Enlightenment on the A245
A very kind friend trusted me to use her car recently - for a trip that would have been a thousand times trickier by public transport.
I love travelling by train and gazing out of the window (however many books/magazines etc I take with me to pass the time, I tend to simply watch the world go by outside), but I also really enjoy driving and the freedom it can give you.
But it had been a while since I’d driven and, whenever that was, I’d either known where I was going, or had been a bit retro and used a real, paper map (yep one of those, kids, ask your parents!) to know my route beforehand and then just relied on road signs, or simply pulling over and checking if needed. My (laboured!) point being, I’m not a daily, accustomed user of satnav (GPS). (I also wish there were more people who could find their way on foot without blindly following a blue dot on a screen but I digress.. And yes, of course I know this technology is unbelievably helpful sometimes).
On the last day using the car, as the technology guided me to my final destination, and I was acknowledging to myself how useful it had been to trust this guidance, a realisation came to me - we willingly surrender ourselves to the advice and rules dictated by technology, by society, by others, but we’ve forgotten to trust our own ‘satnavs’.
It’s not me being ‘woo-woo’ but a fact - as humans (and ultimately animals in my view), we all have a deep, internal guidance system which has become buried beneath the noise of modern life. We trust others’ opinions over our own, we listen to the media, to celebrities, we’re bombarded with information and myriad views on what to do, how to do it, why to do it etc etc. Advice on parenting, not-parenting, jobs, love-life, money issues, home, diet, health and so on.
Without doubt, true expert opinion is often needed (for example, when I’m confounded, again, by some impossible issue with phone or laptop..) but in general we’re so overwhelmed with potential ‘helpful’ or well-meant opinions from external parties that we easily forget our own internal compass - which is likely to give the most trustworthy guidance of all.
I’m not suggesting we completely ignore information from a person, or body, with years of proven research behind them, or that we should think we know best about every topic under the sun (another problem with modern humans I believe!).
But those times where you find yourself saying ‘oh, I should’ve..’, ‘I knew I shouldn’t have..’, or asking someone else ‘do you think it would be better if I x, y or z?’ Obviously it’s nice to get opinions from those you trust but I’m talking about those contexts where it relates to our own decisions, reactions or behaviour.
My own teacher once said to me that with questions like those above, ‘You always know the answer yourself.’ And he was right. It’s advice that’s stuck with me; sometimes I doubt it but then I pause, breathe, listen to the inner guide within and realise that yes, I do know the answer.
This is so useful for someone like me, with a tendency for indecision and overthinking, but I believe it’s relevant for all - the bombardment of technology and opinion in our lives these days means that most of us have frazzled, overwhelmed minds, too busy coping with the onslaught to realise that actually, the answer is usually within.
Next time you realise you’re wondering ‘hm, should I.. this or that?’, just pause a beat, and before getting the opinion from someone or somewhere you think will have a better answer, perhaps first truly listen to your gut (your consciousness, the essence of what makes you ‘you’, or whatever you want to call it), wait, listen again, and then trust the wisdom of your own ‘satnav’.