Authentic Spiritual Guidance: Practical Guide w/ 7 Methods

What is spiritual guidance?

Why do we seek it?

What blocks our access to this inner knowing?

What internal qualities help us more readily intuit spiritual guidance?

And what practices help us forge a strong connection with our innate wisdom?

We’ll address all the above and much more in the in-depth guide.

Plus, if you’re looking for immediate spiritual guidance, you’ll find a powerful exercise you can use right now.

Let’s dive in …

CONTENTS

What is Spiritual Guidance?

Spiritual guidance is a general term for accessing deeper knowledge and direction.

Spiritual guidance can come from one of two directions:

Externally from another person, diety, “entity,” book, or teaching
Internally from within oneself

How someone interprets spiritual guidance will depend on factors including one’s beliefs, psychological development, and prior conditioning.

Commons Reasons for Seeking Spiritual Guidance

There are many reasons why an individual might seek spiritual guidance. Let’s review the most common ones.

Personal Crisis

Perhaps you’re going through a personal crisis: a divorce, the passing of a loved one, or getting laid off. Maybe you’re struggling with some form of addiction, and the addiction is winning.

Whatever the crisis, the ego feels incapable of handling the emotional upheaval and requires additional assistance.

Crossroads

Maybe you’re looking for life direction at a crossroads: a new career, a major lifestyle change, or a roadblock in your primary relationship.

Significant life changes can create confusion, uncertainty, overwhelm, and anxiety.

Chronic Illness

Chronic physical or mental illnesses can test our limits. Can we heal ourselves? How do we heal ourselves?

Illnesses often provide an ideal opportunity to consult spiritual guidance.

Existential Angst

Existential angst creates a crisis of meaning. It can lead to an existential depression that plunges us into the pit of despair. These existential bouts often occur at midlife (“midlife crisis”). These periods are sometimes called “the dark night of the soul.”

Whatever worked for you up until this point is now of little use. In this potent period of darkness, a deeper spiritual light is needed to guide you out of the darkness.

Seeking Self-Knowledge

While suffering is perhaps the most common reason individuals seek spiritual guidance, it’s certainly not the only one.

There’s often an inner calling—something deep inside us searching for an understanding of oneself and the nature of existence.

This impulse can lead the individual to a method, a spiritual teacher, a series of books, or various teachings. And this knowledge, if authentic, will lead the individual back to oneself.

Different Interpretations of Spiritual Guidance

To avoid confusion, let’s clarify various interpretations of the source of spiritual guidance.

New Age Interpretations

In the New Age literature (and throughout the Web), interpretations of psychic phenomena abound.

Archangels, guardian angels, ascended masters, spirit animals, departed loved ones, light workers, “helper angels,” and spirit guides are some of the many interpretations you might be confronted with.

It’s important to differentiate “spirit guides” from spiritual guidance as we’re using it here. “Spirit guides” suggest external entities that are generally archetypal (see below). Spirit guides don’t necessarily provide spiritual guidance.

Ultimately, in the New Age, there’s a pantheon of characters or entities one can call upon or accidentally access. Many channelers and psychics claim to be in contact with various entities.

It’s worth noting, however, that the ancient traditions caution against accessing this form of guidance.

Traditional Religious Interpretation

From the perspective of many organized religions, the source of all spiritual guidance is ultimately God—a universal force that can manifest both immanently or transcendently.

Monotheistic religions view divinity as a singular source while polytheistic religions view this spiritual essence as a multiplicity (a pantheon of gods).

Depth Psychology Perspective

From the perspective of analytic or depth psychology, the source of spiritual guidance comes from specific archetypes.

Archetypes are semi-autonomous, universal images that exist within the collective psyche.

Spiritual guidance often arises from what psychiatrist Carl Jung called the Wise Old Man or the Sage archetype.

The ultimate expression of spiritual guidance from this analytic understanding is the Self. In this context, the archetypal Self is the organizing principle within one’s psyche.

