Aligning with Your Truth

One of the most profound overall healing processes I have experienced with plants medicines has been discovering my truth and coming into greater alignment with it, which I feel is an ongoing process. Embodying my truth has been the key to stepping into more of the potential of my life and the work that I share.

But how to discern truth from the antics of the mind? One exercise has been immensely helpful!

If you sit down for 10 minutes and write every thought that arises in this time, tune into your body as you write, or as you read it afterward.

Which of these thoughts create a feeling of tension and contraction in your body? Which create a feeling of opening and expansion? The latter I have found comprise my personal truth and the perception of my spirit. The thoughts that create tension I have generally found to be that of my mind--its conditioning, trauma, judgment, unserving belief patterns. At times I realize these charges are not even mine-- judgments of those close to me or someone I interacted with that I temporarily identified with as my truth, or something from society I identified with through an article, social media, or an experience I’ve had in the past.

Divine inspiration, in my experience, seems to come spontaneously. I often feel a surge of energy shoot up or down my spine, or in my heart. When this sudden insight comes in the form of an action to take, it is common for the doubts, fears, and insecurities of my mind to tell me that what I received is untrue, I can’t do it, something bad will happen if I follow through, or otherwise somehow discourage me from accepting or implementing it. This chatter is usually accompanied by a contraction in my body, and this is how I remind myself of where it is coming from.

I have learned over time to honor the precious ego that jumps in to do its job of protecting me from the unknown, to give it the space to express itself, but from a place of compassionately witnessing it and a recognition that it is untrue. When my ego is approached with this compassion, it tends to soften and reveal the underlying pain, belief, or trauma that is connected to it so that it can be felt and transformed.

As I find the courage to act upon the guidance I receive in this way, and meet it with gratitude, it results in entering a flow of receiving more of it. As I see the results that come from taking aligned action in this way, my trust grows, and the activity of my ego becomes more quiet.

I believe our connection to spirit/God/higher self or whatever you choose to call it, is there in every moment and constantly speaking to us when we are open to listen and receive it. As you learn your truth, and you live and interact with the world from this place, you will always know which people to connect with or actions to take that are in alignment with it. In doing so, I feel that I enter a state of flow of the path of least resistance that represents my spirit and its highest expression. This is when things become effortless in my life, and there is a constant stream of synchronous encounters and experiences.

At some point, my mind steps in and the flow becomes disrupted for some time, and over time this is how I have learned discernment. Suddenly my external life begins reflecting this thought back to me, something will go “wrong” or things become chaotic. As I write this in my notebook while sitting at a nearby river, this is being reflected to me through the sky. When the words I am writing come from my truth, it feels effortless and the sun immediately comes out. As a thought arises, such as a fear of someone judging my sharing, a cloud immediately moves in front of the sun. I’ve been observing this phenomenon for the last 10 minutes! This is one example of what I mean when I use the word synchronicity.

Living in alignment with my truth has been difficult, because it is completely unique to me. It is unlikely that my truth will match anyone else’s, or be fully understood in the same way by another person. This can cause self doubt and questioning if it is valid because no one else thinks or lives the way I do, and most of us are conditioned in childhood to fit into the frame of reference of someone else, or a universal standard specific to the society we are a part of.

In my case, I have never met another person that holds space in the way I do, does the ritual work that I do, or approaches plant medicines in the same way I do. Before I really began to embody my truth in these areas, I often questioned myself and my work because it was unlike anyone else, and therefore part of me felt that something was inherently “wrong” with it. But the way I learned to do these things came directly from the plants and spirit, and I learned this is my magic and medicine, and every single person has that within them in their own unique way. The more I have learned to step into my unique connection and work, the more I attract people to my work that are in the perfect place and energetic alignment for what I share.

If you believe each one of us are an individuated expression of the divine, your way of experiencing and perceiving reality will never completely match another person’s, and to me this is one thing that makes humans so beautiful.

I also feel we are all reflections of and for eachother. Parts of my truth will resonate with you as truth, and as I read the sharings of others, vice versa.

For me this resonance comes as a tangible sudden surge of energy in my body, or a glowing feeling, and connects me to an aspect of my truth that I had not accessed before. This is how I have learned to discern which healers and teachers are in alignment with me, as well as which clients are aligned to work with me.

If you have read this far, I encourage you to share your truth below. How did you receive these words? What was resonant or dissonant?