The Good Health Guide

posted 19 February 2007 
by Dave Robson, Life Coach based in Alexandra Palace 
“Who looks outside dreams, who looks inside wakes” C.G. Jung.
As many of us know already, the journey within has its joys and also its pitfalls. It’s not something to be embarked upon lightly and it certainly is not for the chicken-hearted. So why bother?

It’s very simple. Everything we need is within, if we can only understand how to perceive and access it, and it all comes from our heart. Whether we begin by looking on the outside or by looking on the inside, sooner or later the journey within has to commence. It is inevitable because only your heart, your inner voice, knows who you are and what you need. If you want to reach a position of fulfilment, balance and happiness, what your heart is whispering to you needs to become your number one avenue of enquiry.
 
What’s the alternative? As I see it, the only alternative is to bumble on in a state of unconsciousness and incomprehension, suffering “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” as life happens to you while you lurch from one day to the next. One essential ingredient for forging the life you want is to be proactive. That means you have to take the initiative. You have to make it happen. But first you have to understand yourself, what makes you tick and what you exactly want in minute detail.
 
This is important because what we think we want is not always the same as what we really want and need. Furthermore, it is important that everything we do is congruent with our core beliefs and values, otherwise we set ourselves up for conflict, anxiety, stress and guilt.
 
For too many years we have been trying to work things out with our rational minds, yet despite our phenomenal brainpower our lives are still a mess. From birth we are educated in ways that are designed to stimulate and develop our mental capacities with the result for most of us that our brains have become hyperactive and domineering. We have come to depend almost entirely on our mental faculties to sort out pretty much everything of importance in our lives, but we too easily forget that the mind is our tool and we should be its master. Yet in all too many cases we are its slave. This can cause serious imbalance. It is impossible for us to be still and know for we are continually in a state of conflict and can never be at peace.
 
So for me, the first goal for the vast majority of people who come for Coaching to sort their lives out is to learn to find that balance between heart and mind and to know some stillness so we may hear the loving utterances of our hearts.
 
Principle number 1: Your inner voice, which is the voice of your heart, is the greatest, the most dependable, the most trustworthy friend and guide you will ever have. It will never let you down or lead you astray, it always knows the truth about what the real you needs. When you learn to go inside and tune in to that still, small voice and trust it’s guidance through thick and thin, the doors to your creativity are flung open and your life can really start to take off. Following the calling of your heart fills you with the courage you need to find and follow your true path, whatever the cost. In fact your own heart is your ultimate Life Coach.
 
How to conduct this journey within? Mediation is the answer.
 
Lots of people have asked me to say something about meditation as I have experienced many methods over the years, so next month I will outline the beautifully simple, effective and accessible meditation technique that I have evolved through trial and error and careful cherry-picking, which my clients and I use to great effect.
For more information about Dave Robson and his work please visit www.daverobsoncoaching.co.uk
E-mail: info@daverobsoncoaching.co.uk
Tel: 0208 374 7911
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