Insights from the Wisdom Traditions

Although the meaning of the Self may vary, it represents a common theme in the Wisdom traditions, most Eastern philosophies, and depth psychology.

The higher self or Self (capital “S”) is seen as the guiding principle within each of us—the source of infinite wisdom within us.

To better understand the nature of the Self, it’s helpful to contrast it with the ego.

The Ego Versus the Self

The higher (or inner) Self is contrasted with the limited ego.

What is the Ego?

The ego is a complex set of identifications, positions, desires, tendencies, opinions, judgments, and preferences.

Our perceived self-identity—our sense of self—is the ego. It is synonymous with the self (small “s”).

The ego is ultimately a collection of conditioning from early childhood onward. It has a personal storyline from birth to death.

The ego constantly seeks control and is largely driven by emotions, especially desire.

What is the Self?

In contrast, the Self (capital “S”) has no conditioning. It is not personal. It is not limited. Unlike the ego, the Self is not bound by time or space.

The Self is the inner divine center of one’s consciousness. The role of this Center is to guide us. That is, the Self is the source of authentic spiritual guidance.

The wisdom traditions use different terms to highlight the Self. In many traditions, the Self is synonymous with God.

In Taoism, the Self is the Original Spirit or Original Nature. (Again, the original is “unconditioned.”)

In Hindu philosophy, it’s sometimes referred to as Atman or Purusa, which means “The Self which abides in the heart of all things.”¹

How to Access Spiritual Guidance?

From the above distinction between ego and Self, we can briefly explain how to access spiritual guidance:

When the ego is firmly in the driver’s seat, we have limited access to spiritual guidance.

The ego is constantly seeking control. In this constant grasping, the Self remains silent in the background.

In most cases, the Self is drowned out by the ego’s noise—its endless thought stream, emotional flow, and continuous drive for pleasure, comfort, and distraction.

To connect with one’s inner knowing, the ego must take a backseat so we can listen to the Self.

Most approaches to accessing the Self’s spiritual guidance simply require us to:

Pacify the mind,
Calm down,
Become still, and
Listen inwardly.

We’ll cover various specific methods below.

Spiritual Guidance: An Illustration

For a beautiful illustration of what spiritual guidance can look and feel like, watch the following clip from the film The Legends of Bagger Vance.

In this scene, Bagger Vance (the Self) is instructing Rannulph Junah (the ego) on how to “see the Field” (operate from one’s inner knowing).

It’s worth noting that this film is based on a novel by Steven Pressfield who modeled his story on the Bhagavad Gita.

Bagger Vance represents Krishna who guides Junah (Arjuna in the original text) on how to get out of his own way (transcend his ego).

Signs You’re Accessing Innate Spiritual Guidance

How do you know if you’re accessing authentic spiritual guidance? Let’s run through various potential indicators.

Clarity & Purposeful Direction

The clearest signpost that you’re accessing your innate wisdom occurs when you shift from a confused, overwhelmed, or befuddled state to one of pristine clarity.

In that moment of illumination, you know what to do.

This internal spiritual direction or inner knowing provides you with certainty and confidence to take action, sometimes called warrior energy.

Inner Calm

More inner calm doesn’t mean that you’re a Buddha. Instead, after accessing (and following) your inner guidance, your anxiety falls away.

When we lack spiritual direction, there’s often an underlying anxiety, a pervasive internal tension. We know something is wrong, but we can’t necessarily articulate it.

Oftentimes, when you receive authentic spiritual guidance, you immediately feel more calm and grounded—even before taking any actions.

Recollecting Projections

When you access innate spiritual guidance you are less prone to seeking answers externally.

That is, instead of placing authority outside of yourself, you begin to tap the life force energy within you.

When we project authority outside ourselves, our energy and attention flow outward.

When we recollect our projections, the direction of our energy and attention turns inward.

The result is a feeling of grounded security and okayness within ourselves.

Resolution

We experience great internal tension when faced with a crisis, illness, existential angst, or any emotional upheaval.

This tension leads to feeling insecure and uncertain, increasing our anxieties and feelings of hopelessness.

When spiritual guidance presents itself it can greatly reduce these feelings (sometimes eliminating them).

It’s as if a huge weight is lifted from us in the presence of an Inner Knowing. The problem may not be resolved yet, but each step forward from this point becomes more manageable.

Common Blocks to Spiritual Guidance

To clarify, inner spiritual guidance is a natural process.

Everyone has access to this innate wisdom.

The challenge is that our programming (ego-mind) from the external world—what the ancient Taoists called “mundane conditioning”—tends to block this innate spiritual guidance.

Consequently, we become cut off from this innate wisdom and get used to directing our attention and energy externally instead.

So now, let’s review some of the common things we unconsciously do (and become) that block spiritual guidance.

Ego Inflation

Ego inflation occurs when the ego believes it is all-powerful or “better than” others. Inflation manifests as grandiosity and arrogance.

An inflated ego lacks humility and thinks IT has all of the answers. As such, an inflated ego has no access to spiritual guidance.

Ego Deflation

Ego deflation occurs when the ego feels “less than” others. It feels “deflated,” small, and therefore insecure.

A deflated ego may have a false sense of humility, but it’s disingenuous.

Ego inflation and deflation go hand-in-hand. For example, a school bully (inflation) runs from his own internal weakness (deflation). He projects his weakness onto others and then seeks to dominate them.

Distraction

One of the most common ways we hijack our innate spiritual guidance is by staying perpetually busy.

Our so-called “digital age” can also be seen as the age of distraction.

Seeking endless distractions in media, food, entertainment, alcohol, games, sports, markets, and work, we ensure our energy is always directed outward.

From one perspective, every moment we look at a blue-lit screen (phones, monitors, tablets) suggests over-stimulation. It’s the surest way to cut ourselves off from Source.

Neurosis

Endless distraction leads to increasing fear, anxiety, and depression (neurosis) as it moves us further from the Self.

Neurosis creates an interlocking web of internal tension that binds up our energy and disconnects us from our Source.

As a consequence, we end up becoming very ungrounded, anxious, and unbalanced.

Without a Center, the wisdom of the Self is always elusive.

Inner Qualities that Promote Spiritual Guidance

Spiritual guidance manifests more effortlessly under the right conditions. So let’s review the inner qualities we can actively cultivate to help promote these conditions.

Receptivity

A closed mind ensures that wisdom from the Self or self-knowledge never enters one’s consciousness.

In contrast, a receptive mind is ready and willing to hear inner guidance.

Interestingly, many of us only become receptive to internal spiritual guidance when our suffering reaches its limits. Then, our inner wisdom can usher in.

Humility

An inflated ego suffering from grandiosity is closed off from the Self. How can any insights or spiritual direction manifest?

With humility, the ego takes a step back and lets inner wisdom shine—if only briefly.

Being humble means that the ego—one’s self-identification—admits it is not the center of the universe or omniscient.

Patience

When we’re experiencing a crisis and deep emotional turmoil, it’s easy to get impatient. We want and need answers. And we want them NOW.

Impatience, however, creates tension. And this tension can hinder our access to spiritual guidance.

Patience is an essential quality that promotes inner spiritual guidance.

Learning to breathe properly and conditioning yourself with correct breathing principles can assist you greatly.

Self-Honesty

Self-delusion blocks our access to the Self. During childhood, all of the qualities, attributes, thoughts, and behaviors deemed unacceptable were swept under the rug.

We cut ourselves off from these attributes, relegating them to what Carl Jung called the Shadow.

Once the shadow is formed, our psyche is split. We perceive ourselves one way while denying other aspects of ourselves. As a consequence, we become dishonest. In fact, we lie to ourselves continuously and daily.

Getting to know your shadow helps heal the split within the psyche which increases one’s level of integrity.

Integrity and self-honesty help us naturally access our inner knowing.

