Being ourselves and not our thoughts
Natural instinct is to proceed, to move forward, to be in human connection, to fellowship. It’s to love fully and be present, not just in existence. It is to appreciate what God made us while not losing enthusiasm and wonder for what God created in the world. It is to live with our senses running on all cylinders and to navigate life without hesitation or fear—to do and be and grow. That is our natural instinct. It is what we are born with but gradually lose as we become more aware of our thoughts and less aware of ourselves. As we grow we begin to fight against our natural instinct.
Our first feeling is the natural one—it’s consciousness. It’s the GPS that God places in us that is meant keep us safely on the path to our destiny. But it’s that second voice—the second guess—that we all too often follow. It’s the one that questions the first voice and leads to regret, sleepless nights, fuckery and resentment.
Everything on earth has a natural instinct manufactured by God to keep it on the path it was created to follow. We have all been programmed. In my life, I can say definitively that when I have questioned myself, the outcome has been exactly what I was trying to avoid. Some might say that life is about taking risks and the best way to learn is from your own mistakes. But if you already heard yourself tell yourself what the outcome of your decision would be, must you make the mistake to confirm you were right?
What I have come to know is that we already know the answer. Our instinct tells us exactly what to do. That “risk”, or rather the idea of it, becomes justification for the decision we make. Hear me out: When there is something on the inside of us, telling us to do (X) and we pursue that, we are following our instinct. When we don’t follow our instinct, we are taking a risk. By definition, risk is a situation involving exposure to danger, harm or loss. If our inner voice is our consciousness, i.e. the voice of God, how could it be dangerous to follow?
We have to learn to trust God and know ourselves, and understand that that quiet voice that gets drowned out by our own thoughts, is the truth. We have to learn to recognize it and quiet ourselves so that we reach our full potential and fulfill God’s purpose for our lives.
