To go through life means to go through several journeys. One kind of journey is an outer physical journey, which encompasses an education, career, social life, and much more. Another kind of journey is the inner journey. Both these journeys are, of course, interdependent and connected, but the inner journey may sometimes be neglected regardless of its paramount importance. The inner journey is all about discovering yourself in terms of your thoughts and attitudes in the deepest, most reflective ways. This is most definitely a part of living life – the constant learning of oneself through the daily lessons of life. Here are five things you need for your inner journey.
5 Things You Need for Your Inner Journey
You need to acquire a deep knowledge of your strengths and lived values. This means that you need to know your goodness if you are to meet your darkness, because in this way, such knowledge will be your anchor to ground you whenever you feel lost. In order to delve into this knowledge, try to make a list of all your strengths and lived values. Disregard the values your parents gave you or the ones that society encourages, and instead actually remember the ones that resonate with you. In other words, remember who you truly are to the core.
Have the courage to be honest. It may be difficult to be honest about the not-so-good traits that make up who you are as a person. A lot of anxiety, frustration, shame, guilt, and inner distress can show up when we admit to ourselves our faults and shortcomings. However, with that comes a massive amount of growth, so allow yourself to feel it, and do not be afraid to be courageous in your honesty with yourself.
Hold on to self-compassion in order to transmute your critical voice into a guiding voice. You may get to the point of encountering many parts that are disturbing about yourself – truths that you perhaps have never had the strength to acknowledge during your life. You may start to see some of your weaknesses, such as your ill thoughts about others, your insecurity, your envy, your arrogance, or your anger. At this point, it may feel natural for your critical voice to come to the forefront to face these weaknesses harshly. However, this comes with a downside – you will not be able to explore yourself in this way further. Hence, make sure that you speak to yourself nicely and rather transform this voice into one that will guide you. Be kind to yourself.
Be persistent during the dull times. Not all days that you delve into your inner self will reveal exciting or interesting insights. There will be some boring days, but it is important that you continue to show up for yourself, wonder about your emotional reactions, and ask questions like “what more?” and “what else?”.
Embrace stillness or solitude to allow yourself to see clearer. You cannot visit your inner self until you create times and places where you can be still. It may be difficult, but try to turn off technology, discipline your mind, and ground your body. This will help allow you to hear the voices that are usually drowned out by the noise of our daily lives. In other words, be still so that you could gain more knowledge about yourself.
The Outcome of Developing an Inner Journey
Although it sometimes is neglected, this is a reminder that developing your inner journey is as important, or even more important, than furthering your outer journey since they both affect each other. However, the beauty of the inner journey is that much of it could be under your control, as opposed to your outer journey that is at the mercy of external factors out of your control. Therefore, find your strength and extract it from your inner self to keep you going in your outer journey no matter the hardships that life throws at you.