Relaxed

Internal tension blocks the flow of life force energy in the body. When this chi energy stagnates, access to the wisdom of the Self is limited.

When the body and mind are relaxed and alert, the internal energy flows freely, giving us greater access to spiritual guidance.

This can appear like a paradox: we often seek spiritual guidance during periods of upheaval when we are anxious. Yet, inner guidance flows more freely when we are calm and relaxed.

See the practices below to help cultivate relaxed alertness even amid challenging times.

Exercise: How to Access Spiritual Guidance

Below, we cover seven practices for accessing your innate wisdom.

However, if you’re looking for immediate spiritual guidance, you can experiment with the following exercise:

Sit or stand with your feet parallel to your shoulders and firmly on the ground.
Feel the ground beneath your feet.
Lower your gaze to reduce distraction. Keep your eyes open but relax your eyelids.
The crown of your head is upright, extending upward (not dropping forward).
Take a quiet, slow, steady deep breath from your lower torso.
Drop your awareness into the area behind your navel. Allow it to expand like a balloon on each inhale.
Exhale gently (without any effort), feeling your belly deflate like air releasing from an inflatable mattress.
Repeat steps 5 through 7 at least 3 more times.
Place your attention slightly above your head.
Take the position of the Observer (watch the mind instead of identifying one’s thoughts).
Now, ask a question or hold a particular problem you’d like to address in mind.
Tune in, be still, and listen inwardly.

Stay open to experimenting with this process 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. Then, set it aside and return to the exercise.

You might write down in a journal what comes to you. Notice what happens when you follow your inner guidance (over time).

The key is to still your mind, relax your body, and listen inwardly.

Seven Practices That Support Spiritual Guidance

Now, let’s explore practices to help us forge a more direct line of communication with authentic spiritual guidance.

Mandala of Vajradhatu (19th Century)

Centering Methods & Grounding Techniques

Perhaps the fastest and easiest way to access authentic spiritual guidance is by learning how to center yourself.

There are many effective methods to help you move toward the Center.

From the Center, one can access spiritual guidance more effortlessly and spontaneously.

Grounding techniques are another means of calming your mind so you can access innate wisdom.

The most basic form of grounding is to walk or stand barefoot on the Earth for at least 20 minutes.

Immersion in Nature

Another simple yet powerful way to access spiritual guidance is to immerse yourself in nature. Ditch your phone and go for a walk in the woods alone.

Walk until you burn off any anxious energy. That is, when you begin walking, you may still be lost in your thoughts. But if you continue walking, eventually your thoughts will subside.

When your mind becomes more still, slow your pace or find a place to sit. Then, listen to the sounds of nature until that too falls away into the background.

Find that point of inner stillness from which your Spirit emanates. Listen inwardly.

Prayer

Prayer for spiritual guidance can used in two directions:

Outwardly, asking for someone or something to intervene, or
Inwardly for guidance and direction

Some individuals pray to a deity or a spiritual figure like Jesus Christ or the Buddha.

Others direct their prayers to the Self—the wisdom of the Original Spirit.

Prayer done with sincerity, earnestness, and humility can be effective.

Meditation

There are many different forms of meditation from the ancient traditions, but they all share one initial focus: to help quiet the mind.

As we covered above, accessing the Self is difficult when the mind is over-stimulated, anxious, or distracted.

Quieting and stabilizing the mind is highly practical and pays dividends in many areas of your life.

Meditation is another common method for centering yourself to access spiritual guidance.

Here are 21 tips to help improve your meditative training.

Integrative Practices

Integrative practices are methods that support body-mind integration.

Most of us are divorced from our instincts due to early childhood trauma. The body has innate wisdom, however, it can’t be accessed when divorced from the mind.

Two popular integrative practices from the East are qigong and yoga. Both systems can help you open up your body and forge a stronger connection between the body and the mind.

These systems also help you release stored emotional trauma, which enables your life force energy to flow more freely within the body.

