of your head is upright, extending upward (not dropping forward).
5. Take a quiet, slow, steady, and deep breath into your lower torso.
6. Feel the area around your navel expand like a balloon.
7. Exhale gently (without any effort), feeling your belly deflate like air releasing from an inflatable mattress.
8. Repeat steps 5 through 7 a few more times.
9. Place your attention slightly above your head.
10. Take the position of the observer who is watching the mind and its thoughts.
11. Now, ask a question. Or hold a particular problem you’d like to address in mind.
12. Tune in, be still, and listen.

Stay open to experimenting with this from a beginner’s mind. Stay curious and alert. Be patient.

At first, it might feel awkward. You might hear the voice of the inner critic and its endless chatter. Don’t shut this voice out either. Just listen to what it says and then set it aside and return to the exercise.

You might write down in a journal what happens next …

On the Walls of Delphi

Let’s go back to Ancient Greece for a moment.

The term “γνῶθι σεαυτόν” was inscribed in the front courtyard at Delphi.

This Greek term translates to the famous aphorism found throughout the writings of Plato (Socrates):

Know thyself.

More than just an idea or principle, “know thyself” is instruction.

By looking inward and listening, we can begin actualizing this aphorism and locating the oracle within.

Your inner guide is a breath away.

Want to try a technique to access your inner guide in minutes? See The Mastery Method.

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What Do You Think?

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