How to know what your soul wants so that you can fulfil your true potential
At some point or another, I bet that you’ve had the feeling that your soul is crying out to you, telling you that you’re out of alignment with your soul’s purpose or calling and saying ‘there must be more to life than this’? Most of us have, in fact those who know exactly what they are here for and why are a rarity!
But have you ever stopped and wondered how to discover what your soul wants you to do? If you’re feeling unhappy or dissatisfied with life, it’s a strong signal that you’re not living your soul’s calling, and when that happens the universe starts to send us signals. Often it starts with little messages; maybe you keep seeing signs such as everywhere you go you see a particular bird, song, or shape - or you glance at the clock to see that it’s 11:11, 2:22, 3:33 (which are sometimes called Angel Numbers). These are all signs that the universe is trying to send us a message.
In my corporate career- and at a time when I was questioning what I was doing with my life - I was asked to fill in a form about my career interests. It was made up of legal and compliance topics... yet, sat there at the top of the list was ‘Akashic Records’. Needless to say I ticked that box!
If we don’t listen to those messages, the universe starts to send bigger signs, and stronger messages, which can be pretty uncomfortable. Often it shows up as physical disease. How often have you heard of people being diagnosed with a serious illness or health condition before they take a long deep look at their life and what’s important to them – and only then start pursuing what gives them joy?
The truth is that not living an aligned, purposeful life is hard on the human part AND the soul part of us.
What is the Soul Part of us?
The soul is the infinite part of us – the part that is anchored into the infinite, the divine, a greater consciousness – or whichever words you choose to describe it (I avoid the G word as it’s emotive and divisive – or as someone said to me the other day, it makes me think of an old man with a long white beard sitting on a cloud and holding a staff). It’s the part of us that chooses to incarnate into human form in order to have experience. When we do, we agree to have a limited level of knowledge about our infinite nature – if we arrived here knowing that we are part of the divine, and that everything we do is about spiritual growth and development to progress us back to unity consciousness where we are fully at one with the divine, it would be a bit like walking into an exam with all of the answers written down already. There would be no point in taking the exam.
Now, to be clear, I’m not say that life is a test that we have to be graded on, or reach a certain percentage, but our soul agrees to learn about our greater connection over many, many lifetimes, with each one unlocking a little bit more of our true nature. I’ve heard Abraham Hicks compare it to a table set with a feast of all the food you’d ever need to eat available in one sitting. You wouldn’t want, or be able to eat it all in one go! It would be uncomfortable and you would enjoy it much less than it slowly unfolding over time, with new flavours to explore, and new tastes to experience.
Listening to your inner voice
There are three parts to our inner voice:
1) the negative ego: the part that tells you that you’re not good enough – it’s the part that just wants to protect us above all else
2) the logical part that can way up pros and cons (and often is heavily influenced by the negative part)
3) the whisper of our higher-self, our intuition, the part of us that says it’s OK to follow our hopes and dreams
Which one do you listen to?
For most of us it’s the first, even if we remember to bring the second into play every now or again, the part that wants to protect us and keep us safe is the strongest influence in our life. We are so often led by fear of what could go wrong. If we do way up the pros and cons, we tend to focus more on the reasons why we should not do something. But out higher self is also trying to guide us to the best path, it’s just that this voice comes from a place of universal love rather than fear. When you understand how to know what your soul wants, it gets a lot easier to be able to trust your intuition.
““There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask “What if I fall?”
Oh but my darling,
What if you fly?”
― Erin Hanson”
What if you were able to quieten the chatter of your negative ego mind, stop weighing up the options and begin to be led by your inner compass? The higher-self is the bridge between the human part and the soul. It’s a form of inner helper, but we have to choose to connect and listen to it. That’s part of our soul evolution through choosing to incarnate in human form.
Connecting to our higher-self
The most essential step in connecting to our higher-self is to learn to quieten the ego and negative mind.
There are many ways to do that:
1. Meditation – If prayer is asking for help, meditation is listening for the answers. Meditation takes lots of different forms, you don’t have to sit crossed leg on a cushion chanting OM. It can be done sitting up, lying down or even walking. Meditation isn’t actually about quietening the mind, that is a by-product, it’s about being able to observe our thoughts and recognise that we are more than our thoughts. If you can observe your thoughts you can allow them to come and go – think of it like watching cars on the motorway – so often a thought-car comes past and we hitch a ride with it, allowing ourselves to go off on a journey with that thought, but if you can observe them just coming and going, without any judgement, from a place of detachment you’ll soon find that the gap between the thoughts get longer. It’s in those gaps that you might notice flashes of inspiration, or receive answers or guidance from your higher-self.
2. Hypnosis – hypnosis is similar to meditation, sometimes referred to as meditation with a goal. Hypnosis is brilliant for tools and techniques that slow down the busy mind, and allow you to engage and interact with the parts of you that are outside of your conscious awareness, including your higher-self, guides, and even just parts of yourself that have got stuck in past experiences and are creating negative beliefs today.
3. Walk in nature – disconnect from all technology, and get outside, ideally somewhere that you can grass or bare earth beneath your feet. Better still if you can do that barefoot. Being in nature naturally allows us to move our mind and body back into the para-sympathetic nervous system, i.e. the rest and restore state. Just like meditation and hypnosis, this allows the mind to slow down (literally- when we relax our brainwaves change) and allow us to listen more easily to the guidance of our higher-self.
If you want to find out more about how to connect to your soul purpose and feel confident following your inner guidance to discover why you are here and how to take the steps towards it, I would love to chat and see if we could be a good fit. I’m excited to be opening up just 2 places to work with me 1:1 in June. Please click here to find out more or apply or for follow me on Instagram.
About the Author
Helen Hardware is a spiritual coach, hypnotherapist and best selling author who helps Lightworkers and Starseeds to navigate their spiritual journey, uncover their souls calling and build the confidence to fulfil it.