One particular practice that I often recommend is called Zhan Zhuang. This ancient standing practice can help you sink your awareness within the body and stabilize your energy so the mind becomes more still.

A useful modern system is called Trauma Release Exercises which also help release emotional trauma.

The body itself has its own internal wisdom. When emotional trauma is dislodged, the body relaxes and the energy flows. Then, this instinctive wisdom can be more readily accessed.

Virtue Cultivation

Virtually all ancient wisdom traditions offered a select set of cardinal virtues.

These virtues are ideal qualities or attributes considered beneficial or morally good for every human being.

The list of universal cardinal virtues includes:

Benevolence
Temperance
Truthfulness
Prudence
Courage
Justice

Cardinal virtues help shield us from vices or what the Buddhists call the “three poisons.” These three poisons are:

Attraction (greed or sensual pleasure)
Aversion (anger or hate)
Delusion (ignorance or confusion)

The three poisons block our access to spiritual guidance while the cardinal virtues align us with it.

Inner Work

Inner work is a set of mind-oriented practices that direct your attention inward to help you heal your psyche.

Two classic Jungian forms of inner work are:

Dream analysis
Active imagination

With dream analysis, you pay close attention to your dreams. Jungians believe that our dreams are messages from a deeper part of us.

Accurately interpreting our dreams helps build consciousness by bridging the gap between our conscious minds and our unconscious.

With active imagination, you dialogue with the archetypes within your unconscious. When looking for direction, you can try to access a part, subpersonality, or archetype that may provide insights.

Both methods can be an effective means of accessing innate spiritual guidance.

Spiritual Guidelines for Daily Life

Everyone’s journey is unique. But universal spiritual guidelines do exist. The following spiritual precepts or principles can apply to all of us.

(This is, by no means, intended to be a definitive or all-inclusive list of spiritual guidelines.)

1 – Do Undo Others …

The standard Golden Rule always applies: do unto others and you would have them do unto you.

Consistently applying the golden rule requires us to get to know our shadow. Only then will our consciousness enable us to observe our unconscious attitudes, thoughts, emotions, actions, and behaviors.

Our hypocrisies, inconsistencies, judgments, and emotional triggers are signs there’s something we don’t see.

But even when we don’t know our shadow, we can still follow the Golden Rule as best we can.

2 – Don’t Harm Anyone

There are many tenets and rules to follow in organized religions. The wording of these rules can be problematic.

For example, “Thou shalt not covet another man’s wife” is a good way to encourage infidelity (if you understand how neurolinguistic programming works).

Instead of creating a long list of “dos” and “don’ts,” great sages like Nisargadatta Maharaj provide only one dictum: don’t harm anyone.

Don’t intentionally harm anyone. From the perspective of universal consciousness, if you harm another, you are ultimately damaging yourself.

3 – Start Where You Are

It’s easy to get bogged down by could of’s and would of’s—living a life of grief and regret, and stalling any future progress.

Whatever has happened is prologue. You can only start where you are now—taking one step at a time.

See Pema Chodron’s Start Where You Are for more spiritual insights.

4 – Embrace Practice

Self-mastery is a process with many plateaus where sometimes no progress is discernable.

We also all go through four specific stages of learning anything.

Once you understand these four stages, you can embrace specific practices and apply this learning process to multiple arenas, including mind training.

Focused practice leads to incremental improvements and mastery over time.

5 – Accept Uncertainty

Uncertainty and unanswered questions are a part of the Great Mystery.

Get comfortable with uncertainty; otherwise, you’ll cling to your fear, continuously seek comfort, and abort self-actualization.

As poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, “Live the questions now.”

6 – Stand on the Shoulders of Giants

While this guide is focused on accessing spiritual guidance internally, it’s still supportive to access the spiritual insights of others.

Great mystics and sages have walked the earth since the beginning of recorded time.

Much of their knowledge is available to us in transcribed dialogues and books.

But here too, allow spiritual guidance from within to direct you to the teacher(s) most suited for you.

Enjoy the